PID News

(AFP) — South Korea stepped up major quarantine efforts Monday as a highly contagious animal disease threatened the centre of its livestock industry.

The agriculture ministry said more roadblocks and quarantine posts were set up after the foot-and-mouth outbreak hit a state livestock research institute at Cheongyang, 160 kilometres (96 miles) south of Seoul, on Saturday.

via Fears grow as animal disease spreads in S.Korea.

(REUTERS) — /SNIP/ The spore-forming fungus can cause symptoms in people and animals two weeks or more after exposure. They include a cough that lasts for weeks, sharp chest pain, shortness of breath, headache, fever, nighttime sweats and weight loss.

It has also turned up in cats, dogs, an alpaca and a sheep.

via Reuters AlertNet – Potentially deadly fungus spreading in US, Canada.

(SEATTLE TIMES) — A Whatcom County man’s friendship and aggressive support for a man convicted in the infamous Enumclaw horse-sex case led to his arrest this week for allegedly operating a bestiality farm just south of the Canadian border, federal prosecutors said Friday.

via Local News | Felon accused of running animal-sex farm in Whatcom County | Seattle Times Newspaper.

(GREENPLANET.NET) Nov. 16, 2009 — Monsanto has abandoned its ambitious plans for two types of a so-called “second generation GM crop” rather than accede to a request from European regulators for additional research and safety data.

/SNIP/ Scientists who have followed these two applications are quite convinced that the “decisions to withdraw” have nothing to do with commercial considerations and everything to do with food safety. In other words, the varieties are too dangerous to be allowed onto the open market.

via The giant steps back on two GMOs. Why?.

(KVAL CBS 13) LEBANON, Ore. — One week, Rhonda Rebmann’s niece had the flu.

The next, her 10-year-old tabby cat started showing respiratory symptoms. Buddy Lou died four days after she brought the cat to the family’s veterinarian, the first feline H1N1 death in the United States.

“It’s crazy,” said Rhonda Rebmann. “I would never have thought, never have thought a cat would have gotten this from a human.”

via Oregon cat first in U.S. to die from H1N1 swine flu | KVAL CBS 13 – News, Weather and Sports – Eugene, OR – Eugene, Oregon | News.

(Bloomberg) — Coughing hogs at a 5,000-head piggery in Northern Island are being investigated to determine how they became the latest animal victims of swine flu.

The pandemic H1N1 influenza strain infected about 4,500 hogs at the piggery in Greenhill, U.K. veterinary officials said in a report to the World Organization for Animal Health yesterday. Five pigs died in the outbreak, first noticed Sept. 1, when some of the animals began coughing and lost their appetite.

Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens said no known cases of human flu have been linked with the outbreak, which resembles infections in pigs in Canada, Australia and Argentina that have usually caused a mild illness from which swine recover in days. Preventing H1N1 in pigs is important, as they can act as a mixing vessel for flu viruses because they are susceptible to both mammalian and avian influenza strains.

via Coughing Swine in Northern Ireland Prompt Search for Flu Source – Bloomberg.com.

By KRISTEN GELINEAU (AP) SYDNEY — Thousands of camels in Australia’s remote Outback could be killed by marksmen in helicopters under a government proposal aimed at cutting down the population of the havoc-wreaking creatures.

First introduced into Australia in the 1840s to help explorers travel through the Australian desert, there are now about 1 million camels roaming the country, with the population doubling every nine years.

via The Associated Press: Australia considers mass killings of camels.