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Food safety

Smithfield Foods announced this weekend that it will close its Sioux Falls, South Dakota pork processing plant indefinitely, following the recommendations of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.

Federal officials still cannot say for sure where the blackberries, associated with a Hepatitis A outbreak leading to 20 lab confirm cases, came from. More than half of the 20 cases have required hospitalization according to the CDC.

Iowa submitted a proposed hemp production program to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for approval on December 11, 2019, paving the way for legal hemp production in the state.

A bat found in a Benton County parking lot tested positive for rabies, according to the Minnesota Board of Animal Health. A man and his son found the bat between two parked cars in an apartment parking lot on Dec. 23 and brought it to a local wildlife rehabilitation center.

A hepatitis A virus outbreak has affected 14 people across five Midwestern states, including Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.

How do Minnesota oysters sound? Well, new research led by the Duluth-based Minnesota Sea Grant is studying whether sustainable aquaculture is feasible in the Great Lakes region. The team aim to answer the questions, “Can we do aquaculture well? Should we do it at all? And if yes to those two questions, how do we do it right?” said spokesperson Marie Thoms.

Several state health departments, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are investigating a multi-state outbreak of Salmonella. The multidrug resistant outbreak strains include Cerro, Derby, London, Infantis, Newport, Rissen. 143 people were infected in 35 states, including Minnesota, and investigators linked the infection to pig ear dog treats.

Water is the world’s most valuable resource, but 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to water. On August 26, The United Nations announced that by 2025, nearly two billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity and average supply of water per person will drop by a third in the next two decades.

Grouse hunters in northern Minnesota were asked to collect samples for a West Nile virus research project with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The main objective of the mission was to determine the impact of West Nile virus on ruffed grouse populations.