Local
Flooding Causes Farm Lagoon Overflows
Both locally and around the country, water contamination due to flooding disasters is a large concern. In Northwestern Iowa, heavy rains have caused the wastewater management systems in 18 counties and 26 livestock operations to overflow. In North Carolina, due to Hurricane Florence, at least 50 lagoons at swine facilities overflowed, with at least 2 failing completely and just themselves releasing over 7 million gallons of untreated waste into waterways.
Most farms in Iowa had a national pollution prevention discharge elimination system permit, which allows them to overflow in heavy rains. Hog farms in North Carolina were forced to better manage their hog lagoons after Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Now, most have their lagoons pumped down to the lowest levels by hurricane season.
Mark Rice, director of the animal and poultry waste management center at North Carolina State University, says, "What actually overflows is more dilute than what it would have been without the rain, and then with everything else that's coming down the river it will get assimilated into the ecosystem one way or another."
Nonetheless, amidst the threat of serious bacterial contamination the EPA has shut down drinking water in several communities in North Carolina until further testing can be performed, and Iowa’s DNR has urged citizens to stay out of floodwaters. Furthermore, crops and commodities exposed to floodwaters will not be allowed into human food channels unless they pass additional tests.
Minnesota Ag Connection
National Public Radio
National
New Bioterrorism Defense Strategy
Last week, the Trump administration released a new National Bioterrorism Defense Strategy, giving the Department of Health and Human Services the coordinating lead and creating a cabinet level bioterrorism defense steering committee.
Officials say the new strategy covers deliberate attacks, accidental releases, and naturally occurring biological threats and builds on lessons learned from recent outbreaks, including the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak, the H1N1 flu pandemic, and the 2001 Anthrax attacks. Leaders from every federal department involved in biodefense will be part of the steering committee.
Robert Kadlec, the Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response, called the plan’s coordination of federal activities and budgets “a monumental step forward.” Officials claim having one agency head up the plan will improve accountability and effectiveness.
Homeland Security News Wire
CBS News
International
More Evidence of Problems with Bias in Research Coming to Light
Scientists are increasingly concerned that the drive to publish only exciting results is compromising the integrity of research due to accumulating evidence of concerning trends in the research that reaches publication.
A recent study in Psychological Medicine looked at 105 antidepressant clinical trial studies. About half were considered positive by the FDA, and of those 98% were published. Only 48% of the negative results were published.
In addition, for the 25 published negative results, 10 were reported by the researchers as having a positive outcome because the researchers switched a positive secondary finding with the negative primary finding or didn’t report the negative finding. A further 11 negative results were spun by the researchers to make statistically nonsignificant results seem like a positive result by only talking about the numbers or referencing a trend.
Another study found that clinicians were more likely to think treatments were beneficial even if the study was negative if the abstract had a positive spin. Positive studies were cited 3 times more than negative studies.
The problem isn’t limited to the United States. A 2004 JAMA study that reviewed a sample of over 100 studies approved by a scientific-ethical committee had similar findings. Science needs to be better about replicating studies to confirm results, encouraging publication and respect for negative results, and ensuring that researchers report their findings in a manner consistent with the findings and the original purpose of the study.
Questions, comments, feedback about today's Weekly Update? Please email Dr. James Kincheloe
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James Kincheloe
James received his DVM from the University of California, Davis. He has worked as a herd veterinarian for dairy cows and a small animal veterinarian in California. Jim is interested in agricultural and infectious disease policy, and has collaborated on domestic and international projects across the public health spectrum.