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1. Regulatory Cooperation Council - Foreign Animal Disease Zoning Recognition
Response to Comments Received: External Consultation on the Framework for Implementing and Maintaining the Arrangement between Canadian Food Inspection Agency and United States Department of Agriculture for the Recognition of Foreign Animal Disease Control and Eradication Zones
Canadian Food Inspection Agency Release
June 22, 2016
Introduction
Foreign Animal Disease (FAD) Zoning Recognition is an initiative under the United States (U.S.) - Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC). President Obama and then Prime Minister Harper created the RCC in 2011 to promote regulatory cooperation and facilitate trade, with resulting benefits for industry and consumers.
The first step in the FAD Zoning Recognition initiative was reciprocal evaluations of each country's veterinary infrastructure and emergency response capabilities, focusing on zoning to control FAD outbreaks. Based on the favorable outcome of these evaluations, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) entered into an ArrangementFootnote 1 to recognize each other's zoning decisions in the event of a highly contagious (HCFAD) outbreak (note, the scope was limited to those FADs that have the ability to spread in an extremely rapid manner). The intent of the Arrangement was to facilitate trade between zones that remain free of the disease, while safeguarding animal health in both countries.
The CFIA and APHIS subsequently developed a framework [Footnote 2] to implement and maintain the Arrangement over time. The agencies conducted an external consultation process for this framework over the spring and summer of 2014. APHIS published the Framework and associated documents on May 13, 2014, for a 60-day public comment period. The CFIA published the same documents for comment from June 11, 2014, to August 31, 2014.
APHIS received 11 unique comments during, and subsequent to, the public comment period, including recommendations from the Secretary of Agriculture's Advisory Committee on Animal Health. One comment consisted of 19,062 form letters opposing both Framework and Arrangement received from a citizen health advocacy group. The remainder were received from national and State livestock, meat, and dairy organizations and a national veterinary group.
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2. State expands emergency response activities and preparedness for Foreign Animal Diseases [MN]
Minnesota Farm Guide
June 22, 2016
ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Minnesota State Legislature expanded the use of $1.8 million appropriated for avian influenza last session, to ensure the Board of Animal Health can respond to a wider range of Foreign Animal Diseases. Governor Mark Dayton signed the supplemental budget bill (2016 Minnesota Session Laws, Chapter 189) on June 1, 2016, which included this expanded use of funding for the Board. Specifically, it covers emergency planning and response:
Identifying risk factors for animal disease transmission.
Implementing strategies to prevent or reduce disease introduction and transmission.
Retaining employees trained in disease response.
Funding a portion of the Minnesota Poultry Testing Laboratory expansion project in Willmar.
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3. Meeting to discuss brucellosis in Montana elk
Sarah Dettmer
Great Falls Tribue
June 21, 2016
The working group tasked with developing elk management options announced a public meeting July 5 in Bozeman to discuss findings, plans of action and allow for public comment on the issue of brucellosis transmission between elk and livestock.
Brucellosis is highly contagious, with several strains affecting different species. The working group focused on Brucella abortus, a species of the disease that mostly affects cattle but can also infect bison and elk populations. This species of brucellosis has largely been eliminated across the country after vaccinations and milk pasteurization became universal. However, the only known concentration of Brucella abortus is in the Greater Yellowstone area.
"Montana's designated brucellosis surveillance area has detected some elk populations carrying the disease," said Quentin Kujala, wildlife management section chief. "These populations are native to Montana and did not contract the disease from herds around Yellowstone."
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4. Anaplasmosis: Is it a problem in the Northern Plains?
By Russ Daly, SDSU Extension Today
AgWeek.com
June 22, 2016
BROOKINGS, S.D. - Cattle producers have been hearing more and more about a disease called anaplasmosis. This disease recently appears to have become more common in areas not previously affected. The disease is typically associated with cattle herds in warmer areas of the country, but is it ever a problem up here on the Northern Plains?
Disease profile
Anaplasmosis is a bacterial disease that affects red blood cells of cattle. Once a red blood cell is infected with the germ, the animal's body recognizes it as abnormal and destroys it. If an excessive number of red blood cells are infected and removed, anemia results. The blood is no longer able to adequately supply oxygen to the body's cells. Anemia appears as weakness, rapid breathing, pale mucous membranes, and - if severe - collapse and death, especially when the animals are exerted. These signs almost exclusively happen in adult cows or bulls; calves can be infected but rarely show outward signs.
Antibiotics, typically tetracyclines, are approved to control the disease in infected beef cattle (medication options are more limited for lactating dairy cattle). The medication keeps the infection down to the point where clinical disease is less likely, but it doesn't cure a persistently infected animal from the infection, nor does it prevent a susceptible animal from becoming infected.
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5. Screwworm Sex Wins 'Golden Goose' Award for Unusual Research
By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor
LiveScience.com
June 22, 2016
The sex life of a fly whose name translates to "man-eater" has netted two researchers a posthumous award from U.S. politicians.
The 2016 Golden Goose Award, which honors basic research that might seem silly but led to important breakthroughs, will go to Edward F. Knipling and Raymond C. Bushland. The U.S. Department of Agriculture funded the researchers' study of the reproductive behavior of screwworm flies (Cochliomyia hominivorax), a parasitic species that caused major problems for farmers and ranchers before Knipling and Bushland's work led to a new type of insect control in the 1950s.
"Given the recent rise of infectious diseases like the Zika virus, developing eradication programs for carrier pests is a much-needed field of scientific research," Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-Ill., a supporter of the Golden Goose Award, said in a statement. "Even though 'worms' might make some members of Congress -- as well as the public - a little squeamish or skeptical of the research we invest in, these studies by Drs. Edward F. Knipling and Raymond C. Bushland have clearly paid off."
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6. Pain management breakthrough for improved pig welfare
National Hog Farmer
June 22, 2016
Studies funded by the Australian Pork Industry and conducted by researchers at the Faculty of Veterinary Science, the University of Sydney (the Faculty), have established that the application of a farmer-applied, spray-on topical anaesthetic formulation (Tri-Solfen) results in significant extended pain relief compared to injectable local anaesthetics in piglets undergoing castration.
The unique patented formulation developed by Animal Ethics Pty Ltd is a combination topical anaesthetic and wound care agent that has been developed to alleviate pain, reduce bleeding and improve wound healing in animals undergoing routine surgical procedures such as castration, tail docking and disbudding. A key feature of the product is it can be farmer applied and removes the need for double handling of the piglets, providing an additional positive outcome for both the farmers and the piglets.
The Managing Director of Animal Ethics Pty Ltd Allan Giffard states, "This is an exciting result, with important animal welfare implications, for piglets. It indicates that the formulation is highly efficacious for pain alleviation and it provides piglets undergoing castration with a prolonged analgesic effect well beyond current pain management options such as injectable anaesthetics"
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7. OIE opens Global Conference on Veterinary Education
By OIE
Bovine Veterinarian
June 22, 2016
Opening this week in Bangkok, Thailand, the 4th OIE Global Conference on Veterinary Education will address ways to further improve the quality of the veterinary profession globally, by encouraging worldwide harmonization of veterinary education.
Indeed, strengthening Veterinary education worldwide is a key to the sustainable improvement of Veterinary Services, the quality of which is crucial to respond to the societal, economic and environmental changes faced by the profession and by our society.
In our constantly changing and globalised world, all countries depend on the performance of their Veterinary Services to successfully implement their animal production, aquaculture and food safety policies, and for effective prevention and control of any biological disasters. Therefore, veterinarians, as the professionals who are responsible for this important mission, should be well trained not only for animal health and welfare, but also for veterinary public health.
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