The Agricultural Biosecurity Blog
Picture this: a typical hot, sunny and dry summer morning on a Texas cattle ranch. A rancher heads out to check on the herd and finds a dead cow. The cow seemed healthy a day or two ago. However, considering the cow’s death was sudden and the ranch is located in the “anthrax belt”, the rancher immediately calls a veterinarian …
Biosecurity and surveillance are complementary. Health surveillance in human, plant, or animal contexts involves collecting, analyzing, and interpreting health-related data. These data then inform what is done in terms of health programs and strategic communication. National surveillance systems often rely on the reporting of diagnoses of certain diseases to regulatory agencies. However, agricultural industries can find value in sharing animal …
What do you do when an uncontrolled virus is rapidly sweeping the world’s largest pork producer, killing millions of pigs? Furthermore, how do you make people who are removed from the problem care about it? China is currently trying to answer these questions as they experience an African swine fever (ASF) outbreak, a huge threat to national and international biosecurity. …
When I was young, my parents would tell me to stay away from wild animals. They said that I could catch a disease, so I heeded their warnings but never really understood the reasons why. As a college student, I am grateful for their wisdom after learning about diseases that wild animals can spread to domesticated animals and humans. A …
