IMPROVED METHODS TO CONTROL PORCINE EPIDEMIC DIARRHEA VIRUS.

A university of Nebraska–Lincoln research by Amy Millmier Schmidt, assistant professor and livestock bioenvironmental engineer in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering., is giving swine producers and veterinarians potential methods to manage and prevent the spread of PEDv. PEDv is spread among pigs through the fecal to oral route. It causes severe diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration, typically less than one day following exposure. While older pigs will experience performance losses once infected with PEDv, the virus carries a nearly 100 percent mortality rate in pre-weaned piglets. The virus is highly virulent, which makes controlling its spread within and among swine operations particularly challenging. The PEDv has a similar effect on older pigs as the stomach flu does on humans; the signs include decrease feed intake, loss of weight and are non productivity. The loss of productivity results in an economic loss for the industry because it takes longer for the animals to reach market weight. The control methods are as follows: 1)Carcass removal One area the group has been investigating is composting carcasses testing positive for PEDv. Burial is common practice with PEDv mortalities, which may be problematic because the virus thrives in cool, moist conditions. To ascertain whether composting could eliminate the infectious virus, the researchers constructed three compost bins in which PEDv-positive pigs were composted in biosecure rooms on UNL’s East Campus. Sensors were placed inside the compost piles to monitor temperature and organic matter, and water was added to the bins, as needed, throughout two composting cycles. Testing of the compost material at the conclusion of the cycles found no evidence of PEDv. Properly handling and disposing of mortalities is a crucial step in reducing the risk of virus transmission. The team believe that composting is an effective method to dispose of on-farm mortalities and this will help limit the spread of PEDv when the piles are constructed and managed properly to achieve internal pile temperatures of 120 to 130 degrees F. 2) Changing pH levels in manure Schmidt and her colleagues also looked at adding lime to manure containing the PED virus to determine if a significant pH change in the manure would eliminate the infectious virus. Results revealed that treating manure with lime to raise the manure pH to 10 for at least one hour will eliminate infectious virus in the manure, though Schmidt suspects that a lower pH may be equally effective. Testing during the past several months has revealed that this virus is extremely sensitive to pH, and researchers suspect that it may not be necessary to raise the manure pH all the way to 10 to inactivate the virus. However, they won’t be able to confirm this until additional experiments are completed. 3) Farm bio security The team's current focus is on demonstrating and promoting disease control and prevention measures on-farm and working with pork producers to create a culture of vigilant preparedness and prevention to minimize impacts of future disease outbreaks. All business decisions come down to economics so the team wants to demonstrate that the cost of investing in on-farm bio security practices is far less than the costs associated with lost productivity, decontamination, and remediation of a farm following a disease outbreak. source wattagnet.

VETERINARY MEDICINE: Rats linked to depression in man.

VETERINARY MEDICINE: Rats linked to depression in man. A study by Danielle German, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Bloomberg School the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health shows the link between rat problems and depression in man. Residents of Baltimore's low-income neighborhoods who believe rats are a big problem where they live are significantly more likely to suffer from depressive symptoms such as sadness and anxiety. The same residents with rodent problems on their block are also plagued by other pressing urban issues such as vacant housing, drug sales on the street and the risk of being robbed and beaten up. The study found that the relationship between rats and depression is not explained by these other neighborhood conditions. The findings are published in the Journal of Community Psychology. This study provides very strong evidence that rats are an under appreciated stressor that affects how people feel about their lives in low-income neighborhoods. The good news is it's modifiable. If something is done to reduce the number of rats in these neighborhoods. VETERINARY MEDICINE: Rats linked to depression in man. Every time researchers would talk to residents of low-income neighborhoods about the troubling public health issues they face, German says, they expected to hear about drugs and HIV and access to healthy food. Time and again, she says, they heard about rats and trash. Many cities conduct a regular rat census or survey residents about urban conditions, but this is one of the first studies to examine the psychological toll of an entrenched rat population. VETERINARY MEDICINE: Rats linked to depression in man. The research by German and Carl A. Latkin, PhD, a professor at the Bloomberg School, analyzed data collected from 448 Baltimore residents recruited from impoverished neighborhoods between March 2010 and December 2011. Those who consider rats to be a big problem were 72 percent more likely to experience acute depressive symptoms than those who live in similar neighborhoods where rats are not a big problem, the researchers say. They found that people in rat-infested neighborhoods had the same strongly negative perceptions of rats as people in other neighborhoods, but had much more frequent encounters. Rats are typically found where they have access to food and shelter, finding trash to eat and vacant or poorly kept up housing in which to live in low-income urban areas.Read more https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160316094308.htm. #trash # rats # depression

MAN CONTRACTS PARASITE IN FEET AFTER CONTACT WITH ANIMAL FECES.

A case reported in the New England Journal of Medicine states that a man came back from a holiday to Nigeria and developed a rash on his foot .He Went to the doctor after a month as it was itchy and appeared to 'move'.It appeared to 'migrate', moving a few millimeters to a few centimeters daily, he told doctors, who described the case to doctors at Peking Union Medical College, in Beijing, complaining of the mark on his foot, which resembled a varicose vein. The doctors examined his foot and found a red, raised tract with a wavy margin. They gave the patient the news he had cutanteous larva migrans: a parasitic skin infection caused by hookworm larvae. These hookworms generally live in the intestines of pets such as dogs and cats and shed their eggs via their faeces, usually in sandy areas of beaches or under houses. Cutaneous larva migrans is the most frequent skin disease among travelers returning from tropical countries. Humans can become infected through contact with these faeces, such as by walking barefoot on the beach or in soil that has been contaminated with the waste. The parasite stays in the epidermis, the outer layer of skin, because it lacks the enzymes needed to burrow down deeper into the body. The rash it triggers is most commonly seen on the feet, back, buttocks, thighs, or abdomen. The man was given an anti-parasitic drug called albendazole and after two weeks, the marks on his foot disappeared. Read more http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3527892/The-varicose-vein-actually-WORM-Man-contracts-parasite-foot-contact-animal-faeces.html

HANTA VIRUS KILLS AGAIN!!

The Hanta virus is a deadly disease transmitted by infected rodents through urine, droppings or saliva. People can contract the disease when they breathe in the aerosolized virus resulting in Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome(HPS) The New Mexico Department of Health says a 54 year old man from Cibola County has died of hantavirus. An environmental investigation is been conducted at the patient's home to help reduce the risk to others. Since 1993, New Mexico has reported 103 lab-confirmed HPS cases with 43 deaths, the highest number of cases of any state.The New Mexico Department of Health reports that this is the second case of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome in the state this year.

DRUG RESIDUE IN PIGS AND CANCER IN MAN.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has moved to revoke approval of a drug used to treat certain diseases in pigs because it could leave a cancerous residue that may affect human health. 

The drug, carbadox, is made by Teaneck, New Jersey-based Phibro Animal Health and is used to control swine dysentery and bacterial enteritis. The drug, which was approved in 1972, has also been used to promote weight gain in pigs. 

 Potential cancer risks are based on an assumed lifetime of consuming pork liver or other pork products containing carbadox residues the product is sold under the brand name Mecadox. Pork is a good source of protein ,but protein can also be found in other meat, poultry, seafood, beans and peas, eggs, processed soy products, nuts and seeds. Pork liver is used to make liverwurst, hot dogs, lunch meat and some types of sausage, the agency said.

 Mecadox has been approved and sold in the United States for more than 40 years and is a widely-used treatment for controlling bacterial diseases. The FDA said it asked Phibro for additional information about the safety of carbadox, but the company has not submitted any proof that there is a safe way to use it The FDA’s actions follow a preliminary risk assessment conducted from 2012 to 2014 which found that the lifetime cancer risk from consuming pork liver containing carbadox residue is higher than allowed under the FDA’s framework for regulating carcinogenic animal drugs. Pork producers have become more interested in carbadox recently because it does not require a veterinarian’s prescription, according to John Goihl, president of Agri-Nutrition Services Inc, a Minnesota-based firm that provides feed formulations and consulting services to manufacturers and livestock producers. Three antibiotics made by Phibro contain carbadox: Mecadox Premix 10, Banminth/Mecadox; and Mecadox/Terramycin, the FDA said. Read more at http://newsdaily.com/2016/04/fda-to-revoke-pig-drug-approval-over-human-cancer-risk-concern/#x5mS4rHu5kyKUVSd.99

INFLUENZA D VIRUS.

Researchers have found antibodies to the newly discovered influenza D virus in pigs, cattle, horses, goats and sheep, but not poultry. A researcher has proven that the guinea pig can be used as an animal model and is developing a way to study the virus in living cells—trachea and lung epithelial cells from swine and cattle. To identify exposure to the virus, South Dakota State University doctoral student Chithra Sreenivasan tests blood samples for influenza D antibodies. Working with the Minnesota Poultry Testing Lab, she found no evidence of the new influenza strain in poultry; however, she did find antibodies to the virus in sheep and goats from the Midwest through blood samples archived at Washington State University. The virus has not been shown to be pathogenic in humans, the goal is to determine whether the virus can cause problems in humans.If the virus can undergo reassortment in combination with a closely related human influenza virus, it may be able to form a new strain that could pose more of a threat to humans. Using the bovine Influenza D strain, Sreenivasan proved that the guinea pig could be used as an animal model to study the virus. Though guinea pigs showed no symptoms, she successfully isolated antigens in tracheal and lung tissues. In addition, her research showed the virus is spread only through direct contact. Those results were published in the Journal of Virology, with Sreenivasan as the first author of the article. Influenza D has about 50 percent similarity to human influenza C. Human C affects mostly children, the most common symptom is a runny nose. It's not a serious disease as we all have some antibodies because we were infected as children. source; science daily.

SLEEP WELL!!! CONTROL YOUR BED WIITH A SMART PHONE.

In the never ending quest to connect everything to the internet, there's now a sofa that can be controlled from a smartphone. The Lift-Bit, developed by international design firm Carlo Ratti Associati, is claimed to be the "world's first" Internet of Things (IoT) sofa. The sofa is made up of a number of modular sections that can be moved around to creating different seating positions. The individual stools that make up the sofa are motorized allowing them to be raised and lowered. Lift-Bit is currently a prototype. It embeds a linear actuator, which is what allows the seats to move up and down.Each element of the module can be controlled via tablet as well as through a touch less gesture of your hand. A proximity capacity-based sensor detects a hand hovering above at different heights - permitting the change of the height. The stools themselves range from being 480mm tall to 780mm at their tallest. Lift-Bit's app includes a number of predetermined shapes and a tool allowing the owner to create new combinations.We just want people to be creative with it and start acting like designers of their own space. When nobody is using or moving the chairs, it will get bored and start to move on its own. Ratti, who also works at MIT, said future interior designers could make furniture that adapts to how humans use space. The design, he continued, could create "a living, tailored space" that is moulded to what people want and need. source; wired.co.uk