AnimalNet May 15/06 -- II
Indonesia
probes bird flu cluster
Meat and
related products from Brasov seized from stores
IBM to help
track spread of bird flu
Electronic
tagging of cattle to prevent disease outbreaks tested
how to subscribe
Indonesia
probes bird flu cluster
May 15, 2006
Reuters
JAKARTA -- Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono was cited as saying on Monday
Indonesia is investigating an outbreak of H5NI bird flu in up to eight members
of a North Sumatran family, six of whom have died, but that the deadly virus had
not yet been found in local poultry, which is normally the source for infections
in humans.
In Geneva, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was following the case
closely because of the possibility of human-to-human infection.
Meat
and related products from Brasov seized from stores
May 15, 2006
Bucharest Daily News (Romania)
Alecs Iancu
http://www.daily-news.ro/article_detail.php?idarticle=26322
Authorities are on a frantic search in stores and hypermarkets around the
country for poultry meat from the chicken farm where bird flu was reported, and
have already seized tons of meat from Bucharest and other towns.
Bucharest sanitary-veterinary inspectors seized more than four tons of poultry
meat that was for sale in two hypermarkets, as the meat came from a chicken farm
in Codlea, Brasov County, where bird flu was reported, an official from the
local veterinary department said yesterday.
In comments to private Realitatea TV, the executive director of the Sanitary
Veterinary Department in Bucharest, Constantin Savu, said inspectors started
checks in several stores and supermarkets after finding that the chicken farm
where bird flu was reported had sold significant amounts of meat to various
stores around the country.
IBM
to help track spread of bird flu
May 15, 2006
San Jose Mercury News, Calif.
Knight Ridder Tribune
Steve Johnson
IBM today is announcing a new cooperative effort with health authorities to stem
the spread of bird flu and other infectious diseases using technology it
developed partly at its Almaden Research Center in San Jose.
As part of the effort, IBM was cited as saying it will donate software designed
to enable health authorities to share data, track the geographic spread of
diseases and predict how the bird flu virus might mutate into a form that is
deadlier to people.
David Spellmeyer, an IBM researcher in San Jose who is involved in the project,
was cited as saying that giving health experts in different countries the
ability to share computer and other data would be a major achievement, and that
he doesn't know of any health agency in the world that can share all of its
records with other agencies, adding, "That's what we're all working
toward."
Participants in the so-called Global Pandemic Initiative include the World
Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
businesses and universities, IBM said.
Dr. Richard Waldhorn, an analyst at Pittsburgh University's Center for
Biosecurity, who also is participating in the effort, agreed health authorities
could use IBM's help.
Electronic
tagging of cattle to prevent disease outbreaks tested
May 14, 2006
Tennessee Technological University
Already, the ears of TTU’s cattle are being tagged with individually numbered
electronic identifications that can be scanned in the field with a wand that
uses wireless Bluetooth technology to transmit specific information about each
animal to a personal computer, where that information can be read and updated.
“Right now, many farmers don’t individually identify their livestock at
all,” said Bruce Greene, associate professor of agriculture at TTU.
Tennessee alone, however, has a cattle population of about 2 million, and those
cattle move in and out of the state rapidly, to and from various locations
across the country.
“Because a calf can move through as many as six or seven different locations
before it goes to slaughter, it makes sense — for a number of reasons — to
have a federal tracking system in place,” Greene said.
“Anywhere along the way, an animal can be exposed to a contagious disease like
foot and mouth, which is little harm to people but which can decimate an
industry,” he continued. “Being able to trace an individual animal’s
movements would help to significantly limit the effects of such a contagion.”
An even greater advantage than health implications of such a system could be
simply an increase in consumer confidence, both nationally and internationally,
Greene said.
For instance, out of approximately 700,000 head of high risk cattle tested in
the United States since the implementation of the present testing program in
2003, only three animals have tested positive for mad cow disease, which affects
the central nervous system and can be deadly to both animals and people who eat
infected meat.
“That’s a very low percentage, and they’ve all been older animals who
likely wouldn’t have made their way into our food chain, anyway,” Greene
explained. “About 80 percent of our beef comes from cattle younger than 3
years old.”
The fear of mad cow disease, though, is disproportionate to the threat. Since
2002, for example, the percentage of U.S. beef exported to Japan, which was then
our main international beef consumer, has decreased drastically from 34 percent
to only 3 percent in 2005.
The percentage exported to South Korea, our third main international beef
consumer in 2002, fell from 27 percent that year to only .2 percent in 2005.
“Within that same timeframe, our total beef exports have decreased from 2,238
million pounds to only 580 million pounds — about a quarter of what it was
only a few years ago,” Greene said.
Other advantages of a federal livestock tracking system include possible early
detection of bio-terrorism and an immediate outlet for farmers to enter and
retrieve individual animal records.
A number of tracking options are being considered, including an internal
tracking chip or tracking tags such as the ones used on TTU’s cattle.
“For livestock like poultry and hogs that are more likely to be bought and
sold in groups, a group identification number is likely to be the best
option,” Greene said.
Farmers who are already accustomed to tagging their cattle’s ears for sales,
though, might better respond to the kind of system already being used at TTU.
“Why not combine a national tracking system with a management program to help
the producer?” Greene suggested.
Regardless of how the tracking system is implemented, however, it will assign a
15-digit number to each animal. That number will be made up of 3-digit sections
that identify the animal in descending order from least specific information,
such as country and state of origin, to most specific information, such as the
exact farm from which it originated.
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