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1. Tackling Cattle Fever Ticks with Vaccines
By Sandra Avant
AgResearch Magazine
January 12, 2016
Despite a successful program to eliminate cattle fever ticks during the first half of the 20th century, these ticks still manage to cross the Mexican border into Texas. A new vaccine developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) could control these pests and help prevent a reinfestation of cattle fever ticks in the United States. These ticks can transmit pathogens that cause bovine babesiosis and anaplasmosis-diseases that can kill cattle.
While sequencing the cattle tick's genome, insect physiologist Felix D. Guerrero and his colleagues at the ARS Tick and Biting Fly Research Unit in Kerrville, Texas, identified several proteins that, when formulated as a cattle vaccine, could potentially kill cattle ticks. One of the proteins, aquaporin, was developed into a recombinant tick aquaporin protein vaccine.
ARS researchers collaborated with their partners at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) to test the vaccine's ability to protect cattle against infestation. In two trials, animals infested with a known amount of cattle tick larvae were divided into two pens in Brazil. In each trial, one group was vaccinated with the aquaporin vaccine, and the other group was not. When scientists compared the groups, they found that vaccinated cows had 75 percent and 68 percent fewer ticks than unvaccinated cows. Results indicated that the aquaporin protein was effective as an antigen in cattle vaccines to help prevent cattle fever tick infestations.
Although a few chemicals are available to treat cattle, ticks have developed resistance to most of them, according to Guerrero. The ARS-patented aquaporin protein vaccine provides an alternative to chemicals to reduce the risk of tick infestation. ARS is exploring the possibility of producing a commercial aquaporin vaccine with a private company.
ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency, and this research supports the USDA priority of promoting international food security.
Read more about this research in the January issue of AgResearch magazine:
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2. PEDv a 'walk in the park' compared to FADs
By Angela Bowman, Associate Editor
PORK Network
January 12, 2016
"I would like us to keep in mind we could just as easily be talking about foot and mouth disease, Classical Swine Fever or another foreign animal disease (FAD) that would have shut down our international borders and closed those export markets."
He adds, "Anything that forces 25 percent of our product back onto the domestic market should concern us very deeply."
That's the message Matt Anderson, DVM, told a packed room at the 2015 Iowa Pork Congress. With Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) outbreaks now slowing down, the industry can now take a collective breath to learn from PEDv and prepare for the next disease, which, as Anderson said last year, could have easily been a foreign animal disease.
Patrick Webb, director of swine health programs for the Pork Checkoff, reiterated that PEDv would look like a walk in the park compared to FAD, such as African swine fever, classical swine fever or foot and mouth disease.
According to the winter issue of the Pork Checkoff Report, PEDv offered important lessons for the industry and could help avoid a FAD event.
For example, PEDv forced pork producers to re-examine their biosecurity procedures and protocols, plugging gaps both on the farm and off.
It may not always be easy or efficient, but these biosecurity efforts are effective.
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3. Study: Melioidosis Underreported
By Catherine Offord
The-Scientist.com
January 12, 2016
The bacterium that causes melioidosis-an obscure but deadly infectious disease-may be present in as many 79 countries around the world and could be responsible for nearly 90,000 deaths each year, according to a study published yesterday (January 11) in Nature Microbiology.
Burkholderia pseudomallei was previously thought to be confined mainly to Southeast Asia and Australia, where the disease has reported fatality rates of between 20 percent and 50 percent. But using the locations of over 22,000 reported human and animal cases to construct a statistical model, researchers from the University of Oxford predicted that melioidosis is underreported in 45 countries where it is known to be present, and endemic in a further 34 where it has never been reported.
"Although melioidosis has been recognized for more than 100 years, awareness of it is still low, even among medical and laboratory staff in confirmed endemic areas," coauthor Direk Limmathurotsakul of the University of Oxford and Mahidol University, Thailand, said in a press release. "Melioidosis is a great mimicker of other diseases and you need a good microbiology laboratory for bacterial culture and identification to make an accurate diagnosis."
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4. How adding amendments to poultry litter lowers ammonia, greenhouse gas emissions
By Adam Thomas
Phys.org
January 12, 2016
The University of Delaware's Hong Li is part of a research team looking at how adding alum as an amendment to poultry litter reduces ammonia and greenhouse gas concentrations and emissions, specifically carbon dioxide, in poultry houses.
Li partnered with researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the University of Tennessee and Oklahoma State University for the project and the results of the research were recently published in the Journal of Environmental Quality.
Li, assistant professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences (ANFS) in UD's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said that the project is ongoing and that the main challenge for the poultry industry is controlling nutrient emissions from poultry houses and conserving energy while also providing for the welfare of the birds inside the houses.
Acid-based chemical compounds, alum and PLT - another amendment - that are added to the bedding material in poultry houses prior to the birds entering have proven to be a very effective tool in controlling ammonia emissions.
"In the poultry industry, ammonia is a major concern. Ammonia during the growth period is high, especially during the wintertime. Ammonia can do a lot of damage to the animal, especially the respiratory system, and can effect overall animal health and welfare," said Li.
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5. First-ever federal rules for offshore fish farming issued
Associated Press
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
January 12, 2016
NEW ORLEANS -- The first-ever federal regulations for large-scale fish farming in the ocean were issued Monday, opening a new frontier in the harvesting of popular seafood species such as red drum, tuna and red snapper.
The new rules allow the farming of fish in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The rules - in the making for years - were announced in New Orleans by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan said the Gulf rules could spur similar rules in other U.S. waters. She said it was time for the United States to open up this new market, which she said could help the U.S. meet its seafood demands.
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6. EU commits 161 mln euros to combat animal diseases, zoonoses in 2016
Xinhua News Agency
Global Post
January 12, 2016
BRUSSELS -- The European Union (EU) has committed close to 161 million euros (about 175 million U.S. dollars) to support eradication, control and surveillance programs that aim to eliminate animal diseases and zoonoses as well as further strengthen the protection of human and animal health, said the European Commission in a press release on Tuesday.
Given the serious impact that animal disease outbreaks can have on human health, but also on economy and trade, the allocation of EU co-financing would continue to assist national authorities in putting in place precautionary measures, disease surveillance and eradication programs, at national and the European level, said the press release.
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