VETERINARY MEDICINE: Pet health insurance rising in popularity.

Pet health insurance rising in popularity. The 12-year-old was diagnosed with a tumor near her tail in August. Fortunately, Rita invested in pet insurance 8 years ago. "It is a relief it is an investment and a bit of a gamble as insurance usually is you could never see a return on it and for most insurance, you hope you don't," Orrell says. Insurance for dogs, cats and other pets is growing in popularity.

 Nearly 2 million pets were insured in 2016, up 15 percent from the prior year, but that's still just a fraction of the 144 million pets in America. Some Fortune 500 companies are now offering employees pet insurance as a work perk. "From their employee's point of view, pets have really become part of the family.

 Literally, over the last few years, pets have moved from the backyard to the bedroom," says Scott Liles, Vice President and Chief Pet Insurance Officer for Nationwide. If you have to buy a plan on your own it can cost more than $40 a month.

 They usually only cover accidents and illnesses, not wellness visits and vaccines. I understand that people may not be able to afford that," says Orrell. PetCure Oncologist Dr. Van Beven says insurance is vital when an animal is hit with a serious disease like cancer.

"Pesticides in produce linked to women not getting pregnant with IVF".

"Pesticides in produce linked to women not getting pregnant with IVF". A new study has found a potentially harmful link between eating fruits and vegetables high in pesticides and having lower reproductive rates. In the report, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, scientists studied 325 women who were using assisted reproductive technologies to get pregnant. They were part of the Environment and Reproductive Health (EARTH) study, which was designed to measure factors that can affect reproductive success. The women in the study filled out detailed questionnaires about their diet, along with other factors that can affect IVF outcomes, like their age, weight and history of pregnancy and live births. Senior investigator Dr. Jorge Chavarro, an associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and his colleagues then matched the dietary responses with a U.S. government database of average pesticide residues on fresh fruit and vegetables to calculate a measure of the amount of pesticides the women were exposed to from their diet. Certain fruits and vegetables, such as strawberries, spinach and peppers, tend to consistently rank high on pesticide residues, while others, like peas and avocados, rank lower. Women with high exposure were eating more than two servings of high-pesticide fruits or vegetables a day, compared to women in the lowest exposure group, who ate one serving of high pesticide fruits and vegetables daily on average. Women who had the highest pesticide exposure were 18% less likely to get pregnant than women with the lowest exposure, and 26% less likely to have a live birth.

FIIRO woos Unilever on R&D commercialization.

FIIRO woos Unilever on R&D commercialization.Consumer products giant, Unilever Plc and the Federal Institute for Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO) are poised to seal a bilateral agreement on commercialisation of some of the research products of the institute. This was disclosed when a technical team from Unilever Plc visited FIIRO office in Lagos. On the occasion, FIIRO Director-General Prof Gloria Elemo showed some of the researches to the delegation; saying the institute was well endowed to deliver at all time and that it was open to collaborations with Unilever in various areas. She called for collaboration on product development and commercialization, adding that the raw materials, crops and technical back-up for the exploitation of research results were available and in the right quantity and quality.

AfDB targets 513 million tonnes of food production by 2025.

AfDB targets 513 million tonnes of food production by 2025. The African Development Bank (AfDB)’s new initiative Technologies for African Agriculture initiative will produce 513 million tonnes of additional food across Africa. It will also lift nearly 250 million Africans out of poverty by 2025. A statement from the bank said 25 African countries have written letters, confirming their interest and readiness to participate in TAAT, and help transform their agriculture. TAAT, according to the bank, will support its Feed Africa Strategy for the continent to eliminate the current massive importation of food and transform its economies by targeting agriculture as a major source of economic diversification and wealth, as well as a powerful engine for job creation. The commodities value chains to benefit from this initiative are rice, cassava, pearl millet, sorghum, groundnut, cowpea, livestock, maize, soya bean, yam, cocoa, coffee, cashew, palm oil, horticulture, beans, wheat and fish. AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina, at a TAAT side event in Des Moines, Iowa, United States, said: “TAAT was born out of this major consultation and brings together global players in agriculture, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, World Food Programme, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, Rockefeller Foundation and national and regional agricultural research systems.

Solar-powered vehicles, tricycle launched in Nigeria.

Solar-powered vehicles, tricycle launched in Nigeria. The days of being terribly drenched by rain while commuting on tricycle seem to have gone after the launch of Solar-powered and Electrical four and three-wheel vehicles in Nigeria. 

 The innovation aimed at enhancing transportation in Nigeria is in compliance with the United Nations struggle to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 13 on Climate action, officially known as Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

 This the Osun State Chairman of Tricycle Owners Association of Nigeria (TOAN), Adewale Folorunsho observed in saying: “It is clean and non-polluting with zero emissions.” “This is a very good innovation. We will be using the sun to make money now and not just fuel. It’s perfect for our country and environment,” 

Folorunsho noted.The technology was launched by a Nigeria-based company, Oldang International Limited at the Lekki Conservation Centre. 

 Speaking at the launch, Oldang Managing Director, Olubunmi Oluwadare said that the aim of this innovation and introduction to Nigeria is to create solution in transportation and also jobs through decent transportation system

 “Oldang electric solar-powered vehicle is a dual-powered vehicle it uses both electricity and solar, it enjoys a continuous charging when on the move through the abundant sun ray in our country and store such power in the battery in a situation of continuous rain or change in climax power can be stored with either PHCN and Generator. 

 “Solar-powered tricycles are vehicles of the future as individual get to know the negative impact of fossil fuels on the environment, health.

 It also serves as a source of job creation to non-operators of the tricycle.” Solar-powered vehicles, tricycle launched in Nigeria.

Florida resident bitten by a bat dies of rabies.

Florida resident bitten by a bat dies of rabies.Health officials say a Florida resident who was bitten by a bat has died of rabies. Florida Department of Health spokeswoman Mara Gambineri tells Orlando TV station WKMG the victim didn’t seek treatment. She didn’t identify the victim, who lived in Highlands County in southwest Florida, or say when the bite occurred or when the victim died. She says it’s important to avoid direct contact with wildlife. Gambineri says it’s important for bite victims to receive treatment as soon as possible, adding that untreated rabies can cause a nearly 100 percent fatal illness in humans. Health officials say the main wildlife sources of rabies in Florida are raccoons and bats. Outside cats are by far the most common domestic animal found to have rabies in the state of Florida because they are often not kept up to date on vaccinations.

How to reduce noise, stress during broiler harvesting.

How to reduce noise, stress during broiler harvesting.Adopting gentler, yet efficient method for chicken capture can reduce birds’ stress levels, giving a higher-quality processed bird. The standard methods for capture and caging of broilers pre-slaughter, and the loading and unloading of the chickens at the farm and the slaughterhouse are noisy. This results in chickens experiencing stress, which can affect the final quality of the processed bird. #poultry Among factors contributing to this stress is the use of motorized equipment, such as forklift trucks. Forklift trucks raise noise levels, and this is particularly the case when used in closed poultry houses. The harmful effects on broilers of raised noise levels are an increase in blood flow to the thighs which is a physiological response designed to help chickens escape from the source of stress. While the birds may relax on the way to the processing plant, on arrival they are usually unloaded by forklift trucks, with a consequent increase in noise, and so the “flight” response reoccurs, and blood is pumped to the wings and legs.#poultry If there is a delay pre-slaughter, blood will be pumped away from the extremities, alleviating this problem. However, when birds leave the plucker, there may still be a slight pink color to the thighs and wings. While in many plants, this is considered unimportant, in others it is deemed a quality issue and birds cannot be classified as Grade A. #Poultry There is, however, an alternative to the traditional method of harvesting birds that does not rely on the use of forklift trucks with their associated noise, and results in less stress for the broilers. A quieter harvesting method The alternative approach to harvesting has three main elements: A retractable hydraulic arm ending in a fork, similar to that of a forklift truck. A track system of metal pipes with connections that do not impede the movement of cages or pallets that will move over them. Two winches, one used to deliver cages at the start of the track system and the other at its end.