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1. Hartley County Mule Deer Tests Positive for Chronic Wasting Disease [TX]
Texas Animal Health Commission News Release
February 26, 2016
AUSTIN - A free-ranging mule deer buck, harvested in Hartley County, has been confirmed positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). State officials received confirmation today from the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa.
Hartley County is located in the Texas Panhandle immediately to the south of Dalhart and borders New Mexico. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) are contemplating a multi-tiered risk management response similar to the approach taken in 2012, when CWD was first discovered in Texas in a free-ranging mule deer in the Hueco Mountains along the New Mexico border.
The latest discovery marks the eighth mule deer to test positive for CWD in Texas. The other seven animals, all within the Hueco Mountains area, indicate a disease prevalence of 10-15 percent within that population.
State officials are currently compiling all the data necessary to finalize the specific management response for this new CWD positive area, and will engage stakeholders to ensure that this recent discovery and scenario helps form the dialogue and recommendations for the future.
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2. K-State veterinarian: Prepare your operation for VFD ruling
By Kaitlin Morgan, K-State Research and Extension
High Plains Journal
February 26, 2016
While the new veterinary feed directive drug ruling by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration went into effect
Oct. 1, 2015, livestock producers can expect to see new labels for medically important antibiotics used on the feed of food animals by Jan. 1, 2017.
Mike Apley, professor of production medicine and clinical pharmacology at Kansas State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, said that while the new labels may be about a year away, he encourages livestock producers to use 2016 to start planning ahead with their veterinarians, and to build the necessary veterinary-client-patient relationship, if not already in place, that this ruling requires.
The new ruling will demand some veterinarian and client interactions that weren't required before regarding the use of medically important antibiotics in feed and water, said Apley, a veterinarian who specializes in beef production medicine. The use of these antibiotics in feed will require the authorization from a veterinarian via a VFD and sent to the feed mill or wherever the medication is being purchased. The use of medically important antibiotics in water will require a veterinary prescription.
"For example," Apley said, "ranchers who are used to using chlortetracycline in mineral to control anaplasmosis in cattle, or feed yards using tylosin to control liver abscesses, veterinarians will now need to authorize those uses based on the label."
These VFDs work similarly to prescriptions given for other products used in livestock. The veterinarian will learn about the producer's operation, assess the medical challenges and then prescribe antibiotics if needed, according to what is stated on the labels.
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3. U.S. should be better prepared for pests, diseases
By National Pork Producers Council
PorkNetwork.com
February 26, 2016
In testimony Friday, the National Pork Producers Council urged congressional lawmakers to work with the Obama administration to improve the preparedness of the United States to deal with a foreign pest infestation or disease outbreak.
While over the years improvements have been made to the systems that safeguard U.S. agriculture, former USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Administrator Bobby Acord, testifying on behalf of NPPC, told a subcommittee of the House Committee on Homeland Security, much more needs to be done to prevent plant and animal pests and diseases from entering the country and devastating U.S. food producers.
Accord, who served as APHIS administrator from 2001 to 2004, told the committee's Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communication that the introduction of foreign pests and diseases can have severe consequences for agriculture production, consumer prices and, potentially, food availability. They also could adversely affect U.S. exports, with foreign trading partners closing their markets to U.S. goods.
"There seems to be a growing consensus that there are serious flaws in the country's preparedness to deal with threats to U.S. agriculture and the food supply," said Acord.
A blue ribbon panel last fall released a report on U.S. bio-defenses that highlighted the need for improvements in the system for protecting the U.S. livestock herd and the nation's food supply, and concerns about the country's preparedness to deal with foreign animal diseases were raised in a November hearing of the House Agriculture Committee.
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4. First Case of Chronic Wasting Disease in Arkansas Provides New Questions for Researchers
Source Newsroom: Creighton University
Newswise.com
February 26, 2016
The first confirmed case of chronic wasting disease in Arkansas has added another layer to research on how the disease, deadly to white-tailed deer, mule deer, moose and elk, spreads in a wild animal population.
Creighton University researcher, Jason Bartz, Ph.D., in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine, studies chronic wasting disease as part of a group of neurodegenerative diseases linked to an infectious protein called a prion.
Bartz said while chronic wasting disease (CWD) is known to spread from animal to animal, little is known about how it has become so widespread in recent years and how isolated cases like the latest one of an elk found dead of the disease in north-central Arkansas can be explained. Prions are carried in an infected host's blood, saliva and waste, and are able to bind to elements like soil and travel some distance, but the sudden emergence of the disease in geographic isolation from other confirmed cases is vexing.
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5. AGFC holding CWD public meetings week of Feb. 29 [AR]
Posted by Ronnie Weston
KAIT8.com
February 26, 2016
LITTLE ROCK - As part of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's chronic wasting disease public information outreach efforts, three meetings have been scheduled for north Arkansas. The three meetings will be held in Jasper, Marshall and Harrison.
An elk harvested near Pruitt on the Buffalo National River during the October 2015 hunting season recently tested positive for the disease. This is the first time an animal in Arkansas has tested positive for the disease, which is fatal to elk and white-tailed deer.
The first meeting will be held in Jasper on Monday, Feb. 29. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at the Carroll Electric Co-op, 511 E. Court St.
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 1 at the Petit Jean Electric Cooperative, 672 Airport Rd. in Marshall. This meeting will begin at 6 p.m.
The third meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 3 in Harrison at the North Arkansas College Durand Center, Room B at 303 North Main St. This meeting also will begin at 6 p.m.
The AGFC has a great deal of CWD information available on its web site at www.agfc.com/cwd.
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6. Perdue to remove antibiotics from chicken nuggets sold in supermarkets
By Jacob Bunge
MarketWatch.com
February 26, 2016
Perdue Farms Inc. plans by June to eliminate antibiotics used in chicken it sells as nuggets and strips in supermarkets across the U.S., significantly escalating a nascent industry response to concerns about such use.
Perdue expects the change to roughly triple the no-antibiotic portion of such precooked and seasoned products at U.S. supermarkets. Converting Perdue's name-brand lines of chicken products will make it the largest grocery-store supplier of poultry raised without antibiotics, the Salisbury, Md. company said.
Farmers and ranchers for decades have administered the drugs not just to treat illnesses but also to stave off disease and speed weight gain. Public-health officials and consumer groups argue this hastens the development of potentially deadly bacteria that antibiotics can't kill.
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7. Update on EHV-1 Virus at Sunland Park Racetrack
New Mexico Livestock Board News Release
February 25, 2016
SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - To simplify our reporting on the rapidly-changing EHV-1 virus outbreak at the Sunland Park Racetrack, we will update the list below regularly with the most current information. While the situation warrants, we will also e-mail blast this information as it is updated.
Number of horses diagnosed positive for the EHV-1 virus to-date: 73 in New Mexico and 2 in Texas.
Number of horses released today from the isolation barn: 1
Number of exposed barns that have been returned to non-exposed status to-date: 24
List of facilities within the quarantine perimeter:
Sunland Park Racetrack and Frontera Training Center.
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