Deadly pig virus slips through US bordersthe pathogen, a type of coronavirus called porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus (PEDV),
As pigs there developed immunity, the virus petered out and now causes only occasional, isolated outbreaks.
And although adult pigs typically recover PEDV can kill 80-100%of the piglets it infects.
The virus poses no health threat to humans. The US Department of agriculture (USDA) had tried to keep PEDV and other diseases out of the country by restricting imports of pigs and pork products from certain nations, such as China.
But on 10 Â May, the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Iowa State university in Ames confirmed that PEDV had infected pigs in Iowa, the leading producer of US pork.
The lab then screened samples taken earlier from other states and found a case from Ohio submitted on 16 Â April that is now the earliest known US detection of PEDV,
and could become an epidemic (see Pig virus on the wing). SOURCE: US Department of agriculture"It s a real threat, says Lisa  Becton, a veterinary surgeon and director of swine health information at the National Pork Board, an industry group in Des Â
Moines, Iowa. To understand the virus s enigmatic US entry, scientists are sequencing VIRAL DNA isolated from pigs and comparing it with PEDV variants from elsewhere in the world.
Researchers are also trying to create rapid diagnostic tests and vaccines to prevent the virus from spreading.
because the pathogen thrives in the specific conditions found in pig guts. Researchers in Europe and Asia have managed already to infect cells,
and pig antibodies.""What s hampering the research is that we don t have reagents, says Linda  Saif, a virologist at Ohio State university in Wooster.
In the meantime, other research groups have focused on detecting VIRAL DNA in sick pigs and on sequencing viral genes.
the main source of pigs entering the United states, does not import pigs from China either.
And although researchers know that the virus can be transported in faeces, they do not know how long it can survive outside pigs intestines,
so it is unclear if a dirty boot, a contaminated package or an illegal import carried PEDV into the country.
Vets say that pig farmers are now restricting access to farms, and are cleaning pig manure more carefully off their clothes
and trucks as they move between barns. And researchers still hope that they can elucidate the virus s international and domestic path by looking for subtle evolutionary changes in viral genome sequences of samples from Asia and different US states.
when the deadly cattle disease was eradicated. The ban was enacted as a temporary measure to safeguard against accidental
the cause of a deadly cattle disease that was declared eradicated in 2011 and has been off limits for study ever since.
In its heyday, the disease the only one other than smallpox to be eradicated from nature killed hundreds of millions of cattle, mainly in Europe, Asia and Africa
which causes disease in sheep and goats might also protect cattle against rinderpest. Led by Michael Baron, a rinderpest researcher at the Pirbright Institute in Pirbright, UK, the project,
if successful, would eliminate the need to retain stocks of live-attenuated rinderpest vaccine. That would contribute to the goal of reducing the number of labs worldwide holding rinderpest material,
if Baron proves that PPR vaccines can protect cattle against rinderpest, it would provide an elegant way around such political issues:
A vaccine that protects piglets from one common influenza virus also makes them more vulnerable to a rarer flu strain,
The team gave piglets a vaccine against H1n2 influenza. The animals responded by making antibodies that blocked that virus but aided infection with the swine flu H1n1,
and caused more severe pneumonia in vaccinated piglets than unvaccinated ones. The root of the different immune responses lies with the mushroom-shaped haemagglutinin protein found on the outside of influenza-virus particles
In the study, a vaccine for H1n2 spurred pigs to produce antibodies that bound the cap and the stem of that virus s haemagglutinin.
That made H1n1 more efficient at infecting pigs and causing disease. The finding may give some vaccine developers pause.
And differences between pigs and humans make it difficult to interpret how relevant the findings are to the development of human vaccines,
the number of corn crops and cattle fields which currently account for the majority of water usage in the US are expected to multiply well into 2040.
and cattle production collected annually by the US Department of agriculture. Whereas farmers are using water more efficiently, the researchers found,
they are also dedicating more and more land to corn and cattle. Because corn is a highly water-intensive crop,
and cattle feed extensively on corn, raising both in this region puts the aquifer at risk of depletion.
and exchanging genetic material a process known as reassortment in Asian poultry markets. This raises the threat that H7n7 will reassort
says lead author Yi Guan, an influenza specialist at the University of Hong kong. In China, the virus has infected 135 people
says Guan. Guan's team sampled wild birds and poultry markets around Shanghai in April,
weeks after the H7n9 outbreak began there. The researchers collected throat and intestinal swabs from 1, 341 birds, including chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, partridges and quails, plus 1, 006 water and faecal samples from bird markets.
But Guan and his team found that ferrets could become infected with the virus suggesting that a spread to humans is possible.
and better sanitation practices at poultry markets are crucial to monitoring risks to human health.
and his longevity, finds a study of sheep on a remote Scottish isle. The work also explains how variation can persist in traits that offer big reproductive boosts.
Yet some male sheep have short horns or none at all.""From an evolutionary perspective, it doesn t really make sense,
Johnston s team turned to the sheep living on Hirta, an island 160 Â kilometres west of the Scottish mainland.
The animals, a primitive breed called Soay (Ovis aries), are known for their diminutive size and their agility on cliffs.
RXFP2, explains horn variability in the sheep (S. Â E. Â Johnston et al. Mol. Ecol. 20,2555-2566;
Johnston s team related the RXFP2 genes of 1, 750 sheep to three factors: horn size, reproductive success and lifespan (S.  E. Johnston et  al.
"He was quite an ugly sheep, she says
US regulation misses some GM cropsit took scientists 85 years to breed a commercial apple that could fend off apple scab,
85%of Earth s agricultural land is used for livestock forage. But crops, which are fertilized more heavily than grasslands,
Pig-manure fertilizer linked to human MRSA infections  People living near pig farms or agricultural fields fertilized with pig manure are more likely to become infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria,
according to a paper published today in JAMA Internal Medicine1. Previous research has found that livestock workers are at high risk of carrying MRSA,
compared to the general population2. But it has been unclear whether the spreading of MRSA through livestock puts the public at risk of infection.
The study examined the incidence of infections in Pennsylvania, where manure from pig farms is often spread on crop fields to comply with state regulations for manure disposal.
Researchers reviewed electronic health-care records from patients who sought care from the Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health System
whether infected people lived near pig farms or agricultural land where pig manure was spread.
They found that people who had the highest exposure to manure calculated on the basis of how close they lived to farms,
a MRSA strain classically associated with livestock and found in farms and farmworkers in many previous studies.
so the absence of CC398 is not a sign that MRSA is not being transmitted from livestock to humans."
whether the MRSA strains carried in pig manure are the same as the MRSA strains found in nearby human infections.
Food-borne illnesses are not always home-grownscottish cows have a bum rap. For decades, the local cattle have been prime suspects behind the country s outbreaks of drug-resistant,
food-borne illnesses. But research now suggests that humans and imported foods are the real culprits.
A team of researchers compared the genome sequences of nearly 400 samples of diarrhoea-causing Salmonella enterica collected from people and livestock in Scotland.
They found that bacterial strains infecting humans were largely distinct from those found in local cattle,
Reid and his colleagues focused on Scottish outbreaks because of the country s ample collection of bacterial samples obtained from both humans and livestock.
Livestock was assumed to be the source of the epidemics because animals naturally harbour the bacteria.
mostly cows, then compared them with 111 strains collected from people and animals in other countries.
The team found that strains infecting Scottish patients were different from those in local livestock.
which strains isolated from local livestock had spread to humans. But they also found that strains could spread from humans to animals."
the researchers found that bacteria from humans had more diverse collections of resistance genes than those in local livestock.
This indicates that local livestock cannot be the sole source of the resistance genes found in the strains found in humans.
The authors therefore suggest that local livestock are not the source of drug-resistant human salmonella outbreaks in Scotland.
Lance Price, a genomic epidemiologist at the George washington University in WASHINGTON DC, says that it is not surprising that Scottish cattle are not the source of Scottish outbreaks,
the authors should have analysed more strains from poultry and pigs, which also carry S. enterica."
a different telescope, says Kepler scientist William Welsh of San diego State university in California. Kepler s drift could be minimized by keeping it pointed in the same plane in which the craft orbits the Sun. But that presents a complication.
offered up by Welsh and his colleagues, the craft would continue to stare at this original star field to search for Jupiter-sized planets.
but Welsh suggests that it might also be possible for Kepler to add statistical significance to Earth-sized candidates for
And David Hogg, an astronomer at New york University, believes that, over the course of many months,
says Hogg.""We re in a real quandary. We just don t know what Kepler can do.
Like Welsh, Fabrycky wants Kepler to zero in on planetary systems with long orbits, for which the full cycle of these transit-timing variations has not yet been seen.
Asian unicorn A rare antelope-like animal called the saola has been caught on film for the first time in 15 years.
The saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), sometimes nicknamed the Asian unicorn is endangered critically, and probably only a few hundred remain.
and cattle fodder have increased slightly in recent years. The trend is encouraging for food production,
Only in the 1970s did researchers realize that a fungus living in symbiosis with tall fescue grass was responsible for making cattle grazing on infected pastures ill.
although poisonous to livestock, were resistant to attack by weevils. This spawned a niche industry that develops
such as pigs and anchovies, in the global food web.""We are closer to herbivore than carnivore,
Furthermore, a 2006 FAO study2 found that the livestock industry is directly or indirectly responsible for 18%of global greenhouse-gas emissions a larger share than all modes of transport combined."
Pig virus spreads Canada confirmed its first case of porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus on 23 Â January.
and vomiting in pigs, was detected on a farm in Middlesex County, Ontario. First identified in the United kingdom in 1971, the virus can kill 80-100%of infected piglets.
It caused mass epidemics in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. Last spring, the United states reported its first case (see Nature 499,388;
A report delivered in November by the US Geological Survey s Interagency Grizzly bear Study Team describes a resilient and healthy bear population that has adapted to the loss of pine nuts by eating more elk and bison
including livestock owners and hunters seeking elk, he says. For young bears, it may increase the frequency of potentially deadly interactions with aggressive adult male bears and wolves.
Male scent stimulates female goats fertilityresearchers had ascribed this'male effect'to chemicals known as primer pheromones a chemical signal that can cause long-lasting physiological responses in the recipient.
the male effect in goats and sheep, and a similar effect in mice and rats, where the presence of males can speed up puberty in females,
in the cocktail of male goat pheromones that activates the neural pathway that regulates reproduction in females1.
The researchers fitted the goats with hats that absorbed their neck odours for a week.
The researchers found that male goat pheromones are synthesized generally in the animal's head skin,
and placed them on the goats for a week to collect the scent. Analysis of the gases collected identified a range of compounds, many
the brains of female goats showed a sudden increase in the activity of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (Gnrh) pulse generator the neural regulator of reproduction.
When presented to the female goats on its own, the chemical elicited a similar, albeit weaker, response,
Peter Brennan, a physiologist at the University of Bristol, UK, says that the work will be useful in husbandry in goats and other ruminants, such as sheep,
because it was seen irrespective of the mating experience of the female goats. The main benefit of the work, says Takeuchi,
The group is now looking to find similar pheromones and pathways in other economically important livestock animals, such as sheep and cows
It was found in poultry in the live-bird markets of southern China s Guangxi province in late January,
"There is a very high likelihood of H7n9 entering the poultry sector in Vietnam, says Peter Horby, a researcher at the Oxford university Clinical Research Unit in Hanoi.
since the start of the year is probably due to the arrival of winter and the intense poultry trading at live markets in the run-up to the Chinese New Year on 31 Â January.
Vietnam has banned the importation of poultry from China. It has introduced also twice-weekly monitoring for H7n9 in markets in the north of the country,
The Chinese poultry industry has protested vigorously against the policy of shutting down markets. But the surge in H7n9 flu cases highlights the continuing public-health and possibly pandemic threat that it poses.
an avian virus that is sporadically infecting humans from a reservoir in poultry, and there is no evidence of any continued human-to-human spread.
But the virus is being sustained in unknown reservoirs in the poultry supply chain, making future outbreaks likely,
in part because the virus causes only mild disease in poultry and thus spreads silently, with human cases typically the first warning of a poultry outbreak.
And despite extensive sampling of farms, wholesale markets and other parts of the poultry supply chain, the only strong link to H7n9 found so far is live-bird markets.
The difficulty of surveillance and of sampling China s huge poultry industry it produces 6 billion birds annually means that this is unlikely to be the full picture
Study revives bird origin for 1918 flu pandemicthe virus that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic probably sprang from North american domestic and wild birds, not from the mixing of human and swine viruses.
pigs and bats using a model they developed to map evolutionary relationships between viruses from different host species. The branched tree that resulted showed that the genes of the deadly 1918 pandemic virus are of avian origin.
and swine for at least 2 to 15 years before the pandemic and combined to make the lethal virus. Gavin Smith, an evolutionary biologist at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical school at the National University of Singapore,
"It shows the evidence for a pig origin is a lot weaker, but it s almost impossible to completely shut the door on that.
Gibberish papers The publisher Springer will remove 16 computer-generated nonsense papers that it had published in its subscription database,
Last week, Nature revealed that Labbã had informed privately Springer of the problem. He had contacted also the US Â Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE),
and eating an elk calf in a manner that also turned my stomach as it would of any other compassionate person.
or know the struggles many rural folks are facing today with everything from livestock/pet depredations loss of hunter opportunity to human safety.
Bà ¥rd Ylvisã Â¥ker and Vegard Ylvisã Â¥ker the folks behind Ylvis describe the vocalizations of various common animals from cats to dogs to ducks to cows
the arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) and the red fox (Vulpes vulpes. Here in the States we have a few others like the gray fox and the kit fox.
The children's toys that teach the sounds of animals focus on domestic animals mostly livestock. Pig cow sheep rooster duck horse--these are farm animals
which in America's collective agrarian past were members of the household. You'll notice that on this toy you won't see any of the most common North american wild animals--no raccoons no coyotes no deer no robins no hawks and no foxes.
It would be awkward to teach your young child that the cow goes moo the frog goes croak
which he published (with a mildly NSFW video) in a hyper-readable study in PLOS ONE Spontaneous ejaculation has thus far been recorded in drowsy rats guinea pigs domestic cats warthogs horses and chimpanzees according to the study.
They were one of six teams at Mccarren Park hoping to win Red Bull Creation an annual build-off based on a surprise theme.
North street Labs took home only cartloads of Red Bull soft drinks and leftover tools but the team s tree did attract musicians:
UN FAO official Henning Steinfeld stated that it was LIVESTOCK not cars that should be taking the blame.
Why don't cattle ranchers get the collective ire of the American people? Because it doesn't fit the agenda.
In the west ranchers set barbed wire to hold their cattle and this in effect set up their property boundaries.@
They let their cattle just roam free. Luckily the cattle are not a consideration for the land of the moon.
I think the real goal would be to mine Helium3 if possible. But if the homesteaders find water somewhere in the depths of the moon too I feel water found on the moon would be worth like gold
A grizzled maverick of an engineer named David Hall designed the lidar that Google uses.
They drove teams of horses herds of goats drifts of sheep. Animals Smith argues are autonomous.
Advocates like to say that there is no technical reason the new Mercedes needs hands on the wheel to steer through a turn.
and killed about 6500 sheep were killed after a leak. Would have killed a flock of people
Thanks to storms this spread far enough to affect the flock of sheep and killed over 6000.
First that the longer a cow has been lying down the more likely that cow will soon stand up;
and Second that once a cow stands up you cannot easily predict how soon that cow will lie down again.
Are Cows More Likely to Lie down the Longer They Stand? Bert J. Tolkamp Marie J. Haskell Fritha M. Langford David J. Roberts Colin A. Morgan Applied Animal Behaviour Science vol. 124
If cow tipping were real this could be complicated significantly more. For: the medical techniques described in their report Surgical Management of an Epidemic of Penile Amputations in Siam techniques which they recommend except in cases where the amputated penis had been eaten partially by a duck.
If cow tipping were real this could be complicated significantly more. I hope that this is a joke that cow tipping isn't real
or POPSCI does not realize how many idiots there are on this planet. rainbowmakernot a joke cow tipping is an urban myth.
OK the proof is not exactly scientific. But consider this: Since Youtube is the clearing house of all things stupid shouldn't there be at least one video capturing an authentic cow tipping???
Look for yourself. You won't find one
#FYI: Why Do Leaves Turn Different Colors? Leaves are loaded with chlorophyll which makes them green.
Farmers also contribute to the problem by feeding antibiotics to their livestock. When people (or animals) take antibiotics they don't need the medicines kill off most bacteria
or prevent diseases in their livestock. In addition some farmers give their cows pigs and chickens low doses of antibiotics to make them grow faster.
This is unnecessarily and should stop the CDC says. What are the worst infections? The CDC divided the resistant bacteria it knows about into three categories:
Maybe its time to stop injecting livestock with antibiotics and eating them. Maybe its time for in vitro meat t
and the moisture condensed on the surface of a frozen turkey. it's pretty incredible the amount of fire that simple combination can create.
Put too much moisture in by lowering in a frozen turkey and the vaporization of the water throws oil droplets into the air. a few of the droplets hit the burner under the pot
So even if it's tempting to buy one of the many cheap turkey deep-fryers this time of year you can add death by incineration to the other main reason not to:
If you want to fry a turkey read the fryer's instructions and do not try to re-create this effect at home under any circumstances.
I have fryed deep turkeys for several years without incident but about 3 years ago I came up with a simple change that makes it much safer.
Then just before lowering the thoughly defrosted turkey into the oil I turn off the gas so there is no flame to ignite the oil!
I prefer smoked turkeys but deep fried are the next best thing. ---why learn from your own mistakes
Deep fried turkey is pretty cool but the best way to cook it is in the oven for 20 mins a pound at 325 degrees Celsius@Lookitmeagain you are right searing meat isn't searing in the juices as the food network would like you to believe (enter conspiracy of making us eat more carcinogens) J/kthe
The dumbest one of them all is dunking a frozen block of turkey. This happened to a house a few blocks from me when
Has anyone here ever had a good deep fried turkey other than Tomgray? It is by far more juicy and flavorful than any baked turkey.
The advantage in deep fried is that it cooks the turkey so fast that it doesn't have as much time to lose the juices.
However low and slow as in smoked turkey you get something really juicy and falling off the bone tender.
Either low and slow or deep fried if you overdo it you end up with really tough turkey jerky.
That's using your gray matter Tomgray! Turn off the burner! How simple! And peanut oil is wonderful stuff.
If turkey fryers had broader stands and had thermostats that would probably prevent many of the conflagrations on Thanksgiving.
And Cooking ISBN 0684800012 and read up on various topics about myoglobin denaturation and meat doneness frying turkey etc..
Cook a turkey nicely too and well. Wonderful! Cooking to be dramaticly hurt yourself and others is just dumb!
Remember the turkey is just a dead bird nothing more. FAMILY and FRIEND ARE EVERYTHING! ENJOY!
I've never had fried a deep turkey yet but this year my mother brined hers (soaked it in salt
Lord that was a juicy turkey! don't boil it cover food with cold water or beer and let it come to a slow boil. then take out
we deep fry our turkey well 4 of them every thanksgiving. we inject 2 quarts of cajun spices into each one. skin forms a shell
when we set the turkey in the oil. That is wrong! At 200°Peanut oil WILL BURN!
Checkout Camp Chef's cast iron Ultimate Turkey Roaster which produces a much better overall turkey cooking result without the danger of frying yourself your children your pets or anything else other than the turkey.
I haven't fried a turkey in 5-years but have treated neighbors family and friends to
By the way I've never had a problem with frying turkeys the conventional way but the roaster eliminates so much of the danger and cleanup that
When you place a turkey into vat full of heated oil. It over flows as seen.
Deep fried smoked boiled baked oven cooked turkey...Find here the most spectacular recipe I received from a friend many years ago:
HOW TO COOK A THANKSGIVING TURKEY...Step 1: Go buy a turkey Step 2: Take a drink of whiskey (scotch) Step 3:
Put turkey in the oven Step 4: Take another 2 drinks of whiskey Step 5:
Set the degree at 375 ovens Step 6: Take 3 more whiskeys of drink Step 7:
Stick a turkey in the thermometer Step 12: Glass yourself a pour of whiskey Step 13:
Take the oven out of the turkey Step 15: Floor the turkey up off of the pick Step 16:
Turk the carvey Step 17: Get yourself another scottle of botch Step 18: Tet the sable and pour yourself a glass of turkey Step 19:
Bless the saying pass and eat outhave a great Thanksgiving!!Diegohate to rain on your parade guys but the turkey water oil and you are currently and forever and ever on fire!
Thanks to lyle for the soldering tip. It might not be too good for soldering but
To cook a turkey: simply nuke it in the microwave until it's done then either put it in the woodstove for a few minutes or hit it with the blowtorch until crispy.
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