AnimalNet March 27/08
SWISS report
first bird flu case in 2 years
INDONESIAN
boy's death could be bird flu: report
MINNESOTA:
State’s bovine TB status nears downgrade
ALASKA: Seals
considered for endangered list
MINNESOTA
hotel visitor who ripped head off duck in lobby is sentenced
for animal cruelty
FLORIDA:
Burger King system achieves 2007 animal welfare goals
CHILE: Salmon
virus indicts Chile’s fishing methods
MONTANA:
Women protesting bison slaughter arrested
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SWISS report
first bird flu case in 2 years
27.mar.08
Reuters
Sam Cage
http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSL27533817
Zurich -- Switzerland has, according to this story, reported
the first case of H5N1 bird flu in the country in two years
in a duck on Sempachersee lake, veterinary authorities said
on Thursday.
The duck, the 33rd case of bird flu in Switzerland, showed
no signs of illness, the Federal Veterinary Office said in a
statement.
The other 32 discovered cases of bird flu were all reported
in early 2006, on Lake Geneva and Lake Constance.
INDONESIAN
boy's death could be bird flu: report
27.mar.08
ABS CBN News
AFP
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=113211
JAKARTA -- A 15-year-old Indonesian boy has, according to
this story, died of suspected bird flu, a doctor said
Thursday.
The boy, identified only as AY, was being transferred to a
hospital in West Java when he died late Wednesday, said Hadi
Yusuf, head of the facility's bird flu team.
"He has a history of contact with poultry on the family's
own backyard farm," Yusuf was quoted a saying.
Tissue samples have been set away to be tested for the H5N1
virus, he added.
Two positive results are needed before Indonesian
authorities confirm a human bird flu infection.
MINNESOTA:
State’s bovine TB status nears downgrade
27.mar.08
Worthington Daily Globe
Julie Buntjer
http://www.dglobe.com/articles/index.cfm?id=10341§ion=News&freebie_check&CFID=19875846&CFTOKEN=72986368&jsessionid=8830d846d8817174302f
JACKSON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is, according
to this story, expected to downgrade Minnesota’s bovine
tuberculosis status within the next two to three weeks,
forcing cattle producers to do additional testing before
their animals can be shipped across the state line.
During a meeting hosted by the Minnesota Board of Animal
Health Wednesday afternoon in Jackson, district veterinarian
Kern Schwartz said the current modified accredited advanced
(MAA) status will be changed to modified accredited (MA) —
two steps down from the TB-free status Minnesota enjoyed for
30 years.
The downgrade comes after a cattle herd in northern
Minnesota tested positive in February for bovine TB, marking
the fourth herd discovered to have the wasting disease
within the last year. A status downgrade is required once
three herds have tested positive within a 12-month period.
While the Minnesota Board of Animal Health is seeking a
split-state status — which would keep all but an identified
zone (300 herds) in portions of Roseau, Beltrami, Lake of
the Woods and Marshall counties as MAA — Schwartz was cited
as saying that wouldn’t be granted until this fall at the
earliest.
In the meantime, producers must adhere to the rules of the
MA status. That means feeder cattle and feeder bison herds
must have a negative TB test within 60 days of shipment,
with sexually-intact animals only allowed move to an
approved feedlot. Breeding cattle and breeding bison must
post a negative whole herd TB test within 12 months of
shipment, and a negative individual animal TB test within 60
days.
ALASKA: Seals
considered for endangered list
26.mar.08
USA Today/Washington Post
Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-03-26-seals-endangered-list_N.htm
ANCHORAGE — A federal agency was cited in these stories as
saying Wednesday it will consider listing four species of
ice seals as endangered, a move hailed by the environmental
group that pushed for it as government recognition that
Arctic marine life is threatened by global warming.
The National Marine Fisheries Service accepted a petition
seeking threatened or endangered status for ribbon seals,
which have been losing habitat as sea ice recedes. The
agency also expanded the status review to include ringed,
spotted and bearded seals.
"While the four species of ice seals in Alaska all utilize
various types of sea ice habitats, they use the ice in
different ways," Doug Mecum, acting administrator for the
Alaska Region, was quoted as saying. "Therefore, careful
status reviews of each species is warranted."
Shaye Wolf, a biologist with the Center for Biological
Diversity and the lead author of the listing petition, was
cited as saying the agency's action came as a surprise,
given that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is two and a
half months overdue on a final decision to list polar bears.
Last summer, Arctic ice shrank to an area that was 27%
smaller than the previous record. In September, a series of
reports from the U.S. Geological Survey predicted that as
much as two-thirds of the polar bear population could
disappear by mid-century because of the loss of summer sea
ice attributed to climate change.
The stories go on to say that federal officials have nine
months to complete a full status review of ribbon seals. If
agency officials propose listing ribbon seals as threatened
or endangered, they would have a year to collect additional
data and public testimony before the deadline for a final
decision.
Listing a species would trigger a recovery plan that could
address U.S. causes of global warming or other activity that
could hurt the seals, such as offshore oil and gas
development.
Groups including the Center for Biological Diversity sued
Fish and Wildlife this month for missing its January
deadline for a final decision on polar bears.
The conservation groups claim the Bush administration has
purposely delayed a decision because a polar bear listing
would focus scrutiny on outer continental shelf oil and
natural gas leases in polar bear habitat off Alaska's coast.
They also say a polar bear recovery plan required under the
law would trigger agency review of new sources of greenhouse
gases that contribute to warming.
The decision highlights the extent to which federal
officials are grappling with climate change's impact on
vulnerable species. The Fisheries Service has placed two
species of coral on the endangered species list in part
because of global warming, and the Interior Department was
supposed to announce in January whether it would declare the
polar bear in danger of extinction.
Jim Overland, an oceanographer at NOAA's Pacific Marine
Environmental Laboratory, said that while ice in the Chukchi
Sea has been disappearing earlier during the year, ice in
the Bering Sea "is still highly variable from year to year."
The ice cover in the Bering Sea, which forms in December,
melts in May and spans the size of California, was 15
percent below normal from 2000 to 2005, but it has been
closer to normal or even above average since then. According
to computer models, Overland said, the Bering Sea ice cover
will be half its current size by 2050.
MINNESOTA
hotel visitor who ripped head off duck in lobby is sentenced
for animal cruelty
27.mar.08
International Herald Tribune
Associated Press
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/27/america/NA-ODD-US-Duck-Beheaded.php
ST. PAUL, Minnesota -- A man who ripped the head off a live
duck in a Minnesota hotel has, according to this story, been
sentenced to the workhouse and community service.
Scott D. Clark apologized in court Wednesday and says he
takes full responsibility for his actions. He pleaded guilty
in January to felony animal cruelty.
He was at the Embassy Suites in St. Paul in September when
he cornered a duck from the hotel's lobby pool and ripped
its head off. Police say he was drunk.
The man was sentenced to three weeks in the workhouse and 80
hours of community service.
FLORIDA:
Burger King system achieves 2007 animal welfare goals
27.mar.08
From a press release
MIAMI -- Burger King Corp. (NYSE:BKC) announced today that
the company met its calendar 2007 stretch objectives for
U.S. system purchases of eggs from chickens raised in a cage
free environment. The company also announced that it
achieved its objectives for the U.S. system’s purchase of
pork products from gestation stall free operations.
“Our corporate conscience drives our commitment to animal
welfare,” said Julio Ramirez, executive vice president,
global operations, Burger King Corp. “For almost a decade,
we have used our purchasing power to encourage positive
steps in animal agriculture. We are proud to set an example
for the restaurant industry and support the production of
cage free animal products.”
“The BURGER KING® brand’s influence has moved the entire
animal industry,” said PETA Vice President, Bruce Friedrich.
“The availability of cage free products is growing, a credit
to BKC’s leadership on the issue.”
Friedrich continued: “Burger King Corp. received our Most
Improved National Food Chain Proggy Award for its efforts to
reduce cruelty and for its tasty BK VEGGIE® Burger, which
contributes to a more compassionate way of living.”
In 2007, the BURGER KING® system purchased enough cage free
egg product to provide the slice of egg on over 2 million
CROISSAN’WICH® breakfast sandwiches. Due to the limited
commercial supply of cage free egg product, the company has
announced the same supply goals for calendar 2008. The
system also purchased 10 percent of its pork products from
gestation stall free operations, and plans to increase that
amount for 2008.
Internationally, the BURGER KING® system in the U.K. and
continental Europe uses almost entirely cage free pork and
egg products.
CHILE: Salmon
virus indicts Chile’s fishing methods
27.mar.08
New York Times
Alexei Barrionuevo
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/world/americas/27salmon.html?hp
Puerto Montt, Chile — A virus called infectious salmon
anemia, or I.S.A., is, according to this story, killing
millions of salmon destined for export to Japan, Europe and
the United States. The spreading plague has sent shivers
through Chile’s third-largest export industry, which has
left local people embittered by laying off more than 1,000
workers.
It has also opened the companies to fresh charges from
biologists and environmentalists who say that the breeding
of salmon in crowded underwater pens is contaminating
once-pristine waters and producing potentially unhealthy
fish.
Some say the industry is raising its fish in ways that court
disaster, and producers are coming under new pressure to
change their methods to preserve southern Chile’s cobalt
blue waters for tourists and other marine life.
“All these problems are related to an underlying lack of
sanitary controls,” Dr. Felipe C. Cabello, a professor in
the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at New York
Medical College in Valhalla was quoted as saying. Capbello
who has studied Chile’s fishing industry was further quoted
as saying, “Parasitic infections, viral infections, fungal
infections are all disseminated when the fish are stressed
and the centers are too close together.”
Industry executives acknowledge some of the problems, but
they reject the notion that their practices are unsafe for
consumers. American officials also say the new virus is not
harmful to humans.
But the latest outbreak has occurred after a rash of
nonviral illnesses in recent years that the companies
acknowledge have led them to use high levels of antibiotics.
Researchers say the practice is widespread in the Chilean
industry, which is a mix of international and Chilean
producers. Some of those antibiotics, they say, are
prohibited for use on animals in the United States.
The story goes on to say that Many of those salmon still end
up in American grocery stores, where about 29 percent of
Chilean exports are destined.
The new virus is spreading, but it has primarily affected
the fish of Marine Harvest, a Norwegian company that is the
world’s biggest producer of farm-raised salmon and exports
about 20 percent of the salmon that come from Chile.
Arne Hjeltnes, the main spokesman in Oslo for Marine
Harvest, said that his company recognized that antibiotic
use was too high in Chile and that fish pens too close
together had contributed to the problems. He was cited as
saying Marine Harvest welcomed tougher environmental
regulations.
Environmentalists say the salmon are being farmed for export
at the expense of almost everything else around. The
equivalent of 7 to 11 pounds of fresh fish are required to
produce 2 pounds of farmed salmon, according to estimates.
Salmon feces and food pellets are stripping the water of
oxygen, killing other marine life and spreading disease,
biologists and environmentalists say. Escaped salmon are
eating other fish species and have begun invading rivers and
lakes as far away as neighboring Argentina, researchers say.
Industry officials say Chile is suffering growing pains
similar to salmon farming operations in Norway, Scotland and
the Faroe Islands, where a different form of the I.S.A.
virus struck previously.
Norway, the world’s leading salmon producer, eventually
decided to spread salmon farms farther apart, reducing
stress on the fish, and responded to criticism of high
antibiotic use with stronger regulations and the development
of vaccines.
The story goes on to say that residual antibiotics have been
detected in Chilean salmon that have been exported to the
United States, Canada and Europe, Dr. Cabello was further
cited as saying.
He estimated that 70 to 300 times more antibiotics are used
by salmon producers in Chile to produce a ton of salmon than
in Norway. But no hard data exist to corroborate the
estimates, adding “because there is almost an underground
market of antibiotics in Chile for salmon aquaculture.”
Stephanie Kwisnek, a spokeswoman for the F.D.A., was cited
as saying the F.D.A. tested 40 samples of the 114,320 net
tons of salmon imported from Chile in 2007. None of them
tested positive for malachite green, oxolinic acid,
flumequine, Ivermectin, fluoroquinolones or drug residues,
she added and that the F.D.A. is planning an inspection trip
to assess Chile’s overall controls on its farmed salmon.
MONTANA:
Women protesting bison slaughter arrested
26.mar.08
Missoulian
Billings Gazette
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/03/27/bnews/br80.txt
Hours after 22 more bison were shipped to slaughter from
Yellowstone National Park on Wednesday, two women protesting
treatment of the animals were, according to this story,
arrested at a park visitor center.
Starting at around 10 a.m., the Albright Visitor Center at
Mammoth Hot Springs was closed for about three hours after
the women fastened themselves to a stair railing.
The bison-advocacy group Buffalo Field Campaign identified
the two as Miriam Wasser, 20, and Cat Simonidis, 22.
The women were arrested around 12:30 p.m. and taken to the
jail at Mammoth on suspicion of disorderly conduct and
interfering with agency functions, according to Al Nash, a
Yellowstone spokesman.
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