Latest news with #AnimalPlantHealthInspectionService
E&E News
3 days ago
- Business
- E&E News
Republicans look to slash climate funds in 2 spending bills
House Republican appropriators Wednesday proposed deep cuts in many agriculture programs, eliminating the long-standing 'climate hubs' at the Agriculture Department and targeting resilience for natural disasters in military and veterans funding. Annual spending legislation for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 would set discretionary spending at USDA and related agencies at $25.5 billion, which Republican appropriators said would reflect a 4.4 percent decline from this year's level. While the proposal would hit certain areas especially hard — such as the climate hubs, conservation and urban agriculture — it would increase spending at the Agricultural Research Service and maintain funding to fight animal and plant pests and diseases at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Advertisement The Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee is scheduled to mark up the bill Thursday. Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) said in a news release that the measure 'reflects a clear, conservative commitment to fiscal responsibility while ensuring that America's farmers, ranchers, and rural communities remain a top priority.'
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New strain of bird flu wipes out Mississpi poultry farm; human flu may offer immunity
A new strain of a highly pathogenic bird flu known as H7N9 has surfaced at a poultry farm in Mississippi where chickens are raised for breeding. The finding of the new strain came as researchers separately reported a potentially positive development: Exposure to human seasonal flu may confer some immunity to H5N1 bird flu. The new strain found in Noxubee County, Miss., was confirmed March 12 and all of the roughly 46,000 birds either died or were euthanized after the infection spread, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service and Mississippi's Board of Animal Health. None of the birds entered the food supply. Authorities didn't say how the birds were infected, although federal wildlife agents had been identifying low-pathogenic versions of the H7N9 virus for several years in wild birds. It is possible that the version found in the chickens is circulating in wild birds, but most researchers think it probably acquired it's deadly attributes once it got into the Noxubee chicken operation. And if that's the case, "my money is on a one-and-done, perhaps with some local spread," said Richard Webby, an infectious disease expert at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. Webby said most bird flu outbreaks follow that pattern: A low-pathogenic version is introduced to commercial poultry, and it becomes highly pathogenic once inside. The introduction of H5N1 — the bird flu virus that's been infecting dairy cows, commercial poultry, pet cats, wild animals and wild birds since March 2024 — into poultry and livestock populations was a notable exception to this trend: It was already circulating among wild birds and animals as a highly pathogenic virus. John Korslund, a veterinarian and former USDA researcher, agreed with Webby and noted that the operation housed breeder broilers: Chickens that are grown and maintained for breeding purposes, not for their meat. This is significant because breeders live for months, if not years. If a low-pathogenic virus "happens to get into a broiler meat flock, the birds don't get sick and they go onto slaughter," he said. But when a breeder flock picks up that virus, "the virus can replicate for weeks ... this may well be what happened in Mississippi." However, according to USDA rules, routine and periodic testing of breeder birds for low-pathogenic avian influenzas is required. In 2017, an outbreak of H7N9 occurred along the Mississippi flyway, probably starting in late February, but reported only in March. A summary report of the outbreak suggested the virus was introduced via wild birds. As suspected in this case, it is believed it started as "low path" and only became "high path" once it got into the commercial operation. Nevertheless, experts said, if they are wrong and a highly pathogenic virus is circulating in wild birds, it'll start popping up in other states and sites too. "Time will tell how nasty it gets this time," Korslund said. The key to preventing these kinds of outbreaks — or at least getting ahead of them — is wildlife surveillance, the experts said. Agencies such as the USDA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey's Wildlife Health Center, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have divisions that are tasked with sampling wild birds and other animals for infectious diseases. The information they gather is then used by agriculture and public health officials to determine where and when to bolster biosecurity, or to keep a lookout. Without that information, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Canada."we're flying blind." In the positive news that came out this week, a team of international researchers found that ferrets exposed to a common seasonal human flu — H1N1 — before being exposed to H5N1, acquire some immunity from the seasonal flu. Ferrets that weren't exposed to the seasonal flu before being infected with H5N1 had high levels of the virus in their respiratory tissues, as well as detectable virus in their hearts, spleen, liver and intestines. In contrast, those that had been exposed to the seasonal flu beforehand had virus only in the respiratory tract — and at pretty low levels. "The biggest take home message of our data is that prior human seasonal virus infection can provide some level of protection against the lethality of bird flu," said Seema Lakdawala, a microbiologist at Emory University in Atlanta and one of the study's researchers. Webby, the St. Jude researcher, said the work supports other research that has looked at the potential protectiveness of prior exposure to flu viruses. "It is for sure playing some role in modulating H5N1 disease in humans," he said, but was unlikely the only factor. "After all, many people have severe seasonal H1N1 infections each year despite lots of immunity to the virus from previous H1N1 exposures." But the finding may help explain why the virus recently has been associated with generally mild disease in the people who have been infected. Seventy people in the U.S. have been infected since March 2024, and one person has died. (Four people, including the Louisiana patient who died, have been hospitalized). Before last year, the virus was thought to have killed roughly 50% of those infected. Rasmussen said the worry now is that if H5N1 mutates to become transmissible between people, it'll be young children as well as the old and compromised who are likely to be most affected. Children younger than 5 are less likely to have been exposed to seasonal human influenza viruses than school-aged children and adults — potentially making them more susceptible to the harms of a virus such as H5N1. In addition, she said, the bird flu viruses circulating in birds and livestock "as far as we know, can't transmit easily between people. But, if there's reassortment, then who knows? We don't know what kind of residual population-level immunity we would have" from a virus such as that. How seasonal flu vaccines could affect this protection isn't clear. "Seasonal vaccines will not provide the same diversity of immune response as natural infection and unlikely to provide the same level of protection," said Lakdawala, who is testing this issue in the lab. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
19-03-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
New strain of bird flu wipes out Mississpi poultry farm; human flu may offer immunity
A new strain of a highly pathogenic bird flu known as H7N9 has surfaced at a poultry farm in Mississippi where chickens are raised for breeding. The finding of the new strain came as researchers separately reported a potentially positive development: Exposure to human seasonal flu may confer some immunity to H5N1 bird flu. The new strain found in Noxubee County, Miss., was confirmed March 12 and all of the roughly 46,000 birds either died or were euthanized after the infection spread, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service and Mississippi's Board of Animal Health. None of the birds entered the food supply. Authorities didn't say how the birds were infected, although federal wildlife agents had been identifying low-pathogenic versions of the H7N9 virus for several years in wild birds. It is possible that the version found in the chickens is circulating in wild birds, but most researchers think it probably acquired it's deadly attributes once it got into the Noxubee chicken operation. And if that's the case, 'my money is on a one-and-done, perhaps with some local spread,' said Richard Webby, an infectious disease expert at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. Webby said most bird flu outbreaks follow that pattern: A low-pathogenic version is introduced to commercial poultry, and it becomes highly pathogenic once inside. The introduction of H5N1 — the bird flu virus that's been infecting dairy cows, commercial poultry, pet cats, wild animals and wild birds since March 2024 — into poultry and livestock populations was a notable exception to this trend: It was already circulating among wild birds and animals as a highly pathogenic virus. John Korslund, a veterinarian and former USDA researcher, agreed with Webby and noted that the operation housed breeder broilers: Chickens that are grown and maintained for breeding purposes, not for their meat. This is significant because breeders live for months, if not years. If a low-pathogenic virus 'happens to get into a broiler meat flock, the birds don't get sick and they go onto slaughter,' he said. But when a breeder flock picks up that virus, 'the virus can replicate for weeks ... this may well be what happened in Mississippi.' However, according to USDA rules, routine and periodic testing of breeder birds for low-pathogenic avian influenzas is required. In 2017, an outbreak of H7N9 occurred along the Mississippi flyway, probably starting in late February, but reported only in March. A summary report of the outbreak suggested the virus was introduced via wild birds. As suspected in this case, it is believed it started as 'low path' and only became 'high path' once it got into the commercial operation. Nevertheless, experts said, if they are wrong and a highly pathogenic virus is circulating in wild birds, it'll start popping up in other states and sites too. 'Time will tell how nasty it gets this time,' Korslund said. The key to preventing these kinds of outbreaks — or at least getting ahead of them — is wildlife surveillance, the experts said. Agencies such as the USDA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey's Wildlife Health Center, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have divisions that are tasked with sampling wild birds and other animals for infectious diseases. The information they gather is then used by agriculture and public health officials to determine where and when to bolster biosecurity, or to keep a lookout. Without that information, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Canada.'we're flying blind.' In the positive news that came out this week, a team of international researchers found that ferrets exposed to a common seasonal human flu — H1N1 — before being exposed to H5N1, acquire some immunity from the seasonal flu. Ferrets that weren't exposed to the seasonal flu before being infected with H5N1 had high levels of the virus in their respiratory tissues, as well as detectable virus in their hearts, spleen, liver and intestines. In contrast, those that had been exposed to the seasonal flu beforehand had virus only in the respiratory tract — and at pretty low levels. 'The biggest take home message of our data is that prior human seasonal virus infection can provide some level of protection against the lethality of bird flu,' said Seema Lakdawala, a microbiologist at Emory University in Atlanta and one of the study's researchers. Webby, the St. Jude researcher, said the work supports other research that has looked at the potential protectiveness of prior exposure to flu viruses. 'It is for sure playing some role in modulating H5N1 disease in humans,' he said, but was unlikely the only factor. 'After all, many people have severe seasonal H1N1 infections each year despite lots of immunity to the virus from previous H1N1 exposures.' But the finding may help explain why the virus recently has been associated with generally mild disease in the people who have been infected. Seventy people in the U.S. have been infected since March 2024, and one person has died. (Four people, including the Louisiana patient who died, have been hospitalized). Before last year, the virus was thought to have killed roughly 50% of those infected. Rasmussen said the worry now is that if H5N1 mutates to become transmissible between people, it'll be young children as well as the old and compromised who are likely to be most affected. Children younger than 5 are less likely to have been exposed to seasonal human influenza viruses than school-aged children and adults — potentially making them more susceptible to the harms of a virus such as H5N1. In addition, she said, the bird flu viruses circulating in birds and livestock 'as far as we know, can't transmit easily between people. But, if there's reassortment, then who knows? We don't know what kind of residual population-level immunity we would have' from a virus such as that. How seasonal flu vaccines could affect this protection isn't clear. 'Seasonal vaccines will not provide the same diversity of immune response as natural infection and unlikely to provide the same level of protection,' said Lakdawala, who is testing this issue in the lab.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
How to Travel Internationally With Your Dog
If you've ever wanted to travel internationally or live in another country, but you have a dog and aren't sure how to make that work, world travelers Julie Rubenstein Bronder and Nik Bronder have amazing tips and suggestions for making it work on their travel blog. Julie and Nik have traveled to 32 cities across 14 countries with their dog Koval, including a yearlong stay in Barcelona, and now they reside in Nice, France. Here are Julie's suggestions for getting started if you want to take your pup aboard with you. Says Julie, "To fly internationally with your dog, each country has some different steps to follow. They all want you to have a USDA certified health certificate, which means going to an USDA-certified vet for a health exam. The vet will fill out a form, which can be submitted online." At the time, Julie and Nik lived in Chicago so they went to a regional USDA office in the suburbs of Illinois with their paperwork. To find your local regional office, search the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, which is the parent company that helps with this part of the USDA's work. If you are traveling from the United States to another country with your pet, be sure to review these guidelines first. When getting the USDA health certification from the vet, you must have your dog's exam up to 30 days before your flight or your arrival day. Shares Julie, "The certificate itself, the USDA will stamp it, emboss it, give a couple signatures, and certify that they've looked all it over." Julie warns that certification only lasts for 10 days, so be mindful of when you get the certificate to when you plan on arriving in the new country. Keep detailed records of your dog's vaccines and be sure that their rabies shot is current. Julie comments that "across the board with every country is to make sure the rabies vaccine is up to date. No country wants rabies." You can also scan all the certificates and have them on your phone or laptop to show when needed, if you don't to pack all the paperwork. Stay tuned for more tips from Julie!
