Animal Birth Control gains speed

July 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2009:
CHENNAI, DELHI, MUMBAI –Indian minister of state for
environment and forests Jairam Ramesh served notice in July and
August 2009 speaking appearances that he means to put wheels under
the Indian national Animal Birth Control program.
Now Chinny Krishna, who engin-eered the ABC program, needs
to put new wheels under the Blue Cross of India surgical team to keep
up with increasing demands for service. “We have been inundated with
requests from municipalities asking us to undertake ABC,” Krishna
told ANIMAL PEOPLE. “In addition to the cost of doing more
operations, we are handicapped for want of enough vehicles, since
all these new areas are some distance from Chennai,” where the Blue
Cross of India is based.

Egypt uses H1N1 flu as pretext to massacre pigs

July 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2009:

CAIRO, PARIS–After condemning the pointless massacre of
pigs in Egypt in response to a “swine flu” that swine rarely get and
have yet to verifiably pass to any other species, the 2009 meeting
of the Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on May 24 elected Nihat
Pakdil of Turkey to become OIE European region secretary general.
Pakdil, as Turkish deputy undersecretary for agriculture,
in 2005 ordered a pointless massacre of dogs in response to the avian
flu H5N1, even though dogs have never been infected by H5N1.
Despite Pakdil’s ascent, Africa Network for Animal Welfare
founder Josphat Ngonyo was hopeful, he told ANIMAL PEOPLE, that the
OIE conference discussion would prevent anything like the Egyptian
pig killing “from ever occurring again, through the concerted effort
of OIE, the World Society for the Protection of Animals, and the
international animal welfare community.”

Vietnamese cholera outbreak from dog meat

June 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2009:
HANOI–The National Institute of Hygiene & Epidemiology on
May 18, 2009 temporarily closed at least a dozen dog slaughterhouses.
“Samples of dog meat, both cooked and uncooked, from the Ha
Dong district of Hanoi tested positive for the cholera bacterium,”
The Youth newspaper reported. Nine northern Vietnamese provinces
have had recent cholera outbreaks. Bureau of Preventive Health chief
Nguyen Huy Nga warned on May 15 that up to 70% of the patients became
ill after eating dog meat.
The cholera outbreaks came two months after two Hanoi-based
national health institutes linked a pair of human rabies deaths to
eating dogs.

21 polo ponies die of overdose

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
OCALA, Florida–Franck’s Pharmacy chief operations officer
Jennifer Becket on April 23, 2009 admitted in a prepared statement
that the custom drug-mixing firm had erred in preparing a vitamin
mixture that was given to the polo ponies on the Lechuza Caracas
team just before the start of the U.S. Open polo tournament on April
20 at the Inter-national Polo Club Palm Beach. The mixture was
apparently significantly stronger than it was supposed to have been.
Twenty-one horses died from lung hemorraging after receiving
the overdose. The vitamin mixture was reportedly similar to Biodyl,
a supplement not approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
Humane Society of the U.S. director of equine protection
Keith Dane called on the U.S. Polo Association to introduce a policy
restricting the use of drugs in polo ponies.

Did new flu emerge from a pig farm?

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
MEXICO CITY–Rumors swept the world
during the last week of April 2009 that a newly
detected H1N1 flu virus variant suspected of
killing as many as 149 Mexicans might have
evolved at a factory-style pig farm at Perote,
in Vera Cruz state on the Gulf of Mexico. As
ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press on the night of April
28, however, little medical or veterinary
evidence supported the hypothesis that the
disease is of factory farm origin, and some
evidence seemed to refute it.
Among the first 1,995 suspected Mexican
cases of the new flu strain, only 27 were
laboratory-confirmed. Lab-confirmed human cases
had occurred in 19 other nations, including 64
cases in the U.S., but no deaths were reported
outside of Mexico.
Bloggers and news media usually called
the virus “swine flu,” but although it contained
genetic material of swine origin, nothing linked
it to recent swine infections.
The Perote farm belongs to the Mexican
firm Granjas Carroll, a half-owned subsidiary of
Smithfield Inc., the world’s largest pork
producer. Smithfield spokesperson Keira Ullrich
told media that an internal investigation had
found no clinical signs or symptoms of swine
influenza in animals and employees at any of its
Mexican facilities. A United Nations’ Food &
Agriculture Organiz-ation team reportedly reached
Pecote on April 28 to seek independent
confirmation.

Rabies risk is medically identified from eating dogs & cats

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:

HANOI–People who prepare dog and cat meat for human
consumption are at risk of contracting rabies, warned medical
researcher Heiman Wertheim, M.D. in the March 18, 2009 edition of
PLoS Medicine
PLoS Medicine is a peer-reviewed open-accesss online
scientific journal published by the Public Library of Science. With
offices in San Francisco and Cambridge, England, PLoS Medicine
“gives the highest priority to papers on the conditions and risk
factors that cause the greatest losses in years of healthy life
worldwide,” state the editors.
Wertheim and colleagues from the National Institute of
Infectious & Tropical Diseases and the National Institute of Hygiene
& Epidemiology in Hanoi, Vietnam, researched the association of dog
meat with rabies after encountering two cases.

More Bali rabies deaths

April 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
Jama Asmara, 46, on March 23, 2009 became the eighth human
victim of a canine rabies outbreak afflicting southeastern Bali,
Indonesia since September 2008. Bitten in November 2008, Jama
Asmara reportedly received post-exposure vaccination on November 27,
plus a later booster, but skipped two further prescribed boosters
because he did not feel ill.
Previous Bali rabies victims have included two
three-year-olds, a four-year-old, two 32-year-olds, and a
45-year-old.

USDA probes claim that saliva test can reduce post-mortem rabies tests

March 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2009:
AMES, Iowa–A company called Dyne Immune created web buzz on
February 3, 2009 that a new saliva test to detect rabies might end
the need to confirm suspected cases through post-mortem
examination–but the enthusiasm expressed by rescuers without
veterinary background was not shared by rabies experts, ANIMAL
PEOPLE learned within minutes of receiving the Dyne Immune
announcement and making inquiries.
“No more killing an animal just in case!” exulted one poster
to an online discussion group.

U.S. issues rabies advisory for Bali visitors as control effort stumbles

January 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2009:
JAKARTA, DENPASAR–The U.S. embassy to Indonesia on January
12, 2009 issued the outbreak notice that the Bali tourism industry
had feared would be coming since mid-November 2008, when reports
first circulated about four human rabies deaths resulting from dog
bites in two villages on the peninsula south of the Denpasar airport.
“Rabies has been confirmed in dogs from at least two villages
near popular tourist destinations on the southern tip of Bali,” the
outbreak notice advised. “At this stage rabies has been identified
in only one district, but the Centers for Disease Control &
Prevention advises travelers to take precautions on the entire
island,” the notice added.
The outbreak notice was distributed two days after Bali
governor Made Mangku Pastika announced, “We are closing the seaports
and airport to any dog trade.”

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