Whatever happens, most of the world will eat less pork SYDNEY, Australia; HONG KONG––Will African swine fever, a viral disease now projected to kill at least half the pigs in China and a quarter of all the pigs in the world, accelerate the trend toward vegan eating? Or speed the transition toward factory farming? Or […]
E. coli kills yet another child who visited a petting zoo
Third known petting zoo fatality since 2011 SAN DIEGO, California––Jedidiah King Cabezuela, age 2, on June 24, 2019 died from hemolytic uremic syndrome, an apparent complication of exposure to shiga toxin-producing e. coli bacteria two weeks earlier at the San Diego County Fair. “The County of San Diego Health & Human Services Agency said the […]
Will feral pigs eat Hong Kong before Hong Kong eats the pigs?
Feral pigs may be poached as African swine fever & trade war cut off pig imports HONG KONG––A three-way collision among African swine fever, feral pigs, and the global pork industry, U.S. interests included, may be only days away in Hong Kong. Whatever the outcome, pigs––both factory-farmed and living free––are already the big net […]
Walls, boar purges, & no-man’s-land fail to stop African swine fever
Wild boar to blame for only 1% of outbreaks, Chinese learn PARIS, France––Donald Trump is not the only world leader who has yet to learn that walls don’t work––not if the goal is really to keep a foreign threat out, as opposed to presenting the appearance to a political base of doing something drastic […]
Federal shutdown helps disease race from gamecocks to egg barns
Deadly exotic Newcastle outbreaks were all but ignored even before U.S. President Donald Trump furloughed most of the government personnel who could have responded RIVERSIDE, California–– Pleading for urgent attention to the recent spread of exotic Newcastle disease from southern California cockfighting flocks to commercial egg barns, Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED) moderator […]
Wyoming trophy hunters blame mountain goats for lack of bighorn
Shaky science may doom mountain goats in their own habitat JACKSON, Wyoming––Mountain goats, already scapegoated for much else, are now blamed and are perhaps at risk of massacre in Wyoming for allegedly transmitting ovine pneumonia––a common disease of domestic sheep––to the isolated remnant bighorn sheep of the Grand Tetons. Along with the shaky identification […]
Disease linked to cockfighting menaces California poultry industry
Gamecocks carrying Newcastle disease to domestic flocks killed millions in 1971 and 2003 LOS ANGELES––The billion-dollar-a-year California poultry industry is betting the farm that state and federal authorities can get a two-year series of outbreaks of Newcastle disease under control before it becomes the biggest threat to profits in decades. An outbreak discovered in […]
St. James Infirmary in Saskatoon: One Health 2018
Humane societies played hooky SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, Canada––From the perspective of 1,500 miles and more than two weeks away, the most remarkable aspect of the recent 5th International One Health Congress in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan was that even though hundreds of people participated, many of those who should have been there were not. No one attended […]
Yellow fever mosquitoes now killing at 10 times the rate of pit bulls
Monkey killings contribute to disease outbreak death tolls in Brazil & India RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil; SINGHUDURG, India––Panic-driven monkey massacres are contributing to human illness and death, with yellow fever deaths up 60% since the end of fiscal 2017, and could help to spark global epidemics, warn Brazilian health officials. More than 718 Brazilians […]
Bad eggs Jack & Peter DeCoster ordered to prison after 2-year delay
U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear appeal SIOUX CITY, Iowa––Two years after convicting egg barons Jack DeCoster and his son Peter DeCoster for their roles in causing one of the worst salmonella outbreaks ever to hit the U.S. public, senior U.S. District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett of the Northern District of Iowa has signed […]