USDA Needs Tighter Oversight On Bovine Tuberculosis –Audit Federal officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture needs to pay closer attention to state surveillance reports on bovine tuberculosis in order to achieve success in wiping out the a contagious cattle disease, according to an audit performed by USDA's Office of the Inspector General. OIG auditors said USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or Aphis, "was not using its oversight tools timely or effectively" during a review conducted in 2004. State agriculture officials, OIG said, routinely document surveillance efforts for the disease, but "monthly reports were not being reviewed by the national or regional offices." Aphis Administrator Ron DeHaven, in an official response to the audit, pledged to set up new procedures to review state surveillance reports by the end of 2006. USDA's federal inspectors also often miss finding infections by concentrating on spotting the disease at slaughterhouses but not tracking the disease back to herds the cattle came from....
Brazil Beef Wants US Model For Foot-Mouth Fight The president of the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association, Marcus Vinicius Pratini de Moraes, said Brazil can only fight foot-and-mouth disease in partnership with neighboring countries, business daily Valor Economica reported Wednesday. Moraes was speaking Tuesday to the European press at the SIAL 2006 food exhibition in Paris. "The idea is to adopt the same model the U.S. used to control foot-and-mouth disease on their border with Mexico," Moraes told Valor. "It's no use for us to maintain rigid control in Brazil if we risk getting our herds contaminated by herds in neighboring countries," he said. The last major outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease occurred on the border of Brazil and Paraguay. Dozens of cattle herds in Mato Grosso do Sul state, located on the Paraguay border, had full-blown symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease. Fifty-six nations soon banned beef from Mato Grosso do Sul and other states as a result....
AAEP Task Force Issues Guidelines for Equine Infectious Disease Outbreaks The Infectious Disease Task Force of the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) has developed guidelines for the control of contagious infectious disease within the horse population. Recommendations are provided for the control of suspected cases of infectious respiratory, neurologic, diarrheal, and vesicular disease. The symptom-based guidelines provide a detailed action plan for veterinarians as they address a possible infectious disease outbreak. From the point at which a case of infectious disease is suspected, the guidelines offer measures to control the spread of infection, diagnostic testing options and communication considerations. Highlights of "Equine Infectious Disease Outbreak: AAEP Control Guidelines" include: Biosecurity instructions in English and Spanish for grooms and other horse caretakers; Recommendations for the implementation of a management plan before an outbreak occurs; and Guidelines for specific diseases, such as equine herpesvirus and Strep. equi infection, which can be employed after a diagnosis has been made. The task force stresses that the veterinarian on scene is the most qualified person to initiate the outbreak control plan, and is critical to effective outbreak management. Each infectious disease outbreak is unique and an existing plan may require modification for specific situations....
USDA's Knight promises to make animal ID more appealing to producers Bruce Knight, who moved up from Chief of USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service to become USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs in August, is promising to make the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) more appealing to the nation's livestock producers. And Knight told Brownfield he's closely scrutinized the NAIS since he took the under secretary position. "I've been taking a hard look at the program, basically took it all the way down to the frame and rebuilding, trying to make it simpler, make it more evident of what it's all about, trying to dispel some of the misinformation and rumor and innuendo that's been associated with it," Knight said. "I think the most important thing for everybody to recognize is this is a voluntary program." Knight said one the keys to improving producer support for the NAIS is assuring confidentiality of producer data. Knight said confidentiality of producer data remains a primary concern about the NAIS, and he promised he will aggressively move to tighten rules on confidentiality within the NAIS....
Pennsylvania's Animal Health Database System Offered Nationally Pennsylvania's award-winning animal health database system has become a national model for use by other states, the Department of Agriculture said today. Launched this week at the U.S. Animal Health Association annual meeting in Minneapolis, the U.S. Animal Health Emergency Response and Diagnostic System (USAHERDS) is the national version of PAHERDS, Pennsylvania's innovative program to protect millions of livestock and poultry flocks from the outbreak of disease. Indiana and Kentucky were the first to adopt the technology and entered into a new partnership with Pennsylvania to work together to better protect the health of animals and consumers. USAHERDS is a computerized data program available to state departments of agriculture, which helps to prevent, detect, contain and eradicate outbreaks of dangerous diseases among animals. Key features of the system includes premises identification, animal testing and inventory, program disease management, import and export management, licensing, and emergency response management. Consortium members are using the systems for emergency planning, daily operations and mapping....
Russia To Lift Ban On Canada Breeding Cattle Russia has agreed to lift its ban on the import of Canadian breeding cattle, according to a release from Chuck Strahl, Canada's Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister. Following discussions between senior officials from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, representatives of the Canadian genetics and meat sectors and Russian Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev, Canada and the Russian Federation have agreed on imports of Canadian breeding cattle, the release said. The Russian Federation has also indicated that it intends to lift its ban on the importation of certain boneless beef products, subject to final approval of technical conditions. Russian officials will visit Canada to approve beef plants and shipments of live cattle....
Japan to OK customs clearance for stored U.S. beef The Japanese government is poised to give its permission soon to customs clearance for some 900 tons of U.S. beef that has been stored in bonded warehouses since January, government sources said Saturday. The beef arrived in Japan after the country eased its all-out import ban on U.S. beef on Dec. 12, 2005. But customs procedures for the meat have been suspended since Tokyo slapped a total import ban again on Jan. 20 this year due to the discovery of cow parts with high risks of mad cow disease infection in a veal shipment from the United States. The second ban was partially lifted July 27 as the government found few problems with meat processing at related U.S. facilities through its on-the-spot inspections. The government plans to approve customs clearance for the stored beef if no problem is found through its inspections, the sources said....
Groups: Halt elk test-and-slaughter A trio of conservation groups asked a federal judge Thursday to halt a year-old test-and-slaughter brucellosis program on elk feedgrounds in western Wyoming. A lawyer representing the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and the Wyoming Outdoor Council also asked U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson to require an environmental review of the program and 12 elk feedgrounds. Lawyers for the groups and the government made their arguments during a two-hour hearing in U.S. District Court here. Johnson took the case under advisement, with no signal of when he might announce a decision. The feedgrounds have drawn criticism for their potential to breed disease -- brucellosis already infects the herds, and environmentalists insist that chronic wasting disease could eventually have a devastating effect. Lawyers for the state and federal governments countered that a sudden halt to the test-and-slaughter program could jeopardize Wyoming's newly regained brucellosis-free status. And they said Wyoming has the legal right to manage its wildlife without federal review....