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1. First Reported Case of CWD in Europe
By: Daniel Xu
OutdoorHub.com
April 14, 2016
It seems that chronic wasting disease (CWD) may have finally jumped across the ocean. Primarily a disease that is found in North America, the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance announced earlier this month that CWD was detected in a free-range reindeer herd in southern Norway. It is believed to be the first reported incidence of CWD in Europe.
"The sick female reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) was detected in the middle of March 2016 in connection with capture for GPS-collaring using helicopter performed by the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA)," stated the Norwegian Veterinary Institute. "It died and the carcass was submitted to the Norwegian Veterinary Institute in Oslo for necropsy and laboratory examinations. It was an adult animal, says wildlife pathologist Turid Vik�ren at Norwegian Veterinary Institute, who performed the necropsy."
It is also the first time that the disease has been found in reindeer. CWD is a contagious neurological disease that affects many species of cervids, like whitetail deer or elk. The disease itself is believed to be caused by prion proteins, which infects other proteins and cause them to fold in abnormal ways.
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2. Adjusting to reduced drug access, use: Swine veterinarians face adjustments in disease management, treatment
Story and photos by Greg Cima
JAVMA News May 1, 2016
Posted April 13, 2016
Dr. Mike Apley thinks judicious use and stewardship are needed to help ensure antimicrobials remain useful in 30 to 40 years.
"True stewardship is the hard, hard work of evaluating how we promote health without having to use an antibiotic," he said.
Dr. Apley, a professor of production medicine and clinical pharmacology at Kansas State University, said antimicrobial resistance is a concern, and new antimicrobial classes are likely to be reserved for use in human medicine, rather than be approved for use in livestock. Veterinarians can help maintain the value of antimicrobials already approved for use in livestock by helping to find ways to use smaller volumes of the drugs when they are needed and by identifying alternatives, he said.
Dr. Apley delivered one of a series of lectures Feb. 29 at the American Association of Swine Veterinarians annual meeting in New Orleans on pending changes in antimicrobial availability and oversight, disease concerns following those changes, and effective medical care.
By December, antimicrobials used in human medicine will become unavailable for uses in water or feed to promote livestock growth or otherwise improve production, and they will be available only with prescriptions or veterinary feed directives, which are similar to prescriptions. The Food and Drug Administration has called for those changes and indicated all pharmaceutical companies that sell affected products have agreed to comply.
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3. EEE Confirmed in Unvaccinated Florida Horse
By Erica Larson, News Editor
TheHorse.com
April 14, 2016
The Equine Disease Communication Center (EDCC) reported April 14 that an unvaccined 18-month-old Quarter Horse residing in Polk County, Florida, has tested positive for Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE).
The horse had not been off his home property in the last six months, the EDCC statement said.
"Clinical signs began April 4 and the horse passed on the same day," the statement read. "The case was confirmed positive on April 14."
The EDCC said this is the first confirmed case in Polk County and the first positive in Florida since the beginning of the year.
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4. Fatal deer disease growing in Wisconsin
By Associated Press
NorthlandsNewsCenter.com
April 14, 2016
Madison, WI (AP) -- Chronic wasting disease in Wisconsin's deer population is growing geographically and in prevalence.
The Department of Natural Resources says more than 9 percent of white-tailed deer tested last year were positive for CWD. The agency says the prevalence rate is the highest since the disease was discovered in Wisconsin in 2002. More than half of the state's 72 counties now have infected deer.
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5. Salmonella found less at Iowa egg-production operations
By Erin Jordan
The Gazette
April 14, 2016
Cases in which salmonella was detected at egg facilities have plummeted from about one quarter of tests in 2010 - the year of a national salmonella outbreak linked to eggs - to 2.5 percent in 2015.
This is according to Iowa State University's Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, which each year tests nearly 13,000 environmental samples from egg facilities in Iowa and 14 other states.
Federal and state inspections of egg facilities were suspended in May when a bird flu outbreak hit Iowa and other states. More than 30 million Iowa laying hens and turkeys were killed as producers culled their flocks to stop the disease. It cost producers more than $1 billion.
Officials halted poultry farm inspections because of fears inspectors could carry the disease from farm to farm, said Dustin Vande Hoef, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. Critics say it may jeopardize the safety of eggs produced in Iowa - the largest egg-producing state in the nation with 36,700 laying hens.
Although poultry site visits are on hiatus, testing of samples from poultry houses of more than 3,000 laying hens - about 98 percent of operations nationwide - has been ongoing since 2010, when it was required as part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Egg Rule, said Yuko Sato, ISU assistant professor of poultry diagnostics and production medicine.
"Over the past year, egg safety testing has been continuous and ongoing," Sato said. "Environmental sampling and testing continued throughout Iowa's avian influenza crisis and its aftermath."
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6. House ag appropriations bill passes out of subcommittee
By Jacqui Fatka
Feedstuffs
April 14, 2016
On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee agriculture subcommittee approved its funding bill for fiscal year 2017. The bill totals $21.3 billion in discretionary funding, which is $451 million lower than the fiscal 2016 enacted level and $281 million below the President's budget request.
"Our farmers, ranchers and food and drug producers are the backbone of a healthy nation. This bill recognizes their importance by investing in programs to support these critical industries and by reining in unnecessary regulations that slow economic growth, hold back production and dampen innovation," House Appropriations Committee chairman Hal Rogers (R., Ky.) said.
The outbreak of avian influenza cost the economy well over $1 billion, and a number of communities out there are still hurting. "We have to be ready to address this, and any other disease, if an outbreak occurs," agriculture appropriations subcommittee chairman Robert Aderholt (R., Ala.) said.
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7. Mass deaths of saiga antelope in Kazakhstan caused by bacteria
Henry Nicholls
The Guardian
April 14, 2016
The mysterious mass deaths of about 200,000 saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan last year was caused by a bacterial infection.
As news emerged in May last year of the near-total decimation of the Betpak-Dala population of saiga antelope, there was plenty of speculation but few concrete answers as to what might have been responsible.
One idea was that rainfall had resulted in widespread, mortal bloat. Perhaps there had been some infectious disease that had wiped out herd after herd. Some even blamed poisoning by toxic rocket fuel spread around Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome.
In the runup to this year's breeding season, which is when the animals are at their most vulnerable to such events, the Saiga Conservation Alliance (SGA) has released the latest thinking on what caused the mass mortality in 2015. Several labs have confirmed the presence of the bacterium Pasteurella multocida in tissue samples from carcasses collected during last year's die-off.
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