Cuts at Wildlife Unit 'Will Not Hit Health', According to DEFRA
Farmers Weekly - fwi.co.uk
3 Nov 2006
DEFRA has rejected claims that it is compromising public and wildlife health by making 19 redundancies at its Wildlife Unit. The staff affected had been employed as field operatives in the Randomised Badger Culling Trial, employed to trap and humanely dispatch badgers in the trial areas.
Recently, a number had also carried out wild bird collection as part of DEFRA's surveillance work for avian flu. The Public and Commercial Services Union had suggested that the loss of these staff would jeopardise efforts to monitor for the disease. Helen Ghosh, DEFRA permanent secretary, said: "We have worked hard to try to redeploy the staff involved and offered them substantial voluntary redundancy packages.
Anthrax, Livestock - Australia (New South Wales)- Archive Number 20061106.3187
International Society for Infectious Diseases - ProMED-Mail
6 Nov 2006
New South Wales (NSW) has had 2 recent cases of anthrax, which have involved very few stock losses. The 1st involved the loss of only one steer, and the 2nd involved the loss of 2 lambs. Both cases occurred in the known anthrax belt area of NSW, where there are routinely approximately 4 cases per annum.
Both cases were treated in accordance with policy. This means that the dead stock were burnt, and all in-contact animals were vaccinated. No further losses occurred on these properties.
In Vitro Work Raises Hopes for Wood Bison: Team of Canadian Scientists Seeking to Create a Strain Free of Disease
globeandmail.com
7 Nov 2006
Dawn Walton
Wood bison have had their habitat destroyed, been hunted to the edge of extinction and been infected with debilitating diseases. Now Canadian researchers are hoping to use modern-day reproductive technologies to create test-tube bison in an attempt to turn back the clock for the country's largest land mammal.
In a groundbreaking experiment, scientists recently salvaged testes and ovaries from bison in the Northwest Territories, which were sent to slaughter. The animals were sick, but their genetic material is disease-free and a boon to scientists desperate to maintain diversity in dwindling bison bloodlines.
USAHA and University of Wyoming Release the Laramie Agenda, "A Report on Research Needs for Elimination of Brucellosis in Free-Ranging Elk and Bison" [Press Release]
USAHA News
14 Sep 2006
The United States Animal Health Association (USAHA) and the University of Wyoming announced the availability of the Technical Report and accompanying Laramie Agenda that document the findings of a three-day working symposium held a year ago at the University on August 16-18, 2005.
Scientific experts invited to the working symposium addressed the research needs for vaccines, vaccine delivery systems and diagnostic tools for use in addressing the problem of brucellosis in elk and bison. "The nation is at a crossroads regarding this issue (brucellosis)," said USAHA Immediate Past President Rick Willer, who appointed the special committee that planned the working symposium.
No comments:
Post a Comment