Bird flu strikes a veterinarian in cat shelter in New York.

A vet at a New York City animal shelter where cats were infected with a strain of bird flu has also been infected. Although the vet only had mild illness from the virus which was short lived and has resolved completely. The bird flu strain affecting cats in the New York shelter was reported earlier here and the twist to the story is that bird flu rarely infects cats but this strain defiled that and the same strain also infected the veterinarian who had been testing the sick cats, giving him prolonged contact with them. People can and do catch flu from animals — and vice-versa. Pigs commonly both catch flu from people and transmit it. The ongoing occasional human cases of H5N1 bird flu and H7N2 bird flu are traced to poultry markets. The influenza virus is of public health concern because of the ability to mutate and possibility of re-assortment between animal flu and human flu producing a new strain that can be extremely dangerous,although this H7N2 has not recombined . Vets, doctors and other scientists keep an eye on bird flu because it can and does spread to people and has the potential to cause epidemics. So far, H7N2 hasn't. It has only ever infected a few people. . more

Toddler dies from organ failure after being fed raw milk by his naturopathic parents.

According to a coroner in Victoria, Australia, a three-year-old’s death from organ failure was most likely due to his parents allowing him to consume raw, unpasteurized “bath milk.”The Guardian reports that the boy was placed on a “gluten-free and organic diet” in the summer of 2014 under the advice of a naturopathic doctor. The boy’s parents regularly consumed “Mountain View Organic Bath Milk,” which is distinctly labeled “not for human consumption.” As the coroner discovered, the parents sometimes added a small amount to the boy’s drinks. Health officials warn that unpasteurized milk contains pathogens such as campylobacter, cryptosporidium, shiga toxin-producing E coli and listeria.more The consumption of raw milk is deadly and should be avoided, read

Food waste and climate change.

Food waste as insignificant as it may seem,it takes its toll on the environment.Food waste in land fills,contribute to methane emissions heating up the environment. food waste, basically are food that are thrown away before or after it spoils. There are various factors that influence food waste such as 1) color, especially farm produce when individual preferences leads to dumping food even whenits not bad. 2) shape so many throw food away because they believe its shape is not conforming although the food is good. 3) food waste arise largely from taste disparity,many actually buy food expecting it to taste a particular way,and if the taste is not what they imagined,its tossed. Food waste arising from spoilage ,handling and storage problems are major factors at play here but irrespective of how or why the food got in the bin,its warming up the atmosphere. Methane emission generated from food in land fills are contributing to climate change. Methane is about 27 times more potent than carbon at trapping heat. Data has shown that greenhouse gas emissions related to the food supply quadrupled during the last 50 years.

Disease management on farms.

Raising livestock comes with it challenges that must be managed to prevent death of animals and eventual closure of farms. Diseases do spring up at a point in the course of production due to inadequate preventive protocols or not conforming to bio security measures. A healthy animal is a happy animal and also a profitable one. The raising of healthy animals is the goal of every farmer There are measures and protocols that farmers can adopt to make sure that animals are healthy and hygiene is optimal to production. 1) limit exposure to stress; stressors could be heat,cold,inadequate feeding and management practices such as vaccination,castration,debeaking and teeth clipping.Stress is a killer and stress animals are very susceptible to infection,thus preventive measures must be put in place. 2) bio security measure must be tailored according to farm requirement and followed strictly. 3) Hygiene is pivotal to disease management in the farm,cleaning,washing and disinfection of farm tools,implements are important.Waste disposal is an integral part of hygiene,the way waste is handled and managed has an overall effect on disease management on farm. Removal of waste promptly from farm to dump site or incinerator or biogas chamber all addresses level of hygiene on the farm. 4) Animals that are sick on farms must be isolated to prevent animal-animal contact or contamination of feeder,drinker or bedding with secretions such as nasal,oral or fecal .Some animals often shed infective organism in various secretions making them sources of infection for other animals. Animal-animal contact if limited will reduce spread of infection on the farm.

CDC identifies bacteria that killed 3 who ate church meal.

A Thanksgiving Day meal served by a church group in Antioch, CA, that killed three people was evidently contaminated with the bacteria Clostridium perfringens. Clostridium perfringens is one of the most common food borne illnesses in the U.S. It can be found in the human intestine without hurting us, but eating food containing large amounts of this bacteria can cause illness and in some cases death . The bacteria is commonly found in meat and poultry, but thorough cooking kills it. However, extremely small amounts of it can survive on utensils and surfaces and cross contaminate cooked foods. It multiplies very quickly when foods are left at room temperature. “During cooling and holding of food at temperatures from 54 F to 140 F, the spores germinate and then the bacteria grow. … If the food is served without reheating to kill the bacteria, live bacteria may be eaten. The bacteria produce a toxin inside the intestine that causes illness,” according to the CDC. Foods that have dangerous bacteria in them may not taste, smell, or look different. Any food that has been left out too long may be dangerous to eat, even if it looks okay.To prevent the growth of Clostridium perfringens spores that might be in food after cooking beef, poultry, gravies, and other foods commonly associated with Clostridium perfringens infections should be kept at a temperature that is either warmer than 140 F or cooler than 41 F.more

Emerging business opportunities in dairy farming.

The dairy market in Nigeria is wide with an exponential growth with increasing population. Nigeria is one of the the biggest markets for milk consumption as evidenced by the numbers of foreign players in the sector in the country.

 The annual demand of milk consumption in Nigeria is estimated at 1.7 million metric tons while importation value is placed at 1.2 million metric tons,showing that local production accounts for only about 30% of the demand.

 The need to bridge this gap has prompted many farmers to sort out ways to boost local milk production,the need to increase locally produced milk is further championed by the government's directive that 10% of the milk should be sourced locally.

 The dairy industry is plagued by the following constraints and if these are addressed they production capacity will be so high that export will be possible.

There production of other by-products such as cheese,butter and yogurt will be increased such that these can also be exported to generate forex. The number one constraint is the breed available in the country,these indigenous breeds are not producing enough milk compared to exotic breeds.

Dairy farming is multi factorial relying on several factors to be a success. The success of dairy is connected to breeds,feeding and management practice. When cows are not fed adequate ration and management style is free range,such production style is flawed as the cows cannot thrive and hence cant produce enough milk.

 Nutrition is key,without a balanced ration,milk production will be low. The management aspect can be traced to breeding, if heat season is missed,or cows are infertile because of one disease or the other,then no pregnancy,no calving and no milk.

 When cows are mated and the calving is monitored,if calf management is not part of farm practice then calves will be left with dams which invariably will reduce milk yield from the farm as dams will be nursing the calves with milk meant for commercial purposes.

 The revamping of the industry will be facilitated by 1) introduction of exotic breeds to improve our breed-lines and expand milk production. The white Fulani is known to produce about 10 liters of milk a day as against the Holstein-Friesian with a capacity of about 30-50 liters a day.

 Breeding with exotic bulls promotes more production and even more calving rates on farm. Artificial insemination is the method used in various countries to improve their breeds,this is also practiced on some farms in Nigeria but the percentage is small such that impact is invisible.

2) Education on improved feeding techniques and management practices will also increase yield and productivity of herd,especially adoption of zero-grazing will turn the scale as it will improve and increase yield.

 The training on production and innovative branding of by-products will also generate more revenue and make more dairy products available and accessible to citizens as well as export options.The ever increasing population with more demand for dairy and dairy products makes this agribusiness a profitable venture.

Artificial leaf acts as mini-factory for drugs.

A research by Eindhoven University of Technology have come up with a super innovation where artificial leaves mimic natural counterparts to act as mini factory for drug .A 'mini-factory' whereby sunlight can be captured to make chemical products was inspired by the art of nature where leaves are able to collect enough sunlight to produce food. The study reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie,show chemical engineers at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) describe their prototype reactor. Chemical engineers have always toyed with the idea of Using sunlight to make chemical products but problem then was that available sunlight generates too little energy to kick off reactions. Nature is able to do this, antenna molecules in leaves capture energy from sunlight and collect it in the reaction centers of the leaf where enough solar energy is present for the chemical reactions that give the plant its food . The use of new materials, known as luminescent solar concentrators (LSC's), that are able to capture sunlight in a similar way as leaves gave the desired result. The special light-sensitive molecules in these materials capture a large amount of the incoming light that they then convert into a specific color that is conducted to the edges via light conductivity. These LSC's are often used in practice in combination with solar cells to boost the yield. The researchers, led by Dr. Timothy Noël, combined the idea of an LSC with their knowledge of microchannels, incorporating very thin channels in a silicon rubber LSC through which a liquid can be pumped. In this way they were able to bring the incoming sunlight into contact with the molecules in the liquid with high enough intensity to generate chemical reactions.