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1. The Challenge of Outbreak Detection in California's Dairy Cows
By Alexandra Mannerings
UC Davis Veterinary Medicine News Highlights
February 2016
Consider a typical haystack. Now, instead of the traditional challenge of trying to find a needle, which is a distinctly different material and shape from the hay, imagine instead trying to find a single rotten piece of hay. That rotten piece is softer and browner than normal hay-and that's all that sets it apart. How would you even begin? Now, imagine that the one rotten piece of hay can start to turn nearby pieces of hay rotten as well, and the longer it takes you to find the rotten hay pieces, the more pieces of hay start rotting. And meanwhile, parts of the haystack move around and mix into other parts, including sections you may have checked already.
This nightmarish problem, essentially, is the one facing Dr. Richard Breitmeyer, director of the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System (CAHFS) at the University of California, Davis. His haystack is the 1.8 million dairy cows across California, and the rotten piece of hay represents a cow that becomes infected with a disease. One of the diseases that most concerns Dr. Breitmeyer is Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). While fortunately absent from the United States for the last 80 years, FMD is a highly contagious disease that can cause massive damage and disruption to the livestock industry. The FMD outbreak in Britain in 2001, for example, shut down Britain's dairy and meat exports for an entire year, caused an estimated loss of $14 billion dollars and impacted approximately 10 million animals1.
CAHFS is one of the first and most important lines of defense for California's livestock and poultry-and by extension, all the people that rely on those animals for food and livelihoods. Dr. Breitmeyer and his colleagues want to make sure that if FMD ever does show up again in America, the crisis in Britain is not repeated across the pond. But, in order to do that, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and other emergency responders need a way to rapidly identify an animal with FMD-in other words, they need to be able to find all of the infected pieces of straw in the midst of the enormous, moving hay pile. Inspecting or testing each individual animal is not only prohibitively expensive and far too slow to prevent an outbreak, it would also only work if all movement of livestock and dairy products was stopped. In a normal environment, products are in constant motion, and cows and other livestock are frequently sold or transported across the state and among herds. This movement poses a serious complicating factor: a previously tested and healthy animal could then be brought into contact with an infectious animal, and suddenly an animal that had already been checked off as not a source of disease will be exposed and possibly become contagious itself. But, stopping the movement of animals, and more importantly products, in and of itself causes huge issues and losses. Dairy cows, for example, continuously produce milk. If that milk cannot be shipped because there is a hold while a possible disease outbreak is investigated, it will create not only an economic crisis, but also a disposal nightmare.
1. FootAndMouthDiseaseInfo.org (August 2015).
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2. Turf Paradise to lift quarantine; 61 positives for equine herpesvirus at Sunland Park [edited]
By Matt Hegarty
Daily Racing Form
February 10, 2016
The number of horses testing positive for the equine herpesvirus at Sunland Park in New Mexico continues to climb, but Turf Paradise in Arizona has announced plans to lift its quarantine at the end of next week after reporting to health officials that no horses have exhibited symptoms of the disease since a horse was euthanized nearly two weeks ago.
The New Mexico Livestock Board said Tuesday that 61 horses at Sunland Park have tested positive for equine herpesvirus, a highly contagious disease that can sometimes prove fatal. The Equine Disease Communication Center had reported Monday that 56 horses had tested positive at the track, which has ceased racing as it tries to get the disease under control.
The EDCC said the quarantine at Turf Paradise will be lifted Feb. 18. A notice from the center said that no horses at Turf Paradise have shown any indications of the disease since the track closed its backstretch Jan. 27, shortly after a horse who had shipped in from Sunland began exhibiting neurological symptoms consistent with the herpesvirus while in quarantine.
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3. PEDv found in Oregon
By Sarah Smith, WSU Extension
PorkNetwork.com
February 10, 2016
Editor's note: This article was originally featured in the January 2016 issue of Washington State University Veterinary Medicine Extension's quarterly newsletter, available here. Other authors to contribute to this article include , Brad R. LeaMaster, State Veterinarian, Oregon Department of Agriculture , Dr. Charles Estill, Extension Veterinarian, Oregon State University, Dr. Jerry Heidel, Director, OSU Diagnostic Laboratory, Gene J. Pirelli, Extension Swine Specialist, Oregon State University, Dr. Joe Baker, State Veterinarian, WA Department of Agriculture.
Oregon State Veterinarian Dr. Brad LeaMaster, D.V.M., has confirmed the presence of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) on a farm In Clackamas County, Ore.. The infected premise has been quarantined and Oregon Department of Agriculture is conducting an epidemiology investigation to the sourced farm.
Washington State Veterinarian Dr. Joe Baker, D.V.M., has been in contact with LeaMaster and is monitoring the situation. At this time, Baker indicated that there is no cause for alarm for pig farms in Washington.
Pig farmers are encouraged to maintain strict biosecurity measures on their farm and when purchasing pigs. Owners should contact their veterinarian for assistance with diagnosis, vaccination, disinfection, and other PEDv mitigation details.
In addition, any swine shipments entering Washington must be accompanied by a valid Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI or AKA health certificate) declaring that the pigs have not been exposed to PEDv-and are disease-free.
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4. Discovery: Many white-tailed deer have malaria, UVM and Smithsonian researchers find
Mountain Times
February 10, 2016
Two years ago, Ellen Martinsen was collecting mosquitoes at the Smithsonian's National Zoo, looking for malaria that might infect birds-when she discovered something strange: a DNA profile, from parasites in the mosquitoes, that she couldn't identify.
By chance, she had discovered a malaria parasite, Plasmodium odocoilei-that infects white-tailed deer. It's the first-ever malaria parasite known to live in a deer species and the only native malaria parasite found in any mammal in North or South America. Though white-tailed deer diseases have been heavily studied-scientists hadn't noticed that many have malaria parasites.
Martinsen and her colleagues estimate that the parasite infects up to twenty-five percent of white-tailed deer along the East Coast of the United States. Their results were published Feb. 5, 2016, in Science Advances.
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5. Making cattle identifiable should be a unique experience [OR]
Story of the Week
Oregon Dept. of Agriculture News
February 10, 2016
The question is, "who does this cow belong to?" The answer can be simplified if cattle owners take steps over the next several months to identify their animals. The Oregon Department of Agriculture has advice for ranchers this time of year that can help avoid headaches when cattle are rounded up and readied for market later in the season. At the heart of the matter is the value and importance of brands.
"Our brand Inspectors deal with a number of 'mistakes' when cattle are being presented for brand inspection," says ODA's Rodger Huffman, manager of the Animal Identification Program. "Inspectors are identifying more and more cattle that belong to the neighbors. We understand this is the brand inspector's job, however, we are asking for the industry's assistance."
The Animal Identification Program prevents livestock theft by denying a market for stolen animals through the recording of brands and inspection of animals. Brand recording helps verify ownership, helps track disease outbreaks, and helps return lost or estray animals to their owners. There is nothing quite as effective as the old fashioned cattle brand and the work of ODA brand inspectors to help stolen or lost livestock get back to their rightful owners. But there are a number of ways producers can help themselves.
"While a brand is generally the ultimate determiner of ownership, other tools are just as important," says Huffman. "We all know it is much more difficult to see and read brands in the winter months due to hair growth, inclement weather, and mud or manure covering brand locations. Producers can help avoid embarrassment by taking more time when handling and marking these cattle."
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6. Why consumers distrust animal ag and how we close the gap
By Center for Food Integrity
PorkNetwork.com
February 10, 2016
Closing the gap on three issues driving consumer distrust in animal agriculture - animal housing, emerging genetic advancements and antibiotics use - will be the focus of The Center for Food Integrity (CFI) 2016 North American Strategy Conference on Animal Agriculture, May 18-19, at McDonald's Hamburger University in Chicago.
CFI's latest consumer trust research reveals that a near-record 60 percent strongly agree with the following statement: "If animals are treated decently and humanely I have no problem eating meat, milk and eggs." Yet, a much smaller percentage of consumers, 25 percent, strongly agree that U.S. meat comes from humanely treated animals.
"Leaders in animal agriculture must effectively address this disconnect between consumer support for consuming meat, milk and eggs and growing doubt that farm animals are treated humanely," said Charlie Arnot, CEO of CFI. "Our conference, 'How Do We Close the Animal Ag Gap?', will explore why the divide exists and what those in animal agriculture can do to close it, focusing specifically on three topics we believe are drivers for consumer distrust."
Expert speakers and panelists will present and participate in moderated discussion on each topic.
Learn more and register to attend at www.FoodIntegrity.org.
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7. Workshop On Antibiotic Research Announced
By Lizzy Schultz
Animal.AgWired.com
February 10, 2016
farm foundation Farm Foundation, NFP, and the USDA's Economic Research Service are collaborating to present a workshop next month on the use of antibiotics in food animals. The workshop will be held in Washington, DC, from March 17-18, 2016.
The workshop was developed in response to the increasing concern seen in human medicine regarding the decline in the number of new antibiotics being developed. The decrease in antibiotic research is a direct response to the recent rise of antibiotic resistance. While concern for the consequences this may have on the future of human medicine is increasing, there has been little attention given to concerns regarding the implications this may hold for animal production.
The forum will examine ways to incentivize research and development of new antimicrobial drugs, as well as alternatives to antibiotics, including the state of the animal pharmaceutical market, ways to bring alternative products to market, regulations and requirements involved in both bringing products to market and the use of antibiotics in food production, and the overlap between human and animal antibiotic use and development.
Keynoting the workshop will be Catherine Woteki, USDA Undersecretary for Research, Education and Economics. Other speakers will include representatives from FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, academic researchers,and representatives of animal health pharmaceutical companies, global animal health associations and biotech development companies. The workshop agenda is available on the Farm Foundation website.
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