Latest news with #VanAndel
1News
28-04-2025
- Health
- 1News
Controls lifted at Otago poultry farm after bird flu virus eradicated
Strict movement controls have been lifted from an Otago poultry farm following the eradication of a pathogenic strain of avian influenza in chickens at the premises. The highly pathogenic bird flu strain H7N6 was detected in poultry at Mainland Poultry's Hillgrove Farm in early December, prompting restrictions to be put in place and the culling of tens of thousands of chickens in the weeks following. Minsitry for Primary Industries (MPI) moved swiftly to implement strict movement controls on the property to prevent goods or anything else that might be carrying the virus leaving the property. Chickens on the farm were humanely euthanised and disposed of in a secure landfill, along with eggs, litter and manure from the farm. This was followed by an extensive cleaning and disinfection process. It comes as the Ministry for Primary Industries announced another unrelated farm is now under precautionary testing. (Source: 1News) In an update today, Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) chief veterinary officer Mary Van Andel said more than 5600 tests have been carried out on samples from poultry and wild birds, including from 36 flocks across 5 farms linked to Mainland's Hillgrove property. "HPAI was not found anywhere other than Hillgrove, giving confidence that the disease had been contained and stamped out," she said. "The processes we have followed – depopulation and disposal, decontamination of the site and extensive surveillance – give us confidence that the virus has been eradicated." "While there is still work to be done, the lifting of movement controls is a significant milestone in the response and means that Mainland Poultry can begin the process of returning to business." Van Andel thanked Mainland Poultry for notifying MPI promptly when the disease was suspected and working to stamp it out successfully. "Good progress is being made to restore trade, with around $300 million of trade in poultry products recovered to date.' Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard praised the collaboration among industries and "rapid action" taken to contain and stamp out the disease. "Rapid action on behalf of the farmer and MPI to stand up a response and restrict movements paid off. Tracing did not detect any HPAI-infected chickens beyond the farm where the disease originated. He said this has been "important work" as New Zealand's robust biosecurity system and the relative freedom from pests and disease plays a role in farmers' competitive advantage. "This was the first detection of HPAI in New Zealand and it tested some of the plans that are being developed for the arrival of HPAI H5N1. "It certainly provides a timely reminder that all New Zealanders have a role to play in being prepared and that is through strong biosecurity as an essential first line of defence."
Otago Daily Times
28-04-2025
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
Final controls lifted at poultry farm hit by avian flu
The Ministry for Primary Industries has lifted all movement controls from an Otago poultry farm after an outbreak of avian influenza last year. The H7N6 strain of high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was discovered at Mainland Poultry's Hillgrove Farm, near Moeraki in early December and resulted in a shutdown of the farm and culling of about 160,000 birds. "While there is still work to be done, the lifting of movement controls is a significant milestone in the response and means that Mainland Poultry can begin the process of returning to business," MPI chief veterinary officer Dr Mary Van Andel said. "We're grateful to Mainland Poultry, which did the right thing in notifying us as soon as an exotic disease was suspected and for working with us in partnership to successfully stamp out this disease." MPI immediately put strict movement controls on the property to prevent goods or anything else that might be carrying the virus leaving the property. Dr van Andel said more than 5600 tests were carried out on samples from poultry and wild birds, including from 36 flocks across 5 farms linked to Mainland's Hillgrove property. HPAI was not found anywhere other than Hillgrove, giving confidence the disease had been contained and stamped out. Dr Van Andel said chickens on the farm were humanely euthanised and disposed of in a secure landfill, along with eggs, litter and manure. This was followed by an extensive cleaning and disinfection process. "The processes we have followed – depopulation and disposal, decontamination of the site and extensive surveillance – give us confidence that the virus has been eradicated. MPI staff will continue to support Mainland as the farm is repopulated. "Good progress is being made to restore trade, with around $300 million of trade in poultry products recovered to date." MPI said it had worked with overseas government counterparts and industry partners in New Zealand to meet market requirements and had also proposed alternative assurances to some markets. Testing indicated that the infection at Hillgrove was likely to have occurred after free-range laying hens foraging outside were exposed to wild birds with a low pathogenicity (LPAI) virus strain, which then mutated in the hens to become HPAI, Dr Van Andel said. "This is the first time such an event in New Zealand has been documented and our first case of HPAI. We've learned a lot from this response that will help us to prepare for HPAI H5N1 if it spreads here."
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Man's Entire Life Destroyed After Downloading AI Software
Last February, Disney employee Matthew Van Andel downloaded what seemed like a helpful AI tool from the developer site GitHub. Little did he know that the decision would totally upend his life — resulting in everything from his credit cards to social security number being leaked to losing his job, as the Wall Street Journal reports. "It's impossible to convey the sense of violation," the 42-year old Van Andel, who is the father of two boys, told the newspaper. The software, an AI image generator, worked as advertised. But embedded into its files was a piece of malware, which a tenacious hacker used to probe Van Andel's password manager. Van Andel found out after the hacker, going by the name "Nullbulge," sent him an ominous message on Discord, a chat and VoIP platform popular with gamers. In the message, sent last July, the hacker referred to a conversation Van Andel had with his Disney coworkers in their workplace Slack, a professional platform used by organizations for remote work. That's what alerted him that this wasn't your typical spam message. In followup emails, the hacker threatened that if Van Andel didn't give into their demands, he'd "end up on the net." The next day, the hacker used Van Andel's work credentials to perpetrate a massive data leak at Disney, dumping everything from private customer info to internal revenue numbers online. Van Andel's personal info was caught in the mix, including financial accounts — suddenly barraged with unsolicited bills — his social media, and even his children's Roblox logins. In a blog post, the hacker gloated about the attack, naming Van Andel. "1.1 terabytes of data, almost 10,000 channels, every message file possible, dumped," wrote Nullbulge, per a WSJ screenshot. "We tried to hold off until we got deeper in, but our inside man got cold feet and kicked us out! I thought we had something special Matthew J Van Andel!" "Consider the dropping of literally every bit of personal info you have... as a warning for people in the future," the hacker added. Van Andel claims that he immediately contacted Disney's cybersecurity "fire team" after he received the threats from the hacker. Their investigation found nothing on his work computer, but they recommended Van Andel run a thorough check on his personal desktop. An anti-virus scan turned up the malware. But at that point, it was too late. The hacker had already gleaned enough to leak Disney's data and ruin Van Andel's life. Van Andel knew the only way the hacker could have gained such extensive access was through his password manager, 1Password. It turned out that Van Andel had failed to secure the software with two-factor authentication. The hacker likely emplaced a keylogging Trojan virus on his home computer via the AI tool, at which point they'd have "nearly unrestricted access," a 1Password spokesman told WSJ. Eleven days after the leak, Disney called Van Andel to tell him he was fired, depriving him of about $200,000 in bonuses and his family's healthcare. The company claimed that it found evidence that he'd accessed pornographic material on his work computer — claims that Van Andel firmly denies. "I'm the one who got hacked," he told the Disney representative on the phone, per the WSJ. More on data breaches: Hackers Apparently Stole the FBI's Call Logs With Confidential Informants
