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1. In memoriam: Dr. Mark Engle
By Angela Bowman, Associate Editor
PORK Network
December 17, 2015
Dr. Mark Engle, who spent more than 35 years contributing to the pork industry, passed away suddenly this week.
Engle's long list of contributions begins with a look at his impressive experiences, which included work at the AMVC Veterinary Services and Management, National Pork Board, and Pig Improvement Company (PIC). He was working as the senior technical services manager for the Swine Business Unit at Merck Animal Health at the time of his death, a move announced in June 2014.
Engle was also recently been named by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Animal Health.
According to the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV), Engle joined AASV in 1985 and had served on the board of directors, the AASV Foundation board and was a reviewer for the Journal of Swine Health and Production. Click here to read more about Engle in a brief biography by AASV*.
[*See: https://www.aasv.org/news/story.php?id=8562 ]
Dr. Engle was the sitting chair for the USAHA Committee on Import-Export and an active USAHA member who will be missed by many.
Information regarding service arrangements will be updated when it becomes available.
Please join us, and the industry, as we express our condolences to Engle's family.
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2. Ohio lifts bird ban at county fairs and other shows
WFMJ.com
December 17, 2015
COLUMBUS, Ohio - With no confirmed bird flu cases in Ohio, state agriculture officials have lifted the ban that has been in place since June on birds at county fairs and other shows.
Agriculture Director David T. Daniels and State Veterinarian Dr. Tony Forshey say there is no immediate threat of a Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreak.
The ban, issued on June 2, 2015, was originally intended to remain in place until April 2016, and included county fairs, the Ohio State Fair, as well as all other gatherings of birds for show or for sale, including auctions and swap meets
Members of local agricultural youth organizations like 4-H were unable to exhibit poultry they had been raising to show at the Canfield, Trumbull and Columbiana County fairs this past summer.
Officials urge poultry and bird owners, however, to remain vigilant and cautious in order to protect the health of their flocks during migration seasons.
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3. Equine Herpes Virus (Myeloencephalopathy)-A Guide To Effective Response
Article by Nancy E. Halpern, DVM, Esq.
Mondaq News Alerts
December 17, 2015
As previously described, Equine Herpes Virus (Myeloencephalopathy) (EHM) can be devastating to horses exposed, especially when an outbreak occurs in stables or equestrian events where large numbers of horses are present.
State and Federal Animal Health Officials have been responding to these events, imposing quarantines when warranted, and requiring daily examinations and testing to segregate out horses with clinical signs of disease and those testing positive for the virus.
Now, the United States Animal Health Association has published "Equine Herpesvirus Myeloencephalopathy Incident Guidelines for State Animal Health Officials,"* which memorializes the best practices that have been developed over the years. "During Equine Herpesvirus Myeloencephalopathy (EHM) incidents, the state animal health officials' (SAHO) goal is to prevent the spread of the disease agent, specifically Equine Herpesvirus- 1. Science-based disease control protocols, adapted to the specific incident control disease spread while ensuring compliance and minimizing the impact on equine movement."
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4. $1.1 Billion Spending Bill to Pay for 2016 Food Safety Initiatives
By Staff
Food Safety Magazine
December 17, 2015
This week, the House of Representatives made public a spending bill that will fund the federal government until the end of September 2016, which marks the end of the fiscal year. Included in the $1.1 billion bill are plans to fully fund the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
$2.94 billion for agricultural research--This will pay for agricultural research programs, including the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Increased funding is provided to help stop and mitigate devastating crop diseases, improve food safety and water quality, and address issues related to drought, invasive species, and animal health. Within this amount, the bill includes $350 million for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative for competitive agricultural research grants, $212 million to rehabilitate high-priority ARS facilities, and funding to maintain important investments in the nation's land-grant colleges and universities.
$898 million for animal and plant health--This represents a $23 million increase above the fiscal year 2015 enacted level - for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). This funding will support programs to control or eradicate plant and animal pests and diseases that can cripple U.S. producers and entire agricultural industries. This also includes increases for the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, and to fight citrus greening and highly pathogenic avian influenza.
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5. FDA Announces Pending Withdrawal of Approval of Nitarsone
Ctr. for Veterinary Medicine News Update
December 17, 2015
UPDATED December 17, 2015: The approval of all applications for use of nitarsone in animal feed is withdrawn as of December 31, 2015. Following this action, there are no FDA-approved, arsenic-based drugs for use in food producing animals.
April 1, 2015
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that it has received a letter of commitment from Zoetis Animal Health that, by the fall of 2015, the company will suspend sale of Histostat (nitarsone) and formally request that the FDA withdraw the approval for the drug by the end of 2015. Nitarsone is the only arsenic-based animal drug that is currently approved for use in food animals. Nitarsone is approved for the prevention of blackhead disease (histomoniasis) in turkeys and chickens, but is predominantly used in turkeys.
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6. Canadian Research Team Wins $7.3M to Develop New Vaccines for Cattle
Justin Petrone
GenomeWeb.com
December 17, 2015
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) - A team of Canadian researchers has been awarded $7.3 million to support the development of vaccines for bovine tuberculosis and Johne's disease in cattle.
Backed by Genome British Columbia, Genome Canada, and other funding agencies, the team, which includes investigators from the University of British Columbia and the University of Saskatchewan, will employ reverse vaccinology coupled with high-throughput genomics to deliver the new vaccines to an animal health company for commercialization within four years.
Unlike the trial-and-error approach of traditional vaccinology, reverse vaccinology examines the genomic sequences of the infective organisms in an animal model and predicts the antigens that would raise immunity by looking for any protein that is secreted on the surface of the bacteria.
"The genomic method is to clone everything that could possibly be useful in parallel, express it in parallel, and test it in parallel," said Bob Hancock, a professor of microbiology and immunology at UBC and one of the lead investigators on the project.
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7. MERS Vax Tested in Camels
Scientists conduct the first MERS-CoV vaccine trials in camels and provide viral lineage evidence of camel-to-human transfer.
By Anna Azvolinsky
The Scientist
December 17, 2015
WIKIMEDIA, PERETZ PARTENSKY -- Immunization of dromedary camels with a novel vaccine against the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) resulted in an immune response in the animals and reduced infection following a MERS challenge. The study, the first to analyze the effect of a MERS-CoV vaccine on viral load in camels, is published today (December 17) in Science.
"This study is an important step forward in the research and development of countermeasures for MERS-CoV," Kayvon Modjarrad, an infectious disease specialist at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Bethesda, Maryland, who was not involved in the study, wrote in an email to The Scientist.
Virologist Bart Haagmans of the Erasmus Medical Center, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and his colleagues tested the efficacy of a MERS vaccine consisting of a modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) vector in an eight-camel pilot study. The vaccine virus expresses the MERS-CoV spike protein, which is found in other MERS vaccines being tested.
The researchers inoculated four dromedary camels with the vaccine and four animals with a control MVA vaccine virus, by injection (in the neck) and delivering the vaccine to the animals' airways using an atomizer. The vaccinated animals developed detectable serum neutralizing MERS-CoV antibodies against the spike protein within three weeks, the researchers reported.
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