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1. Meetings Planned to Update Cattle Producers on Brucellosis
Univ. of Wyoming News
June 14, 2016
Meetings to update cattle producers on brucellosis are in Cody Monday, July 18; Pinedale Tuesday, July 19; Sheridan Monday, July 25; and Greybull Tuesday, July 26.
"The Current Status of Brucellosis in Wyoming" begins with dinner at 6 p.m. The event is hosted by University of Wyoming Extension and the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory, and follows the same agenda of short informational sessions and public discussion at each site, says Barton Stam, UW Extension educator and event moderator.
University of Georgia doctorate veterinary medicine candidate Chrissy Casey will present an overview of the disease, and Wyoming State Veterinarian Jim Logan will give a rundown on vaccination, quarantine and regulations.
UW veterinary epidemiologist Brant Schumaker and UW Ph.D. candidate Noah Hull will give perspectives on diagnosis. Regional Wyoming Game and Fish officers will discuss the management and monitoring of elk herds throughout the state.
Producers from Sublette and Park counties will recount effects of quarantines, and Associate Professor Dannele Peck of the UW College of Agriculture and Natural Resources will give an agricultural economist's perspective of the cost of quarantining. The event concludes with an open discussion.
The schedule is as follows:
July 18 -- Cody, Park County Courthouse, EOC Room.
July 19 -- Pinedale, Sublette County Library, Lovatt Room.
July 25 -- Sheridan, Watt Agricultural Building, Room 131.
July 26 -- Greybull, Big Horn County Weed and Pest/UW Extension office.
For more information, contact Stam at (307) 864-3421 or brstam@uwyo.edu.
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2. IDALS follows federal lead on eggs [IA]
By Jason W. Brooks
Newton Daily News
June 14, 2016
Shortly after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it would resume the egg inspections at farms that were suspended last year, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship announced it will do the same.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture announced in late May that it would resume inspections of state-inspected and apparoved egg handlers on June 1.
"Poultry farms will continue to follow rigorous biosecurity protocols as part of the inspections to help ensure animal health," the department said in a statement. ""All state inspectors have received additional training on appropriate biosecurity on visiting livestock."
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3. How to manage tail switches
By Jim Dickrell
DairyHerd.com
June 13, 2016
With the National FARM (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management) Program set to ban tail docking nationwide Jan. 1, dairy farmers who currently dock tails should look for alternatives, says Gerard Cramer, a veterinarian with the University of Minnesota.
Some farmers in tiestall barns, even those with gutter grates, use tail ties to keep tails from lying in gutters. These typically consist of elastic string tied to a line suspended from the ceiling. "This allows the cow limited freedom to move her tail but when properly tied, suspends the switch out of the gutter," Cramer says.
In parlors, some producers install grates to prevent tails from falling into muck. "If there's a lot of manure in butt pans, you have to ask the question of how are cows moving into the parlor?" he says. Calm cow handling means few cows should be defecating or urinating once in the parlor.
Managing tail switches
There are three alternatives to managing tail switches:
Shears/scissors
Advantages: Shears are cheap, easy to use and can be sharpened relatively easily.
Disadvantages: Care must be taken so the tail is not injured and the longer hairs of the tail might still be soiled.
Electric clippers
Advantages: The entire tail can be clipped, which reduces the number of times clipping must be done.
Disadvantages: There's a need for an extension cord or rechargeable unit. Blades dull quickly.
Electric tail trimmer
Advantages: The Tailwell power trimmer trims the switch and tail in one pass using a cordless drill.
Disadvantages: It's more expensive than traditional clippers, must be maintained and well lubricated.
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4. Superbug found in second pig sample in U.S.
By Lena H. Sun, The Washington Post
Salt Lake Tribune
June 14, 2016
U.S. officials have found bacteria resistant to the antibiotic of last resort in a sample from a second pig, increasing concerns about the spread of a newly discovered superbug that initially surfaced in this country in March.
The latest report involves an antibiotic-resistant strain of E. coli from a pig intestine, which was detected by scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a spokeswoman said Monday evening. The E. coli bacteria carried a gene making it resistant to the antibiotic colistin, the drug used against particularly dangerous types of superbugs that can already withstand many other antibiotics.
The sample is still undergoing analysis. The bacteria were detected May 27, nearly two months after the first discovery of the gene in a pig sample. USDA officials have provided few details, including where either animal was raised or killed.
The same gene, mcr-1, also was identified last month in an E. coli strain from a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman with no recent travel outside the country. That marked the first time the colistin-resistant strain had been found in a person in the United States, raising alarms among health officials and infectious-disease experts tracking its appearance in Asia, Europe and Canada.
Each of the three U.S. cases involves different strains of E. coli. The latest animal case suggests the gene is already circulating through multiple routes here.
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5. Deadly diseases can jump from animals to humans. These maps show where that might happen next.
By Sarah Kaplan
The Washington Post
June 14, 2016
In a forest in Cameroon, a tiny, virulent virus leapt from a single infected chimpanzee carcass into a human's blood, giving him HIV. Near a tree in the Guinean village Meliandou, children at play may have captured and eaten a tiny Angolan free-tailed bat, ingesting the Ebola virus that would launch a deadly epidemic. Somewhere on the Arabian peninsula, a herdsman got too close to the runny nose of a camel and unwittingly infected himself with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.
Of all the ailments that plague people, the majority began like these three: with a bacteria, virus, parasite or other pathogen that jumped from an innocuous animal host to the human population. Figuring out where the next spillover will take place is a question that keeps public health experts up at night. But there's no global database documenting where these kinds of infections - called zoonoses - might be lying in wait.
So Barbara Han, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., decided to map them.
"What we really want to do is shift the strategy from one of being defensive - always running around putting out fires - to one that's preemptive," she said. "One step toward that goal is to figure out where things are, what's carrying the known diseases and what's their distribution."
Drawing on hundreds of studies of emerging zoonotic diseases that come from mammals (other mammals, being our close relatives, are the largest source of zoonotic outbreaks in humans), Han tracked what classes of creature harbor the most known human pathogens, and where those reservoirs are most likely to be found. The results, published Tuesday in the journal Trends in Parasitology, are complicated and at times surprising.
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6. Mosquito-borne eastern equine encephalitis found in Chatham County [GA]
Savannah Morning News
June 14, 2016
Health officials say a mosquito-borne virus that is deadly to horses has been found in Chatham County.
County Mosquito Control confirmed eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE, has been detected in the western portion of Chatham County, said Sally Silbermann, spokeswoman for the Coastal Health District. The virus, which causes swelling of the brain, is fatal 70-90 percent of the time in horses. Large animal owners are encouraged to vaccinate their animals against the virus and to clean out water sources, such as buckets and troughs, every three to four days.
The primary mosquito that transmits EEE breeds in freshwater swamps. No human cases of disease have been reported in Georgia this year; however, humans are susceptible to EEE.
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7. Turkey on the Rebound
This story was provided by the Linder Farm Network.
RFDtv.com
June 14, 2016
Turkey production across the United States has rebounded following last year's outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza. The USDA estimates nationwide production will be about 5.9 billion pounds in 2016. For Minnesota, the nation's largest turkey producer, production is back in full swing.
"The livestock industry in Minnesota is an amazing powerhouse of economic drivers," said Tim Slunecka, the Minnesota Soybeans Executive Director. The turkey production in Minnesota affects many other agriculture industries in the state.
The industry tackled this problem with increased biosecurity and by taking quick action. They have also made their standards stricter on and off the farm.
If you're a turkey producer or just a turkey consumer, we want to remind you, National Turkey Lover's Day is June 19th.
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