ANIMALNET AUGUST 4, 2002
Food Safety Network golf tournament and dinner social
Safety features around liquid manure storages
Half Europe's seals to die due to virus-scientist
DNR widens deer kill zone as new wasting disease cases found
Project to tail deer in wasting disease area: researchers will use radio
collars to plot movements of scores of whitetails
Animal activists call for end to dog meat sales in China ParknShop stores
Invasive species are a problem
AnimalNet is produced by the Food Safety Network at the University of
Guelph, and is supported by OMAFRA, AgCare, Council for Biotechnology
Information, Health Canada, ConAgra Foods Inc., National Pork Board,
Canadian Animal Health Institute, Ontario Pork, National Cattlemen's Beef
Association, McDonald's, Pharmacia Animal Health, National Turkey
Federation, Alberta Agriculture (Livestock Development Division), Ontario
Farm Animal Council, Adculture Group, Inc., Canadian Turkey Marketing
Agency, National Food Processors Association, Canadian Livestock Genetics
Association, Saskatchewan Nutraceutical Network, Heifer International,
Urbana Veterinary Clinic, Saugeen River Farm and the Agricultural Adaptation
Council (CanAdapt Program).
archived at:
http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/safefood/archives/animalnet-archives.htm
FOOD SAFETY NETWORK GOLF TOURNAMENT AND DINNER SOCIAL
The first annual Food Safety Network golf tournament and dinner social will
be held on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2002, in conjunction with the
federal-provincial food safety meeting and prior to the official opening of
the Canadian Research Institute for Food Safety. Foursomes will tee-off at 2
p.m. in a best-ball format at the Victoria Park West golf course in majestic
Guelph, Ont., followed by drinks, dinner and door prizes.
The invitation is open to any and all, including conference attendees.
Cost for golf and dinner: $50
Please RSVP to Doug Powell at dpowell@uoguelph.ca by September 1, 2002
Please make cheques payable to the University of Guelph, and mail to
Doug Powell
Dept of Plant Agriculture
University of Guelph
Guelph, ON N1G 2W1
Map to golf course available at
http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/golfinvite.htm
SAFETY FEATURES AROUND LIQUID MANURE STORAGES
May 2002
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food
The factsheet is available at:
http://www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/livestock/swine/facts/02-007.htm
HALF EUROPE'S SEALS TO DIE DUE TO VIRUS-SCIENTIST
August 2, 2002
Reuters
TJORN, Sweden - Tero Harkonen, who leads the Swedish research team studying
the current epidemic, was cited as saying 20,000 seals, around half the seal
population of Western Europe, are expected to die from a virus raging in the
seas between southern Sweden and the Dutch coast.
The story says that the phocine distemper virus (PDV), which is currently
taking most of its toll among harbor seals in the straits of Kattegat and
Skagerrak that separate Denmark from Sweden, resembles a similar plague
which 14 years ago wiped out half of West Europe's seal population.
So far 2,500 dead seals have been found in the water between Sweden and
Denmark, and the epidemic is expected to spread to the Wadden Sea area of
the Netherlands and the German coast where only 180 dead animals have been
found up to now, Harkonen told Reuters.
But the virus was expected to fade out by the beginning of October and would
probably not spread to the British Isles as it did during the 1988 epidemic.
DNR WIDENS DEER KILL ZONE AS NEW WASTING DISEASE CASES FOUND
August 3, 2002
Journal Sentinel
Lee Bergquist
Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/aug02/63606.asp
Six new cases of chronic wasting disease have, according to this story, been
discovered in Wisconsin, prompting officials on Friday to widen a special
zone west of Madison by nearly 4% for an unprecedented killing of the entire
deer population.
The story says that the latest finding brings to 24 the number of deer
reported to have contracted the fatal brain disease, according to the state
Department of Natural Resources.
The agency reported that six of 261 deer that were killed during a special
summer shoot, June 8 to 14, tested positive for disease.
Two of the deer were killed in locations close to the boundary of the
current zone. That prompted the DNR to widen the zone by 13 square miles.
The DNR strategy calls for a 4-mile buffer zone around the area where each
infected deer was killed.
That means that wildlife officials are aiming to wipe out the entire deer
population - 25,000 deer - in a 374-square-mile region in parts of Dane,
Iowa and Sauk counties as the centerpiece of their strategy to control the
first outbreak of the disease east of the Mississippi River.
Tom Hauge, the DNR's point man on chronic wasting disease, was cited as
saying he was not surprised by the latest results, and that he expects to
get more cases from the second summer shoot in July when 339 deer were
killed, and during the next shooting periods - Aug. 10 to 16 and Sept. 7 to
13, adding, "There is no debate anymore that this area is infected with
CWD."
The carcasses are being burned at an incineration plant in Poynette.
Thus far, all of Wisconsin's testing has been in the area where the three
deer were killed last fall.
The DNR plans to test 40,000 to 50,000 deer during this fall's hunting
season, including testing about 500 deer from almost every county in
Wisconsin.
PROJECT TO TAIL DEER IN WASTING DISEASE AREA: RESEARCHERS WILL USE RADIO
COLLARS TO PLOT MOVEMENTS OF SCORES OF WHITETAILS
August 4, 2002
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Meg Jones
Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/aug02/63926.asp
Like a scene out of a James Bond movie, as many as 100 whitetail deer in the
chronic wasting disease zone will soon, according to this story, sport radio
collars emitting signals as humans armed with GPS units, transmitters and
compasses stalk them through the countryside.
The story says that the aim of the project is to plot the movement of
whitetail deer in the area near Mount Horeb where 24 deer have tested
positive for the deadly ailment.
Scientists need to know how far bucks and does travel, how much they
interact with each other in social groups and how efforts to kill every deer
in the chronic wasting disease zone will affect habitat and other animals,
such as predators.
They also want to know whether the disease is more prevalent by age or
gender and whether the genetics of some deer make them less prone to
infection.
Timothy Van Deelen, a state Department of Natural Resources research
biologist based in Rhinelander, was cited as saying high on the list to
watch are yearling bucks - called long distance dispersers - which are
leaving their family groups now and may be roaming 10 or 12 miles in any
direction, adding, "The long distance dispersers worry you from a disease
perspective because it means that instead of the disease acting like a drop
in the bucket that sort of radiates slowly, the disease may act as a forest
fire that sends out sparks."
Critics of the DNR's plan to wipe out the deer herd in the chronic wasting
disease eradication zone contend that the animals will simply flee. Jerry
Bartelt, chief of the DNR's wildlife and forestry research section, was
cited as saying research will reveal whether that's true, adding, "Some
people have said, 'They're just going to move out of the zone if we hunt
them. You'll just end up spreading the disease.' We want some good data on
that. All the research suggests they'll stay there and not move out of their
range."
The story says that through a combination of state and federal funding, the
initial costs for equipment and labor are expected to be $200,000 this year
with annual costs projected at $500,000, Bartelt said. The research project
is expected to last at least five years.
While there's been much research using radio telemetry collars on deer - the
animals have been tracked since the 1960s - none of the research focused on
the rare situation facing authorities grappling with chronic wasting disease
in Wisconsin. Whitetail deer here are much more dense than in other states,
such as Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, where chronic wasting disease has
been found.
Compared with western states, whitetail deer are hunted in much higher
numbers in Wisconsin. Last year about 445,000 deer were killed by hunters
here.
ANIMAL ACTIVISTS CALL FOR END TO DOG MEAT SALES IN CHINA PARKNSHOP STORES
August 4, 2002
Agence France Presse English
HONG KONG - Animal rights activists on Sunday were cited as urging Hong
Kong-based supermarket chain ParknShop to halts sales of dog meat for human
consumption at its outlets in mainland China.
The story says that the founder of Animal Asia Foundation, Jill Robinson,
called for the chain to immediately stop selling dog flesh in China, where
it is considered by Chinese consumers to be an aphrodisiac.
However, a spokeswoman for ParknShop which operates 170 outlets in Hong Kong
and 20 in China, including the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, was cited
as saying the sale of dog meat on the mainland was legal and was offered by
its competitors.
She told the Sunday Morning Post that dog meat offered by the supermarket
was sourced from a "licensed and reliable supplier" but declined to give
their identity or provide details of the methods used to slaughter the dogs.
However, Robinson pointed to earlier comments from the Agriculture,
Fisheries and Conservation Department which stated no awareness of the
existence of any humane method to slaughter dogs en masse for food.
INVASIVE SPECIES ARE A PROBLEM
August 4, 2002
The Ottawa Citizen
A13
Herb Gray, Chairman, Canadian section, International Joint Commission,
Ottawa, writes regarding, Can a Frankenfish outlast the killer bees and
zebra mussels? July 5, to say that while he enjoyed columnist Susan Riley's
humorous comments, the reality is that 162 non-native aquatic species have
been found to date within the Great Lakes basin. There are serious
environmental and economic consequences associated with each such
introduction.
The International Joint Commission's International Great Lakes Water Quality
Board, composed of expert scientists from Canada and the United States,
stated the following in a May 2001 report entitled "Alien Invasive Species
and Biological Pollution of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem":
"The Great Lakes have been invaded by a succession of non-indigenous aquatic
species, displacing important native species, interfering with beneficial
human water uses and costing billions of dollars to control. Sources of
alien invasive species to the Great Lakes basin include aquaculture, escapes
from aquaria, ornamental ponds, research and educational facilities, canal
and diversion water flows, and release of live bait."
Because of these deleterious impacts, the IJC recently called upon the U.S.
and Canadian governments to take action to prevent the Asiatic carp from
moving from the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers into the Great Lakes.
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For more information about the AnimalNet research program, please contact:
Dr. Douglas Powell
dept. of plant agriculture
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ont.
N1G 2W1
tel: 519-824-4120 x2506
fax: 519-763-8933
dpowell@uoguelph.ca
http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu
archived at:
http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/safefood/archives/animalnet-archives.htm