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1. How one Minnesota chicken producer kept the bird flu out
By Mark Steil
Minnesota Public Radio News
December 18, 2015
Gold'n Plump executives say they were partly just lucky their Minnesota operations were not ravaged by avian flu and that chickens, their stock-in-trade, aren't as susceptible to the virus as turkeys.
But there was more than good fortune at play last spring.
As avian flu swept across the state, St. Cloud-based Gold'n Plump managed to keep every one of its hundreds of central Minnesota chicken barns virus-free. A deeper look shows the company survived by sweating the small, but crucial details of biosecurity - constant cleaning and constant communication with workers - even as the virus infected the barns of other producers just a few miles away.
They're sharing their story now, hoping it offers lessons on defense should the virulent H5N2 strain returns. Poultry producers as far away as North Carolina are taking notice.
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2. Beta agonists wrongly blamed for fatigued cattle syndrome
By Burt Rutherford
Beef Magazine
December 17, 2015
According to research results recently published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the beta agonists zilpaterol and ractopamine have no effect on fatigued cattle syndrome.
That's according to Dan Thomson, the Jones Professor of epidemiology and production medicine at the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Thomson recently reported on the results of nearly three years of research into the issue, which first surfaced in the summer of 2013.
Back then, some fed cattle entering packing plants were having problems with being able to move normally and in some cases, the hoof wall was sloughing. At the time, beta agonists were implicated as a cause of the problem and summertime heat seemed to be a contributing factor. But what confounded veterinarians and cattle feeders alike was that cattle were normal when they left the feedyard, yet some showed clinical signs at the packing plant.
"But the one thing that was consistent was the inconsistency of whether or not a beta agonist was being used at the feedyard," Thomson says. So researchers at the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State College of Veterinary Medicine and the Department of Animal Science at Texas Tech University began to dig deeper for the causes.
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3. Arizona agriculture department faces budget challenges
Amanda Ames,
The Arizona Republic
December 19, 2015
Arizona's growing agribusiness industry could be vulnerable to disease outbreaks because of chronic underfunding at the state Agriculture Department, according to department director Mark Killian.
Killian, who has held his position since April, said in an interview that he has been working to raise awareness of the funding issue, which he says could jeopardize the health of the state's livestock and plants.
The funding cuts led to a decrease in livestock inspectors, stretching them so thin that infectious outbreaks in the animals could go undetected, Killian said. The department now relies in part on livestock producers to conduct self-inspections to fill the gaps. Even so, Killian said his staff still is running ragged.
"We have been very fortunate that we have been able to keep up, but we're drowning right now, and we are very concerned about our ability to keep a lot of these diseases out of our state that impact both livestock and plants," Killian said.
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4. Avian Cholera Detected in Kansas
KSAL Staff
KSAL.com
December 17, 2015
Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism staff at Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area in Barton County, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge just 30 miles to the south are closely monitoring waterfowl populations at the wetlands after dead geese were observed. Staff at both areas picked up dead birds last week and sent samples for testing.
Lab results confirmed that avian cholera, a contagious disease resulting from infection by the bacterium Pasteurella multocida, was the cause of death. This strain of bacteria commonly affects geese, coots, gulls and crows. Most of the dead birds found have been snow geese.
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5. Omnibus spending bill passes
By Jacqui Fatka
Feedstuffs
December 18, 2015
With bipartisan support, Congress passed the $1.15 trillion Omnibus Appropriations Bill Friday, which funds much of the government through fiscal year 2016.
There were several food and agriculture policy riders attached to the bill, including a provision repealing of Country-of-Origin (COOL) labeling, and a provision blocking the release or implementation of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines if guidance from USDA and HHS is not based on "significant scientific agreement" or covers issues that are not directly related to nutrition. Unfortunately, agricultural groups were unable to garner the supported needed to include language in the bill that covered GMO labeling or federal pre-emption.
Fearing that the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans will recommend eating less meat and delve into areas unrelated to diet and nutrition, congressional lawmakers included in the fiscal 2016 catch-all spending legislation language prohibiting the release and implementation of the guidelines unless they're based on significant scientific agreement and adhere to the statutory mandate of the law that requires them. That mandate calls for the guidelines to include information on diet and nutrition. "This method supports the use of science-based information and limits the misuse of the often erroneously defined term 'sustainability,'" said American Feed Industry Assn. president and chief executive officer Joel Newman in a statement. The omnibus bill includes $1 million to be used for reviewing the dietary guidelines process.
The fiscal 2016 catch-all federal spending measure requires the Secretary of Agriculture to establish within four months a process for the agency's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to conduct audits or reviews of countries or regions that have received animal disease status recognition, looking at their veterinary control and oversight, disease history and vaccination practices, livestock demographics and traceability, epidemiological separation from potential sources of disease infection, surveillance practices, diagnostic laboratory capabilities and emergency preparedness and response.
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6. Statement from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on the Country of Origin Labeling Requirements for Beef and Pork
USDA Office of Communications Bulletin
December 18, 2015
WASHINGTON - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today released the following statement regarding the language in the omnibus bill repealing the country of origin labeling requirements for beef and pork products.
"The omnibus bill repealed the country of origin labeling (COOL) requirements for muscle cuts of beef and pork, and ground beef and pork. Effective immediately, USDA is not enforcing the COOL requirements for muscle cut and ground beef and pork outlined in the January 2009 and May 2013 final rules."
USDA will be amending the COOL regulations as expeditiously as possible to reflect the repeal of the beef and pork provisions. In addition, all imported and domestic meat will continue to be subject to rigorous inspections by USDA to ensure food safety.
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USAHA News Alert Summaries is a service provided to its members as a timely, up-to-date source of news affecting animal health and related subjects, intended for personal use by USAHA members. Information in these articles does not necessarily represent the views or positions of USAHA.
Sources of articles are state, national and international media outlets, press releases, and direct from organizations or agencies. Each article includes direct citation and link. Comments, questions or concerns about the information included in each article should be directed to the source in addition to USAHA. While USAHA strives for accuracy in the information it shares, the News Alert Summaries should be treated as a tool that provides a snapshot of information being reported regarding animal health and related subjects.
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