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 […]
Thumbing nose at lawsuits, USDA-APHIS hides more info
Deletes documents posted in response to Freedom of Information Act requests WASHINGTON D.C.––Hit with a second lawsuit, draft legislation, and letters from 119 members of Congress demanding that the U.S. Department of Agriculture restore web sites including Animal Welfare Act enforcement information, the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service has instead thumbed its collective […]
Jack Woodall, 81, the James Bond of animal/human disease prevention
Cofounder of ProMED-mail LONDON, U.K.––Jack Woodall, 81, perhaps the most influential person in the animal welfare field whose name almost no one involved in animal welfare recognized, whose work helped to save countless human and animal lives, died on October 24, 2016 in London, England, where he was under treatment for pancreatic cancer. Cofounder […]
Dead-end WSU studies kill bears & bighorn sheep
WSU makes apparently meaningless show of response to complaints PULLMAN, Washington––Washington State University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee chief Phyllis Erdman on July 22, 2016 made a show of responding promptly to alleged federal Animal Welfare Act violations resulting in the accidental deaths of grizzly bears, bighorn sheep, calves and rabbits in university […]