Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Animal Health”
African swine fever (ASF) is an incurable viral disease of pigs but does not pose a threat to human health. There are many ways that ASF can spread from one part of the world to another, or from one premises to another. The following guidelines for keeping pigs healthy are especially important for reducing the chances of spreading ASF. Do …
April 12, 2022 Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in commercial and backyard poultry flocks has expanded to regions across the United States. Click on the links below to track the most recent HPAI confirmations: USDA APHIS 2022 Confirmations of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Commercial and Backyard FlocksOpens a new window USDA APHIS 2022 Detections of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza …
February, 2022 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory recently found highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 in turkeys tested from a commercial farm in Indiana. As a result, the premises were quarantined and the flock depopulated to prevent the spread of the disease. USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed HPAI in wild birds …
Finding a dead cow on a farm is very alarming. A farmer needs to know why, because there are many causes that result in a cow dying. In this particular case, a call to the veterinarian and some diagnostic tests determined that the cow had anaplasmosis. Anaplasmosis is a bacterial infection of concern to cattle producers because they might lose …
A disease so fearsome it was given the name “cattle plague”, rinderpest left behind trails of devastation in the wake of outbreaks. The 1887-1892 Great Ethiopian Famine occurred when almost all of the cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goats and wildlife species died from this disease (Morens, D. M., et al., 2011). In the 19th century, rinderpest killed 20 percent of all …
Bovine theileriosis (Tie-lir-ee-OH-suhs) is a tick-borne disease caused by a protozoan blood parasite, Theileriosis orientalis. (Malaria is another disease caused by a protozoan blood parasite, but it is mosquito-borne.) It is often referred to as bovine anemia due to the chronic anemia that it can cause in cattle, and it affects many different species of cattle, buffalo and small ruminants …
Imagine walking into a rabbitry one day and noticing multiple rabbits dead with nothing other than a little bit of blood on their nose. A highly contagious foreign animal disease by the name of rabbit hemorrhagic disease (RHD) is on the rise nationally, and is causing many rabbit farmers and owners to fear for their stock and pets. While it …
The United States is fortunate that foot and mouth disease (FMD)—a highly contagious, devastating viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals—has not occurred in the country since 1929. Secure Food Supply Plans, including the Secure Sheep and Wool Supply Plan, were developed to assist producers, transporters and food processors in the event of a foreign animal disease outbreak in the U.S., namely …
African swine fever (ASF) has the potential to destroy the U. S. pork industry by killing millions of pigs if it enters the country. A study from Iowa State University projected that if ASF spread to the United States and was not controlled within two years, the pork industry would lose $50 billion over ten years. Even in the best …
Imagine looking forward to spending time with your horses during the summer, but finding them drooling with blistered tongues and muzzles. Unfortunately, this is what some farmers and equestrians in southwestern and midwestern areas of the United States are experiencing this summer because of an outbreak of vesicular stomatitis (VS). VS is a zoonotic disease—caused by the VS virus (VSV)—and …
When I talked about emergency preparedness with folks involved in agriculture in 2011, I was referencing the Deepwater Horizon oil well explosion, the toxic sludge flood in Hungary, and the Fukushima nuclear plant accident in Japan as example of disasters that were unanticipated. In 2019, I would have referenced the crashes of the Boeing 737-Max, the collapse of the Brumadinho …
Mosquitoes are stealthy pests, but red itchy bumps are not the only thing they leave behind. Mosquitoes can transmit viruses like the one that causes eastern equine encephalitis (EEE or Triple E). Although outbreaks of EEE are not widespread across the United States, the disease can be devastating. An Uncommon but Serious Disease Eastern equine encephalitis is an uncommon but …
