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USAHA News Alert Summaries - July 7, 2016 - In this issue:
1. Vector-Borne Diseases' Emergent Threat for Horses
2. CARD looks at reducing antibiotic use in livestock
3. Deer disease recedes, but remains a threat [OR]
4. Utah 'pure' bison herd may be key to conserving species
5. Mass. Supreme Judicial Court upholds farm animal ballot question banning 'extreme confinement' farm animal ballot
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1. Vector-Borne Diseases' Emergent Threat for Horses
By Equine Disease Quarterly
TheHorse.com
July 6, 2016
 
 
Vector-borne diseases represent a singularly serious threat to the health of humans and domestic livestock species in countries or regions of the world in which they occur. Historically, many such diseases were frequently regarded as geographically restricted in their global distribution and not considered a risk to human and animal populations in far-distant countries in other continents or possibly other hemispheres. Major disease migrations in the last 20 years, however, have undermined that sense of security. No longer can the future distribution of specific infectious agents be predicted with confidence.
 
This was most recently exemplified by the explosive and unexpected spread of Chikungunya and Zika viruses, both human pathogens, from where they were originally identified in Africa many years ago.
 
Concerns are further highlighted by the risk of spreading yellow fever from Angola, Republic of Congo, and Uganda to European Union member states and even further afield to intertropical zones in the Americas and Asia. The most significant group of emerging human and animal diseases is caused by arboviruses such as West Nile, Chikungunya, and Zika; they are single stranded RNA viruses which have spontaneous mutation rates as high as one base per 1,000 bases for each replication cycle. Arboviruses are transmitted in nature by arthropod vectors.
 
 
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2. CARD looks at reducing antibiotic use in livestock
By Iowa Pork Industry Center
PorkNetwork.com
July 6, 2016
 
One article in the Spring 2016 issue of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Agricultural Policy Review takes a look at reducing antibiotic use in animal production systems.
 
Article author Helen Jensen provides a brief background of this movement, current and ongoing guidance and changes in the U.S., a recap and current note on how the Danish restriction policies have fared, and some implications for the U.S. based on the Danish experience.
 
The article is an easy read and offers food for thought as adjustments are made in the domestic arena of minimizing the use of livestock antimicrobials to maintain effectiveness of antibiotics in humans. Read it on the CARD website here: http://www.card.iastate.edu/ag_policy_review/display.aspx?id=54
 
 
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3. Deer disease recedes, but remains a threat [OR]
By Holly Owens
Herald and News
July 6, 2016
 
 
MEDFORD (AP) - A deadly disease that has killed huge swaths of Southern Oregon's urban black-tailed deer population in past years appears to have receded, but biologists say it likely won't ever go away.
 
Just two years removed from one of the biggest die-offs of Southern Oregon deer attributed to adenovirus hemorrhagic disease, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife office in Central Point has had fewer than a handful of calls this year about seemingly infected dead deer.
 
"The calls of dead or sick deer have been almost non-existent," says Mark Vargas, the ODFW's Rogue District wildlife biologist. "But it's still here and it's staying here."
 
While enormous die-offs of well over 1,000 deer in both the migratory and local herds were estimated in 2014 and 2009, last year was still a rough one on local blacktails.
 
"It's a natural disease, so it's not like one brought in by an exotic animal," Vargas says.
 
 
 
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4. Utah 'pure' bison herd may be key to conserving species
Only a fraction of bison aren't hybrids
By CNN
WKMG Orlando
July 6, 2016
 
 
HANKSVILLE, Utah (CNN) - Few things register as iconically American as a herd of bison roaming the Great Plains.
 
President Obama has signed a bill declaring bison the "national mammal," but only a fraction of those in existence present a pure picture of the wild animal that once grazed all over the United States.
 
Now, a small, genetically pure, disease-free, free-ranging herd in the Henry Mountains in Utah has scientists and conservationists excited about the future. The development could be instrumental in bringing back some of the species' splendor.
 
"A pure bison is genetically a genuine descendent of the original Plains bison that used to roam North America," said Utah State University Professor of Ecology, Dr. Johan du Toit.
 
"Most of the bison alive today in North America are essentially hybrids. They're a mix in some way of bison and cattle genes," du Toit said.
 
Over the 19th and part of the 20th centuries, ranchers confined and crossbred bison with cattle in the hopes of creating livestock with the bison's drought-resistant traits and cattle's docile nature, according to du Toit. Some thought bison might therefore crossbreed with cattle in the wild if given the opportunity.
 
Utah State and Texas A&M University researchers collected genetic samples over several years.
 
Their efforts were supported by staff from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and the Bureau of Land Management.
 
Despite the fact that the Henry Mountains herd has been grazing freely and side-by-side with cattle for decades, the genetic research indicates the animals have not crossbred with cattle. This means bison may be able to be managed in a mixed grazing system in other parts of the country, giving the Henry Mountains herd both the genetic pedigree and the "source herd" potential that most bison don't have.
 
 
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5. Mass. Supreme Judicial Court upholds farm animal ballot question banning 'extreme confinement'
farm animal ballot
By Shira Schoenberg
MassLive.com
July 6, 2016
 
 
The Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday allowed a ballot question to go forward that would let voters ban the sale of meat or eggs from confined animals in Massachusetts and ban the confinement of certain animals at Massachusetts farms.
 
The ruling from Massachusetts's highest court, a victory for the Humane Society of the United States, means the farm animal question is likely to appear on the November 2016 ballot.
 
The plaintiffs - anti-poverty activist Diane Sullivan and farmer James Dunn - had argued that the ballot question was unconstitutional because it included multiple unrelated subjects, since it would both ban the confinement of animals on Massachusetts farms and ban the sale of meat or eggs from animals that were confined elsewhere in the country. The question also concerns three different animals: egg-laying hens, calves raised for veal, and breeding pigs.
 
In a unanimous opinion written by Chief Justice Ralph Gants, the justices found that the farm and sale provisions are related because they "share a common purpose of preventing farm animals from being caged in overly cramped conditions." The question treats all three animals the same way.
 
 
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USAHA News Alert Summaries is a service provided to its members as a timely, up-to-date source of news affecting animal health and related subjects, intended for personal use by USAHA members.  Information in these articles does not necessarily represent the views or positions of USAHA. 

   Sources of articles are state, national and international media outlets, press releases, and direct from organizations or agencies.  Each article includes direct citation and link.  Comments, questions or concerns about the information included in each article should be directed to the source in addition to USAHA. While USAHA strives for accuracy in the information it shares, the News Alert Summaries should be treated as a tool that provides a snapshot of information being reported regarding animal health and related subjects.