Category:
Weekly Update
Voters are concerned about how their food is produced and are actively using their votes to make changes. The most recent election cycle brought about another animal welfare voter initiative in California, Proposition 12, which establishes minimum space requirements based on square feet for calves raised for veal, breeding pigs, and egg-laying hens and bans the sale of products from operations that don’t meet the requirements.
The most recent romaine lettuce outbreak, which sickened 62 people in 16 states and the District of Columbia and caused nationwide warnings against any consumption of romaine lettuce, has been declared over by the Centers for Disease Control.
The traceback investigation pointed to farms in the central coast of California as the likely sources of the outbreak. The CDC found the outbreak strain of E. coli 0157:H7 in sediment collected within an agricultural water reservoir on one farm in Santa Barbara County, but the FDA is still investigating how the bacteria could have entered the reservoir, ways in which the romaine lettuce from the farm could have been contaminated, and potential other sources of the outbreak.
As the government shutdown continues into its third week with no end in sight, there is growing concern over the dangers and risks of the shutdown to public health.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has announced additional late season hunts due to the discovery of CWD in a wild deer in Houston County. Hunters will be required to bring in all carcasses to deer check stations for testing of the disease. The hunt includes areas around where the wild deer was caught this year as well as around a farmed cervid facility only nine miles away in Winona County that had deer test positive in 2017.
As the year draws to a close, it’s natural to look back and reflect. Last year was eventful on all fronts. In food safety, we saw repeated outbreaks of potentially deadly E.coli on US romaine lettuce and the largest ever Listeria outbreak.
The Board of Animal Health released a newsbyte on December 17th regarding the spread and impact of Asian longhorned ticks in the United States, an invasive species from Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
After much debate, diplomats from nearly 200 countries reached a deal on Saturday, December 15th in Katowice, Poland, to keep the Paris climate agreement alive by adopting a new set of rules.
The AVMA, alongside the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) and the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE), released a joint statement aiming to ensure veterinary oversight of antimicrobial use, mitigation of antimicrobial resistance, and the continuing availability of critical medications for both animal and human health.
With deer hunting season underway, there is mandatory and voluntary Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) surveillance testing in designated areas across Minnesota. A wild deer harvested in Houston County, southeast of Rochester, MN, reported a presumptive positive of CWD on November 17.