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1. Improving U.S. dairy cattle welfare [edited]
By American Dairy Science Association
Bovine Veterinarian
April 5, 2016
"Strategies for Improving U.S. Dairy Cattle Welfare" is the theme of the 27th annual American Dairy Science Association's Discover Conference. The purpose of the gathering is to engage the U.S. dairy industry in a conversation about the growing importance of key welfare concerns.
The conference (May 27-30 in Itasca, Ill.) has the following goals:
Define animal welfare for dairy cattle within the context of the impact of other issues on other industries and of welfare issues in other food animal industries.
Describe key findings from a number of successful lines of research defining animal welfare and addressing practical problems in the care and housing of dairy cattle.
Create opportunities for open discussion of contentious animal welfare issues among industry professionals and scientists working in the dairy industry.
Encourage conference participants to act as information multipliers, thus facilitating proactive adoption of science-based practices that result in improved dairy cattle welfare.
For more information: http://www.adsa.org/meetings/discoverconferences/27thdiscoverconference.aspx
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2. VFD Will Bring Changes to How Antibiotics Are Used In Feed, Water
By Kansas Livestock Association
KTICRadio.com
April 6, 2016
Veterinarians at Kansas State University are encouraging livestock producers to start planning ahead for full implementation of the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD). The rule went into effect for a few animal health products last fall, with others coming under regulation at the end of this year.
VFD will substantially change the way antibiotics considered "medically important" for humans can be used in food-producing animals. Once the rule is fully implemented in December 2016, livestock producers will need to obtain a VFD from their veterinarian to use these products in feed or water for the prevention, control or treatment of a specifically identified disease.
For example, K-State College of Veterinary Medicine Professor of Production Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology Mike Apley said ranchers who use chlortetracycline in mineral to control anaplasmosis in cattle or feedyards using tylosin to control liver abscesses will need to have a VFD to use these products starting next year.
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3. Mosquito species may be key to transmitting EEE virus in southeast US
By Anne Delotto Baier
MedicalXpress.com
April 6, 2016
The mosquito species Culex erraticus may play a more significant role in transmitting the Eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) in the southeastern United States than Culiseta melanura, the species most commonly associated with the potentially lethal virus, reports a study led by researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) Global Health Infectious Disease Program. The study was recently published online in the Journal of Medical Entomology.
EEEV, transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito, can be passed to a wide range of animals including birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals. But once infected, horses and humans appear to suffer the most adverse affects.
The researchers combined data from field and laboratory studies in Florida with that collected earlier at Tuskegee National Forest in Alabama, where Cx. erraticus is common and Cs. melanura relatively rare. Their collective analysis indicated that Cx erraticus was about half as important as Cs. melanura in transmitting the virus in foci in the southeastern United States.
Despite its inefficiency in transmitting EEEV in a laboratory setting, Cx. erraticus is much more abundant in the southeastern United States than Cs. melanura. The species also feeds on a wider variety of animals than Cs. melanura, which feeds almost exclusively on songbirds for its blood meals.
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4. Walmart, Sam's Club Commit to Cage-Free Eggs by 2025
By Arkansas Business Staff
Arkansas Business
April 5, 206
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville said Tuesday that its Walmart U.S. and Sam's Club U.S. stores aim to transition to a 100 percent cage-free egg supply chain by 2025.
The retailer said it was making the move to maintain affordable prices while improving the food supply.
"Our customers and associates count on Walmart and Sam's Club to deliver on affordability and quality, while at the same time offering transparency into how their food is grown and raised," Kathleen McLaughlin, chief sustainability officer at Walmart, said in a news release. "Our commitment to transition to a cage-free egg supply chain recognizes that expectation and represents another step we are taking to improve transparency for food we sell in our U.S. stores and clubs."
Wal-Mart has offered customers the option of cage free eggs in its U.S. stores since 2001.
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5. Feral swine control: long-term solutions might be near
By Brad Robb
Delta Farm Press
April 6, 2016
Epidemic. That how ever-expanding feral hog populations are described by John Murry Greenlee, chairman of Delta Wildlife, who said that word was justified as farmers in more and more areas of the United States face unprecedented damage.
"Fortunately for us, effective control strategy work is being done here in Mississippi by the USDA Wildlife Services and the National Wildlife Research Center," says Greenlee, who is also a landowner, hunter, and conservationist.
Fred Cunningham, project leader for the Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center's Mississippi Field Station, a biologist and doctor of veterinarian medicine, spoke to over 100 farmers at a recent Delta Wildlife meeting held in Stoneville, Miss., about projects he hopes will lead to a viable long-term solution.
USDA Wildlife Services disease biologist Jay Cumbee uses a syringe to extract a blood sample from a feral hog to be tested for pseudorabies and swine brucellosis. (Photo: USDA Wildlife Services)
"This problem began over a century ago, and feral swine are now expanding their habitat by a half-million acres annually in Mississippi," says Cunningham, who put the problem in perspective by explaining if you have 1,000 hogs in a section of your land, you would have to harvest 70 percent of them to limit next year's population to 1,000.
The math is simple: There are around 6 million feral hogs in the U.S. today. Six million times 70 percent is 4.2 million hogs that would have to be harvested this year to keep their population number at 6 million next year - which Cunningham says is a daunting and potentially impossible task without better control methods.
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6. USDA Announces $1.2 Million in Available Funding for Aquaculture Research
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Bulletin
April 6, 2016
WASHINGTON -The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced more than $1.2 million in available funding to support the development of environmentally and economically sustainable aquaculture in the United States. This funding is available through the Aquaculture Research Program, administered through USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
The Aquaculture Research program focuses on projects that directly address major challenges to the U.S. aquaculture industry. Results of projects supported by this program are intended to help improve the profitability of the U.S. aquaculture industry, reduce the U.S. trade deficit, increase domestic food security, provide markets for U.S. produced products, increase domestic aquaculture business investment opportunities and provide more jobs for rural and coastal America.
Aquaculture contributes more than half of the seafood consumed globally, and this contribution is expected to grow. Although U.S. aquaculture production has shown growth in the past decade, the U.S. currently still has an approximately $12 billion trade deficit in seafood products and imports more than 90% of seafood consumed. The factors that limit aquaculture in the U.S. are complex and multifaceted. Applied research in genetics, disease, production systems, and economics is needed to develop practical solutions that will facilitate growth of the U.S. aquaculture industry. This research will help reduce the U.S. trade deficit in seafood products and enhance the capacity of the U.S aquaculture industry to contribute to domestic and global food security and economic growth.
Since 2014, this program has awarded nearly $2.5 million in funding. For information on last year's funded projects, visit the NIFA website.
Applications are due May 17. Please see the RFA for more information.
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7. Paper-based test could help prevent food poisoning
American Chemical Society
EurekAlert
April 6, 2016
Food poisoning is a stomach-churning, miserable condition that sends thousands of Americans to hospital emergency rooms every year. Now scientists report in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry a simple, paper-based test that could help detect pathogens hitchhiking on food before they reach store shelves, restaurants and, most importantly, our stomachs.
According to one estimate by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the foodborne bacteria Salmonella alone led to nearly 20,000 hospitalizations and almost 400 deaths in 2013. Economists estimate that the treatment of all these patients and the related productivity losses cost more than $3 billion annually. And those numbers account for just one of the 15 pathogens responsible for most of the food poisoning cases. Current testing for pathogens in food requires complicated machinery and trained personnel. But these tests don't provide the simple results needed in large-scale food manufacturing. So Je-Kyun Park and colleagues set out to find a more practical way to detect foodborne pathogens.
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