Canada - Influenza A(H1N1) – Contained case in a swine herd in Québec
During its regular surveillance activities, the ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation (MAPAQ), has detected one isolated case of A(H1N1) in a swine herd.
Page 40 of articles about biosecurity
USA - Food safety bill fails quick vote in House
The House of Representatives on Wednesday failed to pass sweeping food safety legislation by the two-thirds majority it needed under suspension rules that limited debate and banned amendments from being added on the floor.
UK - FMD lab to get £100m overhaul
The government has announced it will spend over £100m redeveloping the laboratory blamed for the 2007 foot and mouth outbreak.
USA - AASV To Release H1N1 Recommendations
The American Association of Swine Veterinarians will release a document with recommendations on the Pandemic H1N1 disease and the risk it poses to the U.S. swine herd, according to Rodney “Butch” Baker, DVM, AASV president.
USA - Infectious diseases study site questioned
The Department of Homeland Security relied on a rushed, flawed study to justify its decision to locate a $700 million research facility for highly infectious pathogens in a tornado-prone section of Kansas, according to a government report.
Canada to no longer quarantine swine with H1N1
Affected animals will be managed using the same veterinary management and biosecurity practices employed for other swine influenza viruses. This includes limiting opportunities for virus to spread to susceptible animals. Canada’s slaughter system contains multiple inspection points to ensure that only healthy animals enter the food supply.
USA - No antibiotics amendment: US pig industry
A large group of agricultural organisations, among which many pork organisations, has urged the speaker of the US House of Representatives not to allow a bill to ban certain animal health products to be tacked on to any pending legislation.
Biosecurity measures to prevent airborne infection in pig farms
Experimentally it is difficult to demonstrate whether a pathogen can be windborne and if so how far.
Maple Leaf Foods Responds to Parliamentary Sub-Committee Report "Beyond Listeriosis: Strengthening the Canadian Food Safety System"
Maple Leaf Foods today responded to the report of the Agriculture Sub-Committee investigating the listeriosis crisis of last year, which was caused by contaminated meat products originating from Maple Leaf's Bartor Road plant that claimed the lives of 22 Canadians
North American H1N1 influenza update
The usual pig viruses are H1N1, H3N2 and H1N2. The original H1N1 pig viruses have been largely replaced by poultry viruses in pigs. The H3N2 viruses were from humans originally. The H1N2 viruses are re-assortants from human viruses (H and N genes) and poultry viruses.
Biosecurity measures to prevent pig farms being infected by wild animals
Wild animals which may spread infection between farms include wild pigs, birds, flies, rats and mice.
Risk and/or triggering factors of porcine circovirus
Between 1995 and 1997, at the beginning of an epizootic called “maladie de l’amagrissement du porcelet” (MAP), it was observed that the farms that were most affected and that had the most losses, generally presented obvious deviations from what we would consider to be a suitable management of the animals and facilities. This is why Dr. François Madec made a list of management practices with the aim of improving the anomalous situation observed.
An overview of North American PRRS eradication efforts
The use of diagnostics will allow producers and practitioners to work together towards the common goal of PRRS eradication
The Ebola Reston virus in Philippine pigs
On December, the Philippine Department of Agriculture announced that the non-lethal Ebola Reston Virus previously only found in monkeys, had been detected in pigs
Epidemiolology and control of swine influenza
Considering the current situation we are reproducing an article by Tom Alexander previously published by 3tres3.com on 30/dec/2005.
A key factor in the epidemiology of influenza is the ability of the virus to mutate or, when cells are infected by two different strains, to recombine to produce new viruses. Either of these genetic changes results in the repeated appearance of new strains with different immunogenic structures and/or virulence, including their ability to infect different hosts.
Mexico - Sixty swine flu fatalities In Mexico
A rare outbreak of human swine flu has killed at least 60 people in Mexico and spread to the United States where authorities are on alert, the World Health Organisation said on Friday.