Hog Health

What Do Foot-and-Mouth Disease Outbreaks in Europe Mean for the U.S.?

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 13:19:03 GMT

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is rearing its ugly head in Europe. After an outbreak in water buffalo in Germany in January, an outbreak in cattle in Hungary in early March and an outbreak in cattle in Slovakia last week, why now? What is the U.S. doing to keep this foreign animal disease out and protect the country’s livestock industry?

“FMD is caused by a virus that affects cloven-hoofed animals so that can include cattle, pigs, sheep and goats,” explains Megan Niederwerder, DVM, who serves as the executive director of the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC). “It does not affect humans and is not a threat to food safety, but it has significant trade implications once it is introduced into a country.”

FMD has been fairly quiet in these European countries – with no cases reported for decades. Other parts of Europe have seen outbreaks more recently like the 2001 outbreak in the United Kingdom that caused a crisis in British agriculture and tourism and resulted in the cancellation of the World Pork Expo held in Des Moines, Iowa.

“FMD really decimated the United Kingdom,” says Barb Determan who was serving as president of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) at the time. “It became very apparent that we couldn’t guarantee the safety for our U.S. pig herd because of the high numbers of international travelers that would be at the show. We had to cancel World Pork Expo out of an abundance of precaution.”

Although there is still a lot to be discovered about how FMD was introduced into these populations, it’s a significant warning to the U.S. to be on alert.

(Lori Hays)

That was the first time, but not the only time World Pork Expo was canceled. The event was also canceled in 2019 because of the African swine fever outbreak in China and again in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That was a hard financial decision,” Determan says. “We had just completed the separation agreement between NPPC and the National Pork Board. NPPC was very tightly budgeted at that time, so it was a huge hit.”

However, keeping the U.S. pig herd safe was the most important thing on everyone’s mind. She says they made their decision after hearing reports from veterinarians who had been to England to better understand the extensiveness as well as from the USDA that had sent veterinarians over to help.

“At that time, we didn’t have near the biosecurity practices and things that we do now with the disinfectant foot mats,” Determan says. “We also don’t have live pigs on the on the grounds now compared to how we did things many years ago. We used to have live pigs everywhere on the fairgrounds in the early 2000s from genetics companies with pigs in their displays to the pigs in the live shows.”

The Truth About FMD
The clinical signs of FMD are similar to what the name implies. It can cause vesicles or blisters on the feet, mouth and tongue of animals that are infected. The U.S. has not had a case of FMD since 1929.

“We certainly want to keep it that way, as the economic implications for producers are significant if the virus is introduced,” Niederwerder says.

Compared to many viruses, FMD is a highly stable, non-enveloped virus that allows it to be infectious for longer periods. It’s very contagious and highly transmissible. Not only are there risks with transmission of the virus through infected meat products that may come in through illegal trade, but it can also be carried on contaminated clothes or equipment or supplies of humans.

“The human would not be infected, but certainly people can carry the virus on contaminated clothing,” Niederwerder says. “That’s why it’s really important as we think about prevention of entry into the U.S.”

FMD causes fever and pain. It results in excessive salivation and causes reduced milk production in dairy cattle.

“When you think about the impact, certainly there’s an impact on animal health with regards to the clinical signs, but even further is this impact on trade restrictions and the economic losses for producers,” Niederwerder says. “When you try and contain the virus, that oftentimes results in those infected animals being culled or euthanized so the disease no longer has the chance to spread.”

Why Should the U.S. Pay Attention?
When a virus moves into a new geographical range or is reintroduced into a country that has maintained a negative status for a long period, Niederwerder says it’s critical to reassess the risk to the U.S.

“In January, Germany reported their first case in over 30 years in water buffalo near Berlin,” she explains. “It was 14 animals, and those animals were all culled after the infection was confirmed but certainly trade restrictions and implications on surrounding areas of that Berlin farm were significant.”

Fast forward to March when two additional countries have reported cases. Hungary reported FMD in a single farm of cattle in the north part of the country for the first time in over 50 years. Shortly thereafter, the virus appeared in Slovakia (who also hadn’t seen a case in over 50 years) in multiple herds of cattle.

“Just recently, another herd was a suspect herd in Slovakia, near the southern border near Hungary,” Niederwerder says. “This is certainly concerning about how this virus is being reintroduced. Is it associated with contaminated fomites that may be in the country or traveling to new locations? Is it associated with wild boar? Could it be associated with infected hay?”

Although there is still a lot to be discovered about how FMD was introduced into these populations, it’s a significant warning to the U.S. to be on alert .

“We need to do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t get reintroduced into the U.S.,” Niederwerder says. “How can we amp up any biosecurity measures that are necessary to reduce our risk? We also need to think about reducing the risk of introduction into our country through travel and illegal trade.”

Be on Alert
Livestock operations should reevaluate biosecurity protocols. If any of your farm’s employees travel to areas where there are infected animals, implement a quarantine period for entry back into your U.S. farm, she advises.

“Be vigilant,” Niederwerder urges. “One of the challenges of FMD is that it does cause these characteristic lesions of vesicles or blisters on the mouth, nose or the hoof. What becomes very tricky is that those clinical signs are indistinguishable from other vesicular diseases such as Senecavirus A. If producers and veterinarians see these lesions, they must report it immediately so it can be investigated and confirmed that it is not FMD virus.”

FMD is not just a disease of pigs and cattle, she points out. Sheep, goats and cloven-hoofed zoo animals may also be impacted by FMD. This increases the breadth of what the industry needs to monitor.

“The world is very small now,” Niederwerder says. “Not only do people travel more internationally, but animals move around more than ever, too. It’s extremely important for those of us that are producers to keep our eyes open and pay attention to what’s going on worldwide so we can be as prepared as possible for any change in disease risk.”

That’s one of the ways that SHIC is trying to help producers. SHIC provides timely domestic and global disease updates to producers.

“Watching the SHIC global disease report is really important for producers,” Determan says. “It comes out every month and really gives you a feel for what’s happening in the entire world from a swine health standpoint. The biggest lesson we learned from the 2001 FMD outbreak is that looking farther out than just our own farm gate is so important.”

Keep Reading:
An Update on Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype O in Germany

Hungary Confirms Foot-and-Mouth Disease Outbreak in Cattle

Slovakia Records First Foot-and-Mouth Cases, Minister Says

New Pig Study Could Improve Human Vaccine Development

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 20:39:16 GMT

A new study using pigs shows that inhaled vaccines could potentially reduce viral transmission and improve vaccine efficiency, The Pirbright Institute reports.

“This is an important step toward human research,” Pirbright said in a release. “Interest in administering vaccines mucosally, rather than by intramuscular injections, has been growing since the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was declared in 2020.”

Scientists from The Pirbright Institute and the University of Oxford used pigs as a model to explore immune system responses to mucosally-administered flu vaccines, which target viruses at the point of entry.

“Comprehensive measurement of immune responses in human lungs is not possible,” the researchers explain in a release.

To overcome this challenge, the researchers used pigs—whose respiratory tract is anatomically and functionally similar to that of humans—as a model to define key immune responses. Samples collected from both the lungs and blood of vaccinated pigs, aided by mathematical modelling, showed that lung responses can be predicted from blood tests, making it easier to assess vaccine effectiveness in humans, the release said.

“To bring future vaccines to market, it is critical to define the correlates of protection—markers that can reliably predict the effectiveness of the vaccine, in humans,” Dr. Simon Gubbins, Head of Transmission Biology at The Pirbright Institute, said in a release. “Our study explored potential assays, sampling times and sample types (such as blood and lung samples) which could define correlates of protection in humans.”

The findings of this study, published in Frontiers in Immunology have far-reaching implications for the future development of mucosally-administered vaccines in clinical trials, Pirbright said. The pig model’s ability to closely mimic human immune responses to respiratory infections make it an ideal platform for testing vaccine efficacy.

“The research found that immune responses in the blood could reliably reflect those in the lungs, thus offering a practical way to assess the effectiveness of vaccines targeting the respiratory system,” Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, Saïd Professor of Vaccinology, Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford, said in a release. “The findings provide critical insights into how immune responses can be measured from easily accessible blood samples and are a foundation for future testing of mucosally administered vaccines in clinical trials.”

Pirbright said this research defining effective biomarkers for mucosal vaccine efficacy and identifying the best ways to monitor and measure immune protection lays the foundation for next generation vaccines. These vaccines could someday offer improved protection against respiratory viruses and benefit public health worldwide.

Your Next Read: The Future of Swine Health: Insights and Preparations for 2025

Oregon Identifies 3 Human Cases of Avian Influenza in Farm Workers from Washington State

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 18:36:31 GMT

Avian influenza (bird flu) has infected three more people from Washington state after they were exposed to poultry that tested positive for the virus, according to health authorities in Washington and in Oregon, where the human cases were identified.

A total of 39 people have tested positive in the U.S. this year, including nine from Washington, as the virus has infected poultry flocks and spread to more than 400 dairy herds, federal data show. All of the cases were farm workers who had known contact with infected animals, except for one person in Missouri.

The people from Washington cleaned facilities at an infected chicken farm after birds were culled to contain the virus, the Washington State Department of Health said in an email on Thursday.

Officials tested workers who had symptoms, including red eyes and respiratory issues, and those with potential exposure to the birds, the department said. People with symptoms were told to isolate and given antiviral treatment, it added.

Oregon identified the three new cases after the people traveled to the state from Washington while infected, the Oregon Health Authority said in a Thursday statement. They have since returned to Washington, where public health staff are monitoring them, according to the statement.

There have been no infections among people living in Oregon and is no evidence of human-to-human transmission, the Oregon Health Authority said. It said the risk for infection to the general public remains low.

Since 2022, the virus has wiped out more than 100 million poultry birds in the nation’s worst-ever bird flu outbreak.

H5N1 bird flu was confirmed in a pig on a backyard farm in Oregon, the first detection of the virus in swine in the country , USDA said on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

Your Next Read: Influenza Expert Gets Real About the H5N1 Risk to Your Swine Herd

USDA Reports First H5N1 Detection in Swine

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 20:36:09 GMT

USDA announced on Oct. 30 the first reported case of H5N1 in a pig in an Oregon backyard farm. It’s important to note there is no concern about the safety of the nation’s pork supply as a result of this finding, USDA said. This farm is a non-commercial operation, and the animals were not intended for the commercial food supply.

“The confirmed case in Oregon poses no threat to consumer health or food safety; properly handled and cooked pork products remain safe for consumption,” Bryan Humphreys, National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) CEO said in a statement. “The entire pork industry remains committed to safeguarding food safety and human and animal health.”

The case was discovered on a backyard farm that includes a mix of poultry and livestock, including swine. The Oregon Department of Agriculture announced on Friday, Oct. 25, that poultry on this farm represented the first H5N1 detection in Crook County, Oregon. On Tuesday, Oct. 29, the USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratories also confirmed one of the farm’s five pigs to be infected with H5N1, marking the first detection of H5N1 in swine in the U.S., USDA reports.  

“The livestock and poultry on this farm shared water sources, housing, and equipment; in other states, this combination has enabled transmission between species. Although the swine did not display signs of illness, the Oregon Department of Health and USDA tested the five swine for H5N1 out of an abundance of caution and because of the presence of H5N1 in other animals on the premises,” USDA wrote.

The swine were euthanized to facilitate additional diagnostic analysis. Although test results were negative for two of the pigs, and test results are still pending for two others.  
The farm has been quarantined to prevent further spread of the virus. Other animals on the farm include sheep and goats that remain under surveillance.  

“USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) has conducted genomic sequencing of virus from the poultry infected on this farm, and that sequencing has not identified any changes to the H5N1 virus that would suggest to USDA and CDC that it is more transmissible to humans, indicating that the current risk to the public remains low,” USDA wrote.

H5N1 detections include viral genome sequencing to provide additional information of interest to medical professionals and the research community to improve understanding of the virus. Genetic sequencing for these samples is underway, but results may be inconclusive due to low viral levels in the samples, USDA said.   

Pork Producers Practice Biosecurity to Protect Pigs
Biosecurity is critical to eradicating H5N1 and other viruses. Not only does biosecurity protect the health of livestock, but it also protects the health of farmworkers and their families. For more information on protecting farmworkers, visit the CDC’s website .
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10 Powerful Take Homes to Enhance Biosecurity on Your Pig Farm
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The pork industry has worked alongside USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) since 2009 to carry out the swine influenza surveillance program to identify influenza viruses circulating in swine, proactively detect reassortment viruses that could impact public health, and gain knowledge to contribute to improved animal health diagnostics and vaccines, NPPC pointed out in a statement.

“Pork producers have always been proactive and diligent about implementing biosecurity plans as part of their daily production practices to assure animals wellbeing and food safety,” Lori Stevermer, NPPC president and Minnesota pork producer said. “This detection serves as a reminder for producers of all sizes to understand and address influenza virus risks.”

What’s Next?
USDA recently approved two vaccine field safety trials for vaccine candidates designed to protect dairy cows from H5N1, and continues to explore vaccine options for other species.   As USDA takes additional steps to protect the health of livestock, it will continue to work closely with CDC to protect the health of people and FDA to protect the safety of the food supply.

“These collective, collaborative efforts have helped protect farmworkers and farmers, the health and welfare of livestock animals, and reaffirmed the safety of the nation’s food supply. The U.S. government remains committed to addressing this situation with urgency,” USDA said.

Learn more about USDA’s response to HPAI in dairy cattle.

The situation is being monitored by local public health officials, Oregon Health Authority, Oregon State Veterinarian, Oregon Department of Agriculture, as well as USDA and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   

Read More:
Get the Facts Straight on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza
Animal Health Experts Open Up About Future Disease Preparedness
How the Swine Industry Responded to H5N1 Outbreak in Dairy Cattle
A Message to the Ag Industry about H5N1

Livestock and mRNA Vaccines: What You Need To Know

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 01:56:42 GMT

As misinformation regarding the use of mRNA vaccines in livestock filter through social media, there are facts begging to be set straight.

Recently, a claim was made saying producers are required to inject livestock with mRNA vaccines.

According to USDA spokesperson, Marissa Perry says, “There is no requirement or mandate that producers vaccinate their livestock for any disease. It is a personal and business decision left up to the producer and will remain that way,” in response to the claim, Associated Press shared in an article .

National Pork Board’s Director of Consumer Public Relations, Jason Menke echoed the statement to AP, noting that the decision to use vaccines and other medical treatments to protect animal health and well-being are made by the farmer under the direction of the herd veterinarian.

To further explain mRNA vaccines and shed light on controversies, Dr. Kevin Folta, a molecular biologist and professor at the University of Florida, shares his viewpoint and experience with the technology.

What are mRNA Vaccines?

First introduced to the population through the COVID-19 vaccines, mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) vaccines have been in development for decades, says Folta in a recent AgriTalk segment.

He adds that the technology’s potential in human health makes it a likely candidate to have a place in animal health as well. However, “the technology is being maligned in social media, and is now shaping decisions at the level of state legislature,” Folta says. This leads to the growing importance that producers and consumers become more educated on the topic.

What Folta believes began in January of this year, based on claims with very little data, certain advocates against mRNA vaccines are concerned that mRNA vaccines are in use and development in livestock. Additionally, these vaccines may then be present in the food these animals provide.

Why mRNA Vaccines Are Not Present in Food

“It’s not in your food. It’s a vaccine for the animal that, just like any vaccine, protects the animal from disease,” Folta says.

Current mRNA vaccines being used in swine are injected into the muscle, Folta explains, which causes the development of the immune response protein to then stimulate the body to work against the virus.

“In the absence of the virus, it’s kind of like giving the virus or giving the body a ‘wanted’ poster that says, ‘when this individual comes along, and this virus comes along, work against it,’ and it’s all gone within hours,” he adds.

The mRNA never leaves the cells from where it was injected. RNA is a very unstable molecule that must be kept cold, buffered and in solvent, to remain viable, Folta explains.

Additionally, any licensed vaccine comes with a minimum time before that animal can enter the food chain, also known as the “withdrawal time,” says Alan Young, professor in the Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences at South Dakota State University and founder of protein platform (non-mRNA) vaccine company Medgene.

The Animal’s Genes Are Not Altered

While mRNA vaccines include genetic code, Folta says the use of a mRNA vaccines does not alter the animal’s genes in any way.

“This [mRNA] is an intermediate between the gene itself and the products that the gene encodes. So, it’s like having a blueprint and a house. The mRNA is like the construction worker. It takes the blueprint and manufactures the house. In the case of the cell, it takes the DNA blueprint and then takes a little bit of that information to build part of the final structure. The mRNA is just that intermediate, it does not change the genes. It doesn’t change the DNA itself,” he explains.

What are the Benefits of mRNA Vaccines?

More flexibility and faster response to new disease, Folta describes as reasons why mRNA vaccines are becoming more popular.

Traditional vaccines require large amounts of a virus to be raised and purified before being injected to elicit an immune response, he adds. Meanwhile, mRNA encourages the body to make a little piece of protein to elicit the desired immune response.

“It’s much cleaner, much easier. If you’re moving parts in this machine, to make this product that induces an immune response, it’s so good in so many ways,” Folta says.

In pork production specifically, researchers are working with mRNA vaccines that will work this way against porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), which is a viral disease that causes economic loss totals around $664 million per year in the U.S. (Holtkamp et al., 2013).

Additionally, the use of mRNA technology adds another tool to the toolbox, which may be helpful in combating diseases, such as African swine fever (ASF), avian influenza and other food-animal diseases.
“This stands to be a revolutionary technology if we don’t get in the way,” Folta adds.

Are There Risks to mRNA Vaccines?

Folta says everything has some sort of risk, but it’s important to weigh the benefits against the risk.
As seen with the COVID-19 vaccines, in rare cases, people experienced side effects from the vaccine. However, Folta is encouraged by the initial results in livestock.

“If you look in animals where these [vaccines] have been used, there have been no unusual effects noted. Everything potentially has risk, but it’s monitored, and especially in large animal populations, we can look very carefully at that for surveillance,” he explains.

mRNA Enters State Legislation

While some consumers spread misinformation about the use of mRNA vaccines, the ideas have also crept into state legislation.

The Missouri House Bill 1169 , with a special hearing set for Apr. 19 on the matter, aims to require a label be used on meat from animals treated with an mRNA vaccine, identifying the “potential gene therapy product.”
This bill falsely claims that mRNA vaccines would modify the genes of the organism, Folta explains.

mRNA vaccines are simply another modality that can protect animal health, which results in healthy animals producing the best and safest food products, Folta says, and provides producers with more options to help combat disease.

“To have affordable food, we need to have continual innovation in the animal, medical, veterinary space and mRNA vaccines are safe and an effective way to treat the animal that does not change the final product,” he adds.

The COVID-19 pandemic simply “broke the seal” to the development of these new modalities that will change the way human and animal diseases will be treated in the years to come.

More on Vaccines:

Genvax Technologies Secures $6.5 Million to Advance Novel Vaccine Platform

Cattle Veterinarians Have New Vaccination Guidelines

Don’t Assume That Old Refrigerator Is Good Enough To Store Vaccines

OTC Livestock Antibiotics Will Require Prescription June 11

Why You Need to Pay Attention Now to EPA’s Proposed Rodenticide Mitigation Measures

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 01:18:52 GMT

Out of sight, out of mind. That theory works for a while until it doesn’t, especially when it comes to rodent control.

“Rodenticide use is like using insecticides. If you don’t see any cockroaches, you don’t worry about them. But once you see one, you throw the bomb at it,” says Larry Delozier, director of national poultry account sales for QC Supply.

Similarly, once you see a mouse or rat, it’s likely you have a big problem on your hands , explains Steve Von Haden, Midwest business manager for Motomco.

“Always assume you have rodents, and you should be putting bait out,” Von Haden says. “All agricultural buildings or structures will have rodents of some type. You just don’t want it to get to such high peaks it causes structural damage, diseases and contamination of food sources .”

Pending regulation could mean agriculture loses critically important tools to protect food security. EPA is proposing significant changes to rodenticides that would result in the canceling of products and uses, add more requirements to the labels, and reclassify some products to restricted use pesticides .

“Regardless of whether you are a livestock producer or citrus grower or manager of a golf course, this will have an impact on your ability to effectively manage a destructive farm pest,” says John Walt Boatright, director of government affairs at American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). “It’s one more challenge in a regulatory environment where challenges continue to grow for the American producer.”

What is EPA Proposing?

On Nov. 29, 2022, the EPA released for public comment new proposed mitigation measures for 11 rodenticides, which if implemented, will have a major impact on all currently available rodenticide products, the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) said on its website . The agency’s proposals are the most significant changes to rodenticides in 15 years that will result in the canceling of products and uses, add more requirements to the labels, and reclassify some products to restricted use pesticides, ARA noted.

EPA’s recommended changes are included in four Proposed Interim Decision documents (PIDs) that cover: 1) the seven anticoagulant rodenticides; 2) bromethalin and cholecalciferol; 3) strychnine; and 4) zinc phosphide.

“EPA’s proposal is quite wide-ranging, and it is going to impact any user of rodenticides and how rodenticides are applied,” Boatright explains. “The challenge is many of EPA’s proposed mitigation measures introduce additional challenges for on-farm application. I don’t know that they will have the intended effect that EPA thinks they’ll have.”

Boatright says this should be very concerning for everyone in the agricultural supply chain who apply rodenticides. Michael Formica, chief legal strategist for the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), says it will also have a negative impact in urban areas where rodent infestation is a major problem.

“This is an example of one area where rural communities can build positive engagement and cooperate with urban communities. As much as rats and rodents are pests on the farm, they are even more so in an urban area,” Formica says. “In the back alleys in DC, you see rats that look like cats racing from one building to another, running around at night. People don’t want to live with them.”

And they shouldn’t have to, Delozier says. Rodent control companies have made effective, safe bait under EPA’s existing stringent restrictions. EPA’s proposed measures will add great cost and will likely be prohibitive for many.

What Does This Mean for Farmers?

If this proposal is enacted, rodenticide users will see many new restrictions.

“The average livestock farmer wouldn’t be able to use them, you would have to go through certification and training in your state,” Formica explains. “If you’ve got a row crop or grain operation, a lot of folks have that certification because they spray pesticides. But most livestock farmers don’t have all those different certifications.”

Certifications would be required annually, which takes a lot of time, paperwork and training.

“If you don’t have that certification, you would need to hire exterminators to come out. That’s expensive and creates its own biosecurity problem because you’re having people come out not just to apply the rat poison, but also pick up the dead rats,” Formica says.

Pick up dead rats? Yes, that’s part of the new measures, too.

“The proposal talks about mandatory carcass searches in the field. That seems to be quite a challenge to expect a farmer or a farm worker to stop what they’re doing and search for rodent carcasses in potentially hundreds or thousands of acres,” Boatright says.

Once the rodent carcasses are found, farmers would be required to not just log them, but also pick them up and dispose of them.

Another limitation of these measures includes the requirement of single-use base stations, which would create a lot of garbage, Formica adds. The bait stations being used today are refillable.

What Will Happen if Rodent Bait Goes Off the Shelves?

“The more regulation you put on farmers, the more resistance you will have and that’s not conducive to the economic engine that is farming and food in the U.S.,” says Mike Slegl, vice president of product sales for QC Supply.

Farmers aren’t misusing product with the intent of controlling other things, Slegl adds. Some believe EPA is rushing to do this because of pressure from environmentalists for Endangered Species Act concerns.

“There is a potential major negative impact of an additional EPA regulation on the true sustainability of livestock production and the livelihood of farms,” Slegl says. “If it’s one more forced hand that overnight becomes more expensive to something they’re already doing, there’s going to be major resistance and people will push towards non-compliance.”

Delozier fears EPA’s rodenticide mitigation measures will ultimately increase the cost of goods to the consumer.

“Whenever we add requirements, there is always a cost that goes into the food system and will eventually cost the consumer more, too,” Delozier says. “Farmers are already using rodenticides that have to be EPA-approved.”

Darrin Karcher, a poultry specialist and associate professor at Purdue University, says it could be a double-edged sword.

“With the larger integrated companies, if they have to pay someone else to do it, they will pay someone because it has to be taken care of. Where it may catch are those individuals doing it themselves who may not have financial depths to pursue having other people take care of application,” Karcher says. “The question becomes, can they find a way to do that?”

An Increased Biosecurity Risk

And what if they can’t? Rodents present a major biosecurity risk for farms. With devastating diseases like Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in the poultry industry and the threat of deadly foreign animal diseases like African swine fever (ASF) in the pork industry, leaders fear how this could impact the health of the nation’s livestock herds.

“The restricted-use pesticide designation concerns me,” says Matthew Galloway, Midwest sales manager for ag rodenticides with Liphatech Inc. “For the broiler and breeder side of the poultry industry, there are hundreds of thousands of barns all over the U.S. One contract grower often has four or five barns and there may be several thousand barns within each company. If farmers don’t get their license, they will have to hire an outside applicator. Then you run into the risk of biosecurity breaches. We can’t have applicators running through multiple farms over a week’s time, otherwise we’ll really see a massive problem.”

It’s also a major problem if rodents get out of control because farms can’t afford the added cost.

“You can put all the filters you want on the ventilation systems in your barns and be as biosecure of a facility as possible, but if rats can get in and out, they will find a way. They aren’t showering,” Formica says.

What Can You Do?

Every 15 years, pesticides are reviewed by EPA. This rodenticide review is part of a pilot project for EPA as they’re implementing their Endangered Species Act work plan. These mitigation measures seek to achieve compliance with their statutory directives at EPA, following recent court cases directing EPA.

“We will see this approach in reviewing other pesticides as well. Folks need to be prepared to provide input,” he says.

This is a proposed interim decision, Boatright explains. EPA will take comments through Feb. 13 and review them. They will then promulgate a final rule at some point in the future.

“Make your voice heard,” Liphatech’s Galloway says. “We’ve got to do everything we can. Submit comments to EPA.”

Both NPPC and AFBF are gathering feedback and information from its members and will be submitting comments to EPA by the Feb. 13 deadline.

“Weigh in and let elected officials know you value these products. The best thing you can do is call your member of Congress. We’re just coming out of three years of COVID, and there are tremendous human health issues of taking rodenticides off the market,” NPPC’s Formica says.

Read more about the rodent problem.

A Message to the Ag Industry about H5N1

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 20:49:16 GMT

“We’re going on a bear hunt. We’re going to catch a big one… We’re not scared.”

So goes a beloved children’s book written by Michael Rosen. The story is a metaphor for how to address fear. Kay Russo, DVM, often reads it to her son and daughter, ages 4 and 6.

“This unfortunate family seems to deal with a lot of issues as they’re going on their hike,” Russo says. “Ultimately, every time they reach one of these issues, the book basically says, ‘You know, we can’t go over it. We can’t go around it. We can’t go under it. We have to go through it.’”

That story illustrates how the dairy industry must deal with the growing impact of H5N1, says Russo, Novonesis technical services manager for dairy and poultry. She’s watched the spread of the virus with alarm and urges U.S. leaders across dairy and agriculture to step up and take action.

“Address it head-on,” she says. “Don’t hide.”

As with all major threats, she says ag needs a comprehensive, cohesive plan to address the virus in dairy – and to also look at how to protect the beef, pork and poultry industries.

“At this point, I believe it’s important to take one day at a time and systematically answer the questions that we need to get answered in order to define a sustainable path forward,” Russo says.

“We have a very clear picture that it’s in the udder and is being shed in milk. But where else do we need to be concerned? That matters because that is going to define the control tactics to reduce spreading it from cow to cow. Those questions are ultimately going to be the pillar of our understanding and help to define strategies for controlling the virus in a sustainable way.”

On The Front Line
Help can’t come soon enough for dairy producers and veterinarians in the trenches working with cows.

Veterinarians such as Dr. Barb Petersen in Texas have been dealing with the virus in their clients’ dairy herds since at least March.

“It has been circulating here as early as February, based on retrospective feedback from owners and fellow veterinarians,” says Petersen, owner of Sunrise Veterinary Service in Amarillo.

By early March, she had begun sending daily emails and text messages to her Texas Panhandle dairy clients who needed answers and support.

Petersen, who has been in practice 15 years, did her best to provide both. But she didn’t know what she was dealing with. Neither did any other veterinarian Petersen reached out to within 200 miles of her practice.

“We started to text and email each other, and give summaries of ‘OK, here’s the test that this doctor has run. Here’s what another colleague has run,’” Petersen recalls.

“We tested for every single viral bacterial mycotoxin, lepto, rumensin toxicity, nitrates… I mean, you name it, every single thing that we vaccinate for, we tested for, for sure, right off the bat. And then even some of the things that we don’t or can’t vaccinate for. We tried to cast a really wide net.”

None of the initial tests, conducted by the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (TVMDL), provided an answer.

Recurring Symptoms Emerge

Some members of the animal health community suspected winter dysentery – an acute, highly contagious gastrointestinal disorder that can affect housed dairy cattle of all ages.

Petersen was skeptical.

“The first clinical symptom I saw was cows that had indigestion. They had manure that wasn’t well-digested, manure with particles of feed in it,” she says.

As she checked more cows and talked with colleagues, more information came to light and she began to identify recurring symptoms: thick, colostrum-like milk; lesions on cow vulvas; high temperatures; respiratory distress; a drop in feed consumption; and a corresponding lack of rumination. None of it added up to winter dysentery.

“This is a really strong and fierce reminder to keep your hands on the cows,” Petersen says. “It’s wonderful to have data, but you have to trust and then verify.”

When Russo at Novonesis got news of the problem from a colleague, she called Petersen.

Russo has worked as a dairy veterinarian and is also a board-certified poultry veterinarian. She and Petersen discussed what kinds of tests had already been done and what health concerns had been ruled out.

“I said, ‘You know, I may sound like a crazy person, a tinfoil-hat-wearing person, but this sounds a bit like (highly pathogenic avian) influenza to me. We’ve seen this particular strain of influenza that’s been circulating, that’s been jumping into mammalian hosts,’ and I kind of left it there,” Russo recalls.

More conversations between Russo, Petersen and other veterinarians ensued. Russo encouraged Petersen to collect some of the dead birds she had encountered at the dairies and submit them to TVMDL for testing, which she did.

On March 19, Petersen received a call from the Texas lab, confirming the wild birds were positive for H5N1.

At about the same time, barn cats at the dairies Petersen worked with were getting sick and starting to die. They had consumed some of the H5N1-infected birds and milk that had not been pasteurized.

“I spent one weekend picking up dead birds and the next weekend picking up dead cats. It was very sad,” Petersen says.

Science Provides Answers
Petersen sent some of the dead cats and a pooled sample of milk to TVMDL pathologists for testing. Because of their heavy workload, she sent the same material to a former veterinary classmate at Iowa State University (ISU), Dr. Drew Magstadt, now a pathologist at the school’s diagnostic laboratory.

“Whenever I’ve gotten into a real jam professionally – like, you have a question that you can’t seem to find an answer to – the group of folks that have always helped me solve it have been pathologists,” Petersen says. “It’s been pathologists that I could give the clues to who helped finish the puzzle.”

On a warm March night in Amarillo, Petersen sat resting on her back porch at home when a text message from Magstadt popped up on her phone.

“There’s something in the results,” he wrote. “Can I call you?”

On the phone, Magstadt shared what he’d found in the lab tests done on the cats and milk: H5N1.

“I was like, ‘Are you serious?’” Petersen asked Magstadt. “Are you going to run those tests again?”

“Yes,” he said. “Just to make sure.”

The initial H5N1 confirmation flabbergasted Magstadt. The next day, he retested the samples to confirm the finding.

“I had thought we would find the results were negative and we would move on to other testing. So I was very, very surprised when the results came back positive,” says Magstadt, ISU clinical associate professor and a pathologist at the Iowa State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

The National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) then confirmed Magstadt’s findings. The documentation of H5N1 by NVSL in a sample of milk from a dairy cow represented an industry first.

“The most surprising part of this, in my mind, is the fact that we’re finding so much virus as we are in the milk, in the mammary gland,” Magstadt says.

‘Show Us The Data’
On April 23, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported it had detected “viral particles of H5N1 avian influenza” in pasteurized milk available for purchase at grocery stores.

Russo is quick to point out this doesn’t mean the actual virus is in milk. Rather, it’s the genetic material known as RNA.

“I think the FDA needs to show us the data,” Russo says. “The fact that there is viral material in some of the milk on shelves, as detected by rt-PCR. That test doesn’t say whether it is alive or dead. Virus isolation is necessary. The first tests have not grown virus, thankfully, but we need more data.”

No unusual human illnesses have been documented. Government health officials say they have seen nothing unusual in flu activity, according to a senior official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who was interviewed for this story. The overall assessment and risk to human health remains low from H5N1, the official says.

“CDC looks for a host of flu-like symptoms,” he told “U.S. Farm Report” host Tyne Morgan during a phone interview. “They do so by looking at people coming into emergency rooms, care systems, etc.”

Yet anecdotal evidence suggests the people most likely to be infected – dairy farm workers who have their hands on cows regularly – aren’t necessarily going to doctors for treatment.

The World Health Organization (WHO) website references just one “laboratory-confirmed case of human infection with an influenza A (H5N1) virus on 1 April 2024” on a dairy farm.

“It’s a mild, mild case and the only symptom he had was pinkeye,” Sid Miller, state commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture, told “AgriTalk” host Chip Flory at the time, as reported on AgWeb.

That Texas case marked the second confirmed human case of influenza A(H5N1) detected in the U.S. — and the first in the dairy industry. The first documented case, identified in 2022, involved a person in Colorado who worked with infected poultry that tested positive for the virus.

During his interview with Miller, Flory asked whether the virus could impact beef cattle at some point.

“You’ve seen what’s happened in the cattle markets,” Flory said. “They’re looking at it like this is a major problem for beef.”

Problems aren’t anticipated for Texas beef cattle, which consist primarily of feedlot cattle in the Panhandle, Miller replied.

“The cattle that get it are the older lactating cows, and we don’t have those in the feedlot,” Miller explained. “I think we’re OK, but we’re certainly going to research that.”

Tip Of The Iceberg?
So far, H5N1 has been officially confirmed in only 32 herds in eight states, according to data from USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

Some veterinarians working with dairies in Texas believe the virus is more active than current data suggest. Nick Schneider, a consulting dairy practitioner, is one of them.

“The thing is, when you get into the Panhandle of Texas, I’m not sure there’s anybody (dairy farms) that did not have it,” says Schneider.

Texas is home to 335 Grade A dairies with an estimated 625,00 cows, according to information on the Texas Association of Dairymen website. More than 100 of those operations are in the Panhandle.

The virus likely is being under-reported by the dairy industry because the presence of the virus in dairy cows is new, and there are no reporting requirements, Russo says.

“It’s not a foreign animal disease like it’s considered in poultry, where there are reporting requirements,” she explains. “This is considered an emerging disease (in dairy cattle).”

The dairy industry needs to be “very forward looking” now and address the virus, advises Schneider, the Texas dairy consultant.

“Looking at what happened in the rearview mirror is great, but if you’re not looking at where you’re going, it’s really just a pointless endeavor,” he says.

To that end, he advises gaining insights and expertise in preparation for whatever new information emerges next.

“We need to think about this potentially being something we have to live with, as being a part of the industry in the future,” Schneider says. “I hope I’m wrong. I would love to be wrong about that. But it’s something that we definitely need to consider when we’re thinking of how we’re going to manage it.”

Lessons From Swine And Poultry
Russo also advocates learning the lessons from swine and poultry, which have faced a variety of viral challenges for years.

“It’s important that we don’t try to reinvent the wheel as the cattle industry, but sort of cross the aisle to interact with the poultry folks and the swine folks who have gone through this repeatedly over the years and learn from the defined principles they use and try to adapt them into the bovine space,” she says.

Both swine and poultry have modified their animal management practices from the farm to the marketplace as a result of those experiences.

“Poultry, for instance has very distinct biosecurity principles they abide by to include lines of separation,” Russo says. “One is they keep the outside world out. Another is their use of PPE (physical protective equipment) to protect employees and also the birds from anything that might be carried onto the farm.”

The latter is a message Dr. Barb Petersen has taken to heart. Petersen says she was exposed to H5N1 for more than a month before she learned about the virus and its ability to infect dairy cows and people.

“I’m very fortunate that I never got sick,” she says.

Her advice? “Protect yourselves and your people on the dairy. There’s been underreporting of the virus. Understandably, there’s been a lot of fear. But every dairy that I’ve worked with has – with the exception of one – had sick human beings at the same time they had sick cows.”

Based on that knowledge, Petersen has acquired PPE available through Texas Health and Human Services.

“All the states have personal protective equipment available. Go and get it for your dairies,” she encourages other veterinarians. “If a dairy is on the fence, just provide it to them, offer it to everybody.”

Petersen says she has worked with people infected by H5N1 who do not interact with dairy cows. “I’m talking owners and feeders who don’t usually touch cows,” she says.

Research is underway to determine how much of a health risk the virus poses to humans, Russo says.

“This is a rapidly evolving situation, and the people that are working on it are doing everything they can to ensure the safety of those individuals that are most at risk,” she says.

A Paradigm Shift
The virus continues to hit the U.S. poultry industry hard.

Cal-Maine Foods, the largest producer and distributor of fresh shell eggs in the U.S., announced April 2 that chickens at its facility in Parmer County, located in the southwest part of the Texas Panhandle, tested positive for the virus. As a result, Cal-Maine had to cull nearly 2 million chickens − 1.6 million hens and 337,000 pullets.

In the AgriTalk discussion aired earlier this spring, Flory asked Miller, the Texas ag commissioner, whether he believes state agriculture department investigators are in front of the latest issues with HPAI in dairy cattle.

“I think so,” Miller replied. “We’ve got about 10 months before the ducks and geese come back, so I think we’ll have it figured out by then.”

Moving forward, the U.S. livestock industry might operate in a new world – one where the H5N1 virus is endemic.

Russo is undaunted by the challenge.

“This is not insurmountable, but it’s an issue we need to address swiftly,” she says.

Culled dairy cows going into the food supply deserve special attention, she says.

“We need to do the work so that we can define those movement strategies for the practitioners that are being asked to write health certificates on these farms that have the virus circulating,” Russo says.

The dairy industry needs to be more proactive for the sake of the poultry industry, she adds.

“Putting our heads in the sand, and hoping it burns itself out is not going to work. It’s just not,” she says. “It would take down the entire poultry industry by doing that, because this is highly pathogenic to them.”

That is not hyperbole, Russo says: a dime-sized piece of manure with H5N1 can infect up to 1 million chickens or turkeys.

In essence, the livestock industry needs to go on a bear hunt, as the children’s story says.

‘We can’t go over it. We can’t go around it. We can’t go under it. We have to go through it.”

With that as the focus, solutions to H5N1 can be found and help delivered to livestock producers and veterinarians on the front lines and, ultimately, the U.S. agriculture industry can insure a safe food supply.

This story will be updated by Bovine Veterinarian and Farm Journal editorial staff as more information is available.

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Get the Facts Straight on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 19:12:13 GMT

Updated as of 4.10.24

Now that the mystery illness impacting dairy herds in multiple states has been revealed as the same strain of influenza virus [Influenza A (H5N1)] that has been impacting the U.S. poultry flock, pork producers are asking a lot of questions. Is this strain transmittable to pigs? Should livestock producers with cattle and pigs be concerned about cross-species transmission?

Those are all important questions, but understanding influenza is the best place to start, says National Pork Board chief veterinarian Dusty Oedekoven.

“Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) is influenza. HPAI is an official term defined by the severity of the mortality rate in poultry,” he explains.

Within strains of influenza A, the naming convention goes by two proteins on the outer surface of the virus: hemagglutinin (H type) and neuraminidase (N type). Typically, HPAI is of the H5 or H7 types, but there are many other possibilities as there are 18 hemagglutinin types and 11 neuraminidase types, he explains.

“Not all of those occur in poultry, not all of those occur in pigs, and not all of those occur in humans,” Oedekoven clarifies. “But the term highly pathogenic applies to poultry.”

He believes the reason it’s making headlines as HPAI is because it’s the same strain, H5N1, or similar strain that has been found recently in poultry where they have designated it as HPAI.

“Maybe that’s a narrow thing to tease apart,” he points out. “But in my mind, I hope we can separate that a little bit. This is influenza A virus.”

Influenza A viruses affect many warm-blooded animals, including birds and mammals. That’s nothing new, Oedekoven says. Influenza A viruses have been identified in cattle in the past, as well as swine and birds.

“If we think about influenza in domesticated species and humans, we are typically looking at the cycle between humans and pigs,” he says. “Pigs become amplifying hosts of influenza A viruses and the mixing vessel for different types of viruses, as are birds. Birds can get multiple viruses and those viruses mutate within the bird, and new strains evolve. That’s how we have new strains of the virus that emerge and become different strains.”

And that’s why receiving the annual flu vaccine is so important, he adds.

“It’s likely the vaccines we got last year were designed for a different strain than what we’re looking at this year because the virus reassorted and it’s slightly different. Scientists predicting which strain we might be dealing with for the vaccine are right sometimes, and sometimes they miss the mark a little and you may see more influenza in a given year,” he says.

Fact #1: The threat of influenza virus infection in people and pigs is ever present.

Oedekoven says he has not heard of the H5N1 strain being identified in pigs at this time.

“We know pigs are susceptible to influenza A viruses, and swine influe-nza is not uncommon in the U.S. We see outbreaks of routine swine influe-nza fairly frequently,” he says. “We don’t know if there’s any special higher risk of disease or illness or mortality for pigs due to this virus strain than any other swine influenza strain we have.”

The key is diligent observation. If producers see signs of illness in their pigs, Oedekoven urges them to contact their veterinarians.

On the same hand, if they see signs of respiratory illness or flu-like symptoms in people, seek advice from healthcare providers.

Influenza A viruses are common in people, just like they are pigs. Influenza viruses are constantly changing and reassorting.

“The threat of influenza virus infection in people and pigs is ever present. It’s why healthcare providers recommend people get annual influenza vaccines to prevent against new strains of the virus that are emerging all the time,” he says.

This doesn’t represent an elevated threat, Oedekoven adds.

“It’s recognition of a threat we know is there,” he says. “Influenza viruses exist and circulate in people all the time.”

Good sanitation and hygiene are important. If employers have workers who are ill with influenza signs, don’t let them come to work because they could potentially spread that disease to the pigs, which could cause more spread to other humans.

Fact #2: There’s no evidence to support a higher risk of influenza infection from cattle to pigs than exists otherwise.

“We’re not even sure yet to what extent this strain of influenza may be transmitted from cattle,” he says.

USDA reports bovine influenza A virus (originally referred to as HPAI in many reports) in dairy cattle was first identified in samples that included unpasteurized milk from one dairy farm in Texas and two in Kansas, as well as an oropharyngeal swab from another dairy in Texas. The virus was first confirmed in one Texas herd on March 21 by Iowa State University’s diagnostic lab that was helping Texas labs process samples more quickly. Affected farms also reported finding deceased wild birds on their properties.

“Most waterfowl and wild bird species can carry influenza viruses, but usually they don’t die from it. They are good carriers of it and can become infected and produce high levels of the virus and spread it. It’s always a good biosecurity practice to keep birds away from your pigs,” he says.

Remain Vigilant
Megan Niederwerder, executive director of the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC), encourages producers to keep close tabs on biosecurity protocols to reduce risk of pathogen exposure from wildlife.

“As part of the Swine Health Information Center’s Standardized Outbreak Investigation Form, there are several hazards associated with wild birds that can be proactively considered to enhance biosecurity,” Niederwerder explains.

Examples include surface water, wild bird access to inside swine barns, equipment stored outside, compost piles, mortality disposal boxes, open feed bags, open feed bin covers and feed spillage fed to pigs, she says.

“It is important to clean and disinfect tools and equipment with potential exposure to wildlife prior to utilizing inside facilities housing pigs,” Niederwerder says.     

Prompt investigation is key, Oedekoven says. This helps veterinarians and producers handle disease challenges better. USDA notes additional testing is underway, including genome sequencing, to characterize the strain(s) associated with the detections.

Spread the Word

Pork producers play an important role in disseminating truth, Oedekoven says. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, influenza has not been shown to spread through eating properly handled pork.

“You can’t get influenza from eating or handling pork,” Oedekoven emphasized. “There’s not a risk of acquiring influenza that way. The way that it is transmitted is through aerosolization and direct contact between infected animals, including humans.”

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Six Questions One Industry Veterinarian Says She Is Asked Most Often About HPAI

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 19:00:28 GMT

The emerging issue of Highly Pathogenic H5N1 Avian Influenza (HPAI) in the U.S. dairy industry changes on nearly a daily basis.

Novonesis (a merger of Chr. Hansen and Novozymes) hosted a webinar on the issue on Friday to update producers, veterinarians and other members of the agricultural community.

“It’s a rapidly evolving situation,” lead presenter, Kay Russo, DVM, Novonesis technical services manager for dairy and poultry, North America, stressed at the beginning of the program.

“I’m getting a lot of questions, and I’m sure everybody on this call has questions. Or if you’re a veterinarian, you’re receiving them,” she said. “Again, this is a rapidly evolving situation, and what may seem correct today may be different tomorrow.”

Here are the six questions Russo said she is most frequently asked, and what her answers to them are – for now. Russo’s answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

Question #1: Is HNAI spreading from cow to cow?

Answer: Initially the thought was that every one of these animals was exposed to the disease from a bird. But at this point, there is some consideration for the fact that this may be spreading laterally. How it’s spreading is still unclear. There is some postulation that the virus is being spread in the milking parlor. Could it potentially be a mechanical spread from cow to cow on the milkers’ hands, or perhaps (on) the milking machines? Is it possible in these parlors where the humidity is high, it’s a warm environment that we’re seeing some aerosolization of the virus, so I would say that’s possible too. But there’s more work that needs to be done. But for all intents and purposes at this time, I would suspect there is some lateral transmission.

Question #2: Why are calves, younger lactation cows and the feedlot cattle not getting sick?

Answer: Ultimately, I don’t know the answer to this. More work needs to be done. The question needs to be answered. Are they truly not getting infected with a virus? Are they resistant to it, perhaps? Or is it that they are getting infected and just not demonstrating the clinical signs? We milk a lot of these dairy cows three times a day, so there’s a lot of eyes on them. In some of these instances, with the calves or in the feedlot cattle, you’re not handling them as often. We need to rely on the science to answer these questions in order to provide guidelines. I keep saying this, and I will continue to say it, we do not know what we do not measure. And we cannot provide guidelines around what we do not know.

Question #3: Is this a risk to humans?

Answer: The short answer is that it can infect humans. I know that in New Mexico, they are offering free testing to individuals that are working regularly with these infected herds. And if they are symptomatic – we’re seeing conjunctivitis and high fevers in some of them –they are being distributed Tamiflu for their use and for their families. This is a rapidly evolving situation, and the people that are working on it are doing everything they can to ensure the safety of those individuals that are most at risk.

Question #4: Is milk safe?

Answer: The FDA has stated the pasteurization process should kill the virus, and we should not see it in any saleable milk.

Question #5: Will this be a market limiting disease outbreak?

Answer: This is the major concern here, folks. These are important markets for us in this country. At this point, this is something that is absolutely a consideration. The goal here is to keep the farms in business.

Question #6: Are dairy farms a risk to poultry operations?

Answer: We’ve seen two commercial layer operations, one in West Texas and one in Michigan, be positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza this week. I know that there’s considerable amounts of work behind the scenes to determine the origin of the virus that caused the outbreak in those situations. Ultimately, in this circumstance, it’s going to be important that the cattle folks and the poultry folks come to the same table and talk and manage through this. We want to be good neighbors. These are two major industries in our country, so it’s important that the dialogue is there and continues so that we can keep (everyone) safe.

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Rare Human Case of Bird Flu Confirmed. Officials Believe it Began on Texas Dairy

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 19:07:46 GMT

Just a week after discovering that Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, also known as bird flu, was the cause of illness for several dairy herds throughout the Texas Panhandle, New Mexico and Kansas , the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) is now reporting that a human case of avian influenza A(H5N1) virus has been confirmed in Texas. The case was identified in a person who had direct exposure to dairy cattle presumed to be infected with the disease.

The patient, who experienced eye inflammation as their only symptom, was tested for flu late last week with confirmatory testing performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the weekend. Currently, the patient is being treated with the antiviral drug oseltamivir. The DSHS reports that the human case does not change the risk for the general public, which still remains low.

According to the CDC, this is the second human case of H5N1 flu in the U.S. and the first linked to an exposure to cattle. Symptoms can include a fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, headaches, fatigue, eye redness, shortness of breath, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, or seizures. The illness can range from mild to severe, and health care providers who come across someone who may have the virus should “immediately consult their local health department,” according to the alert.

“The risk to the general public is believed to be low; however, people with close contact with affected animals suspected of having avian influenza A(H5N1) have a higher risk of infection,” the alert said.

While the disease is new to the dairy industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says there is no safety concern to the commercial milk supply. Consumer health is also not at risk, the department said. The milk from impacted animals is being dumped or destroyed and will not enter the food supply.

“Milk from impacted animals is being diverted or destroyed so that it does not enter the human food supply,” agencies said. “In addition, pasteurization has continually proven to inactivate bacteria and viruses, like influenza, in milk. FDA’s longstanding position is that unpasteurized, raw milk can harbor dangerous microorganisms that can pose serious health risks to consumers, and FDA is reminding consumers of the risks associated with raw milk consumption in light of the HPAI detections.”

The virus was detected in dairy herds in Texas and Kansas last week and has since spread to additional herds in at least five states, all of which include:

Texas
Kansas
New Mexico
Idaho
Michigan

This leads some scientists to believe that the virus may be spreading cow-to-cow.

Texas officials are guiding affected dairies about how to minimize workers’ exposure and how people who work with affected cattle can monitor for flu-like symptoms and get tested.

In addition, officials are strongly advising dairy producers to use all standard biosecurity measures. They note it’s important for producers to clean and disinfect all livestock watering devices and isolate drinking water where it might be contaminated by waterfowl. Farmers are also being asked to notify their herd veterinarian if they suspect any cattle within their herd are displaying symptoms of this condition.

“Unlike affected poultry, I foresee there will be no need to depopulate dairy herds,” says Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. “Cattle are expected to fully recover. The Texas Department of Agriculture is committed to providing unwavering support to our dairy industry.”

For more n HPAI, read:

BREAKING: Mystery Illness Impacting Texas, Kansas Dairy Cattle is Confirmed as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Strain

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 19:23:32 GMT

A mystery illness that’s impacted dairy herds in the Texas Panhandle, New Mexico and Kansas now has a diagnosis : Influenza A. USDA says genetic sequencing revealed it’s the same strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) that’s been in the U.S. for two years .

APHIS says the “National Veterinary Services Laboratories” detected Influenza “A” in samples from several impacted herds in Texas, Kansas and New Mexico. The virus is carried by wild waterfowl, which experts think is how the illness is spreading. Even with the diagnosis, USDA is still not recommending movement restrictions of animals.

According to the Texas Department of Agriculture, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller received confirmation from the United States Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) that the mystery disease has been identified as a strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) commonly known as Bird Flu. To date, three dairies in Texas and one in Kansas have tested positive for HPAI.

USDA reports that affected dairy cows do not appear to be transmitting the virus to other cattle within the same herd. APHIS says based on findings from Texas, “the detections appear to have been introduced by wild birds. Initial testing by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories has not found changes to the virus that would make it more transmissible to humans, which would indicate that the current risk to the public remains low.”

APHIS also says federal and state agencies are moving quickly to conduct additional testing for HPAI, as well as viral genome sequencing, to better understand the situation, including characterization of the HPAI strain or strains associated with these detections.

The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) also says they are “vigilantly monitoring this outbreak.”

“This presents yet another hurdle for our agriculture sector in the Texas Panhandle,” Miller said in a statement. “Protecting Texas producers and the safety of our food supply chain is my top priority. The Texas Department of Agriculture will use every resource available to maintain the high standards of quality and safety that define Texas agriculture.”

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Officials are strongly advising dairy producers to use all standard biosecurity measures. They note it’s important for producers to clean and disinfect all livestock watering devices and isolate drinking water where it might be contaminated by waterfowl. Farmers are also being asked to notify their herd veterinarian if they suspect any cattle within their herd are displaying symptoms of this condition.

“Unlike affected poultry, I foresee there will be no need to depopulate dairy herds,” Miller added. “Cattle are expected to fully recover. The Texas Department of Agriculture is committed to providing unwavering support to our dairy industry.”

As AgWeb and AgDay first reported last week , dairy farmers in the Texas Panhandle, NewMexico and Kansas were dealing with quite the mystery. Something is causing milk production to nosedive, and veterinarians and state officials can’t pinpoint what it is. In affected cowherds, the issue impacts nearly 10% of the animals, causing reduced feed consumption and a 10% to 20% decline in milk production.

A Texas dairy farmer told Farm Journal the mystery illness acts similar to the flu and impacts only older cows. While the majority of cases are being reported in Texas, the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP), the nation’s largest cattle veterinary association, told Farm Journal last week they have some veterinarian members in New Mexico and Kansas who also reported symptoms.

Milk Still Safe to Drink, Meat Safe to Eat

The dairy industry sent out a join release following the news, reminding consumers milk is still safe to drink.

“Importantly, USDA confirmed that there is no threat to human health and milk and dairy products remain safe to consume. Pasteurization (high heat treatment) kills harmful microbes and pathogens in milk, including the influenza virus,” said the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC), and Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) in a joint statement.

“Also, routine testing and well-established protocols for U.S. dairy will continue to ensure that only safe milk enters the food supply. In keeping with the federal Grade ‘A’ Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO), milk from sick cows must be collected separately and is not allowed to enter the food supply chain. This means affected dairy cows are segregated, as is normal practice with any animal health concern, and their milk does not enter the food supply. Consumers in the United States and around the world can remain confident in the safety and quality of U.S. dairy,” the statement said.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) also released a statement on Monday, saying they are aware that USDA confirmed HPAI in samples collected from dairy cattle in the United States. They say it’s important to note the agency confirmed there is no threat to human health, and milk and meat remains safe to consume.

“At present, HPAI has not been detected in beef cattle. However, producers are encouraged to implement enhanced biosecurity measures on their farms and ranches to help protect their herds,” NCBA said in a statement.

The Meat Institute also reminded consumers that meat is still safe to consume.

“According to the Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) and USDA food safety experts, properly prepared beef is safe to eat,” said Julie Anna Potts, CEO of the Meat Institute. “HPAI cannot be transmitted to humans by eating meat or poultry products.”

The Meat Institute also asked the White House and trade officials to make sure uninterrupted trade remains a priority.

“We call on Biden Administration officials to anticipate international trade concerns and encourage our trading partners to abide by internationally recognized scientific standards as determined by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH),” added Potts.

Symptoms Being Reported

AABP reported to Farm Journal the symptoms veterinarians are experiencing.

“It appears that the disease peaks in about three to four days and lasts 10 to 14 days. Older dairy cattle appear to be more clinically affected, with a more severely affected lactation,” says Dr. Fred Gingrich, cattle veterinarian and executive director of AABP. “And although it’s not consistent with every herd, it appears that it’s mostly affecting animals that are in mid- to late lactation. It’s pretty unusual that we have something going on in older animals, and it’s not in fresh cows.”

Gingrich says AABP understood there was a dire need to find answers for dairy producers.

“We understand right now that the primary impact of this disease is economic. These herds lose about 20% of their milk production for 14 to 21 days, which is a huge economic loss,” Gingrich says. “I think we always like to look for the bright side in a situation, and we don’t appear to have mortalities associated with this disease. That’s not happening, which is really great.”

As the industry works to uncover the factors causing the disease, Gingrich says what makes pinpointing the cause so difficult is trying to decipher what the main symptoms of the illness are versus the secondary symptoms and related issues.

“It’s not a pneumonia outbreak, as far as we can see, and it’s not a mastitis outbreak. I think that some of those things that we’re seeing on farms are probably secondary to the initial agent that’s causing cows to go off feed, and every dairy farmer knows that a cow that doesn’t eat is at risk to get other syndromes and other diseases. I think that’s what’s occurring right now.” he adds.

According to the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), here’s a summary of what the industry knows at this time:

The symptoms of the illness last between 10 and 14 days.
The exact cause of the illness is undiagnosed and still unknown.
Clinical signs include a sudden drop in milk production.
Some severely impacted cows are producing thicker, more concentrated, colostrum-like milk.
The problem causes a drop in feed consumption with a simultaneous drop in rumen function, accompanied by loose feces and some fever.
Impacted herds have reported older cows in mid-lactation may be more likely to be severely impacted than younger cows, fresh cows or heifers.
Dry cows and heifers do not appear to be affected.
Some herds have reported pneumonia and mastitis.

Texas officials say they are working with USDA to further monitor and evaluate reported cases.

“We’re trying to rule out infectious diseases in anything that might be related to feed or water or any kind of supplementation that these animals are receiving,” Dr. Lewis R. “Bud” Dinges, TAHC executive director and Texas state veterinarian, told Farm Journal last week.

Signs to Look For

Gingrich says both dairy producers and veterinarians should be on high alert and stay vigilant with biosecurity measures.

If you’re a dairy producer, Gingrich says these are some signs to look for:

Rapid onset of cows that aren’t eating
Either a drop in rumen activity or more feed in the bunk at the end of the day
A substantial loss in milk production

“These things are key,” says Gingrich. “Don’t just think you might have a bad batch of feed or that you have a respiratory outbreak and just need to vaccinate. If you see any of these issues, immediately call your veterinarian. I think that is important. I think the other thing that is important is, as with any disease, make sure you’re documenting it with good recordkeeping on who’s affected, when they are affected, et cetera. Good recordkeeping on sick cows applies to any disease. So I would encourage you to do that, as well.”

Texas Department of Agriculture says the Texas dairy industry is essential to the state, contributing roughly $50 billion in economic activity across the state. Texas also ranks fourth in milk production nationwide and continues to be a key player in the dairy industry.

U.S. Corn Farmers Wary of Vomitoxin, Latest Stress on Global Grain Supplies

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 17:12:23 GMT

By P.J. Huffstutter and Mark Weinraub

A fungus that causes “vomitoxin” has been found in some U.S. corn harvested this fall, causing headaches for growers and livestock producers and forcing ethanol plants and grain elevators to scrutinize grain deliveries.

The situation is another hit to global grain supplies that have sunk to the lowest in a decade since Russia invaded corn and wheat producer Ukraine. Drought has also slammed U.S. and European crops.

Feed made from grain contaminated with concentrated levels of the plant toxin can sicken livestock and lead to low weight gain, particularly among hogs, and grain buyers can reject cargoes or fine farmers for shipments that contain it.

Early signs of the toxin are emerging in Ohio, according to a weekly report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Grain buyers in eastern Indiana are also starting to more rigorously test corn deliveries for vomitoxin, according to farmers and elevator sources.

The toxin is also a problem for ethanol producers who sell a byproduct called distillers dried grains (DDGS) for animal feed. In the process of making ethanol, vomitoxin becomes more concentrated in DDGS, said Pierce Anderson Paul, a professor and epidemiologist with Ohio State University’s department of plant pathology.

POET LLC, the world’s largest ethanol producer, is testing for vomitoxin in grain being delivered to its plants in Fostoria, Leipsic and Marion, Ohio, and Portland, Indiana, according to the company’s website and corn growers who sell to these facilities.

That, in turn, has led to longer-than-normal traffic for farmers, who must await test results to know whether Poet will accept their loads, according to three producers.

Poet did not respond to a request for comment.

With just 56% of Ohio’s corn crop harvested, according to the latest government data, it is not known how widespread the issue is in the state or beyond.

The problem can emerge in areas where wet weather leads the fungus to grow in corn ears when harvest is slowed or delayed, Paul said.

Lane Osswald, a farmer who grows corn, soybeans and wheat on 1,500 acres of land near Eldorado, Ohio, said his crops were sheltered from disease by dry conditions throughout the summer.

But late season rains left some farmers’ crops vulnerable to vomitoxin, he said, particularly after wet fields delayed planting during the spring.

(Reporting By P.J. Huffstutter and Mark Weinraub in Chicago; Editing by David Gregorio)

Destructive, Formidable, Invasive: How is the U.S. Managing the Feral Hog Population?

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 14:51:43 GMT

With a population of over 6 million nationwide and causing up to $2.5 billion in damage annually to crops, forestry, livestock and pastures, the feral hog is one of the most destructive, formidable invasive specie s in the U.S., the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) says.

Known as a wild boar, razorback, feral hog or wild pig—to name a few, this species is known to adapt to nearly any habitat, reproduce at high rates and has few natural predators. Populations also pose risks to human health and safety as they can carry parasites and diseases such as pseudorabies and foodborne illnesses such as E. coli, toxoplasmosis, and trichinosis, USDA APHIS says.

To help protect agricultural and natural resources, property, animal health and human health and safety, APHIS established the National Feral Swine Damage Management Program in 2014. This has led to collaboration between several stakeholders, including states, tribes, universities and the public, as well as Canada and Mexico to support cross-border activities, APHIS explains.

To date, this initiative has worked with 41 states and 3 territories, removing all feral swine from 11 states, including Colorado , Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

Texas and California have also ramped up hunting measures to help control their wild pig populations.

Additionally, “the 2018 Farm Bill provided funding for APHIS and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to create the Feral Swine Eradication and Control Pilot Program ,” USDA APHIS says, targeting areas in the U.S. with high feral swine populations, such as the southeastern region.

African swine fever remains a concern across the globe. Many countries with confirmed cases, such as Italy and Hong Kong , trace their outbreaks back to wild pig populations.

APHIS and its partners continue to aim to limit the expansion of feral swine populations and the damage they cause.

Avian Flu Pressures Easter Egg Supply and Price

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 18:40:52 GMT

Easter egg supplies could be at risk due to the expanding outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). Analysts with CoBank are saying outbreaks and depopulation within the U.S. layer flock are adding stress to egg supply chains, many of which haven’t fully recovered from the disruptions caused by COVID.

While egg production has stabilized in recent months, it is still well below pre-pandemic levels and egg availability could be limited leading into Easter, according to a new research brief from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange .

“U.S. egg producers have been hard-pressed to align supplies with market demand over the last two years,” reports Brian Earnest, lead animal protein economist with CoBank. “The U.S. layer flock typically expands ahead of the surge in demand for Easter and contracts during the summer months. But recent losses due to HPAI have combined with high feed costs and other challenges that are severely limiting flock size management.”

Watch this report from AgDay:

The U.S. table egg layer flock itself is shrinking, from a record of more than 340 million head in April 2019 to about 322 million head as the ongoing cage-free transition has complicated operations. The decline in supply stems from extreme shifts in consumer behavior during 2020.

The lack of packaging equipment and supplies needed for grocery sales led to empty store shelves, sky-high retail prices, and ultimately, lower egg consumption. Compounding the pandemic challenges, producers also faced increased input costs of grain, energy and transportation.

The latest blow to U.S. egg supplies is the worst outbreak of HPAI in years. At least 11 million layers have been lost in recent weeks, CoBank reports. With USDA reporting new cases almost daily and depopulation of operations ranging from in the tens of thousands to more than 5.3 million birds,1 estimating the total expected losses is challenging.

While egg production has stabilized in recent months, it is still well below pre-Covid levels. USDA’s recent weekly shell egg demand indicator shows about five days of inventory are currently on hand. This suggests a tight, but not alarmingly tight supply, CoBank reports. However, it does not appear that supplies will be able to accommodate the reduction in layers as a result of HPAI outbreaks, especially at a regional level.

Wholesale prices for cartoned eggs usually range about $0.75 per dozen to $1.50 per dozen. The last time the egg market took flight was during consumer runs on product in the early stages of COVID-19. In March 2020, wholesale values were just over $1 per dozen, and went over $3.00 per dozen in just two weeks.

The bottom line: Expect to pay more for eggs this Easter.

New Study Investigates Feed Mill Decontamination in the Event of an ASF Outbreak

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 15:11:07 GMT

A new research study will evaluate methods for cleaning and disinfecting feed mills following a potential African swine fever (ASF) outbreak. The information gained will inform North American feed industries’ ASF preparedness plans as well as feed mill biosecurity plans to minimize supply chain and trade disruptions in the event of an outbreak.

The study is being conducted by the Institute for Feed Education and Research (IFEEDER), Animal Nutrition Association of Canada (ANAC), United Soybean Board (USB) and the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC).

“SHIC continues to look into all routes of entry and dissemination of emerging diseases, not just to identify these pathways, but to do something about them with research of this kind,” SHIC Executive Director Paul Sundberg, DVM, said in a release. “With partnership across the allied feed-related groups to benefit the U.S. swine herd, SHIC is encouraged to see this project move forward. We have learned that once ASF virus is in a feed mill, it will remain in that environment for a long time. This work is essential to address this risk to the U.S. swine herd.”

Over the course of 12-18 months, researchers will examine optimal methods for disinfecting feed mills, especially looking at feed manufacturing equipment that is not designed for disinfection. Researchers will test several disinfection and flushing procedures using three viruses known to be most stable in feed and endemic in the U.S., SHIC reports. Those viruses include Seneca Virus A (SVA), porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). Researchers will also determine the infectivity of feed and environmental samples after completely flushing and decontaminating equipment.

Feed inoculation and manufacturing will occur in Kansas State University’s Cargill Feed Safety Research Center, which includes a pilot-scale feed mill with pelleting capabilities and is approved for handling biosafety level 2 pathogens, Sundberg said. The infectivity of the samples will take place at Iowa State University.

“Over the past few years, the U.S. feed industry has taken steps to improve its biosecurity procedures to reduce the risk of ASF introduction and transmission at feed mills, such as voluntarily holding ingredients for extended periods and reducing foot-traffic onsite,” Lara Moody, IFEEDER executive director, said in a release. “Now, we are looking at filling knowledge gaps within the milling process – should an outbreak occur. There are currently no recommendations for best practices to clean and disinfect a feed manufacturing facility experiencing ASF contamination. With the support of American Feed Industry Association members, we are backing this research to provide guidance to companies to quickly and safely get their operations back up and running, minimizing any long-term shutdowns, which could have detrimental food supply chain and economic consequences.”

Although ASF poses no health concerns to humans, it is a highly contagious and deadly viral disease affecting pigs and has devastated swine industries across Africa, Europe and Asia. In the summer of 2021, it was detected in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the closest it has ever been to the U.S. mainland.

“The Canadian feed industry recognizes the devastating impact the introduction of ASF in North America would have on the swine industry,” Melissa Dumont, ANAC’s executive director, said in a release. “A strong biosecurity and supplier approval program is key to keeping animal diseases out of feed mills and these programs continue to evolve as the science evolves. However, if ASF were to be introduced in North America and enter feed mills, facilities are lacking the crucial information on how to decontaminate a feed mill. ANAC is excited to support this research project, which will provide critically important knowledge so we can adequately be prepared in the event of an outbreak and continue to provide all livestock with safe feed.”

More from Farm Journal’s PORK:

Why the U.S. Pork Industry Won’t Forget 2021

Close All the Windows to Keep ASF Out

ASF in the Western Hemisphere: What’s Different 40 Years Later?

It’s Time to Batten Down the Hatches, Pork Industry Experts Say

Learn more about what the industry is doing to prevent ASF from entering the country.

Wild Pigs Could Trigger Decimation of US Pork Industry

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 20:35:35 GMT

What happens when wild pigs are given 1,000 tons of groceries per day in the form of landfill trash? Expect an explosion in pig and litter size, and quite possibly, a $50 billion decimation of the entire U.S. pork industry.

The Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina has become ground zero for research drawing a nexus between wild pigs and the potential introduction of African swine fever (ASF) into the U.S. At an SRS location, wild pigs have grown notably bigger and birthed larger litters in just a handful of years, attributable to the establishment of a landfill—a veritable hog buffet. The SRS landfill and other similar refuse dumps across the U.S. may be ticking time bombs, and could open America’s door to ASF, an epic porcine disease with no vaccine or cure, and a century-long track record of sweeping over international borders and wiping out billions of pigs.

Sooner or Later?

In the sandhills region of western South Carolina, roughly 25 miles east of Augusta, Ga., the Department of Energy’s SRS covers a massive 198,046 acres across three counties (Aiken, Allendale, and Barnwell). The wild pig population of the general area has long been tracked by Jack Mayer, R&D manager at the Savannah River National Laboratory , and John Kilgo, research wildlife biologist for the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station .

In 2021, Mayer and Kilgo (along with Tommy Edwards and James Garabedian) published “Sanitary Waste Landfill Effects on an Invasive Wild Pig Population,” a report that turns anecdotal evidence into concrete fact. The report pulls back the curtain on an all-you-can-eat wild pig party, and the results are sobering, particularly when considering ASF ramifications.

In 1998, within an 8,000-acre wildlife management zone encompassed by the greater SRS region, Three Rivers Solid Waste Authority (TRSWA) began operation of an open (no fencing) 331-acre landfill encompassed by woods and shouldered in close proximity by two roads. The landfill’s actual garbage pits covered 69 acres and received 1,000 tons of waste each day—a magnet for wild pigs already capable of obtaining food from a litany of sources. A wild pig’s dietary latitude is phenomenal, from foraging roots, to accessing tree nuts, to hitting a freshly planted row of corn, to consuming the remains of dead mammals, or to functioning as a predator, i.e., the modus operandi of a truly opportunistic, efficient omnivore.

By at least 2001, wild pig sounders regularly were trafficking into the SRS landfill under cover of darkness and usually exiting close to dawn. By 2009, TRSWA employees reported 100-plus wild pigs foraging in the garbage pits every night. With plenty of cover and water in the surrounding wooded hills and hardwood bottoms, the wild pigs had maintained steady presence inside the area since the 1950s, but their numbers remained relatively stable. The landfill, however, upended the calculus.

In 2013, Kilgo began a telemetry study of mature sows with sounders in the vicinity of the landfill, utilizing trail cameras, trapping, and radio collars. His cameras positioned close to the TRSWA landfill told no lies: to the naked eye, the wild pigs appeared substantially larger when compared with pre-landfill photos and first-hand sightings. “John had pictures of pigs he was collaring and they were big, really big,” Mayer says. “I’ve been studying wildlife here since 1976 and I could tell instantly these pigs were bigger. Huge.”

“When I started trapping,” Kilgo concurs, “it was immediately obvious that pigs close to the landfill were noticeably bigger than pigs in the rest of the area. The telemetry showed them going to the landfill on a nightly basis. I imagine the jump in size began immediately after the landfill was first built.”

“It’s intuitive,” Mayer adds. “Let pigs into a landfill and they get free food, and they’ll increase in size, right? But no research had ever looked into exactly what else happens, and some of the answers we found should make people think hard about what could happen—sooner or later—in this country, and how devastating it could be for the pork industry.”

“In Front of Our Face”

Wild pigs have exploded in numbers across the U.S., possibly exceeding 6.5 million in just under 40 states, and their proliferation involves far more than a high birth rate and extreme intelligence. Wild pig control has become one of the greatest challenges in U.S. wildlife management history, and wild pig prosperity is partially due to a hog’s ability to thrive on a wide range of food sources—such as the fare offered in a landfill.

On control data ranging back to the 1970s, Mayer’s team already had a wealth of continuous SRS wild pig cull statistics in pocket. Across 11,296 hogs spread from 1980 to 2019, they found post-landfill weight gains in both sexes and all age classes. Comparing two lump sums from pre- and post-landfill wild pigs, weight gain averaged 20 lb. across all ages and both sexes (a shocking number considering the average includes piglets and juveniles). As a telltale exclamation point, the largest wild pigs ever killed at SRS were shot in woods within range of the landfill in 2018—a 400 lb. sow and 450 lb. boar.

“The research is striking in the pig size difference, especially in how fast this happened,” Kilgo notes. “There was one piglet we tagged at three weeks old and 8 lb. in weight, and we killed it a year and a half later at 250 lb.—an incredible rate of growth. All things being equal, he should have been about 130-140 lb., but most definitely not at 250.”

Further, with 799 sows harvested from 1980 to 2019, fetal litter in post-landfill sows registered at 7.1 piglets, compared with 5.9 for pre-landfill sows—just over one piglet in difference. The in utero litter increase of the single piglet meant a massive change in wild pig numbers. “The population modeling by increasing litter size as such over 10 years means a population difference of double in size—a huge difference,” Mayer explains. (He estimates close to 5,000 wild pigs currently inhabit the area.)

Following the thread, Mayer and Kilgo recorded a third category of significance directly related to wild pig size and frequency of travel in and out of the landfill: wild pig-motor vehicle collisions. According to data gathered since the mid-1970s, the SRS site had no recorded wild pig-motor vehicle collisions on either of the two roads (one private, one public) adjacent to the pre-landfill area, despite the constant presence of wild pigs in that area of SRS the entire time.

However, from 2000 onward, the same two roads experienced 20 wild pig-motor vehicle collisions, with at least 14 of the accidents occurring within an hour on either side of sunset or sunrise—the exact window wild pigs enter and exit the landfill for nightly foraging. “There were no collisions for a couple of decades, and then wild pig traffic shot up, and got so bad we had to put up the first ‘Hog Crossing’ signs in South Carolina,” Mayer says.

Considering the jump in size, fetal litter, and vehicle collisions, Mayer wasn’t surprised to see the wild pig population around the landfill possibly triple in size. “Control activities around the whole site are implemented uniformly by sending in subcontractors to kill wild pigs, but around the landfill, the harvest numbers tripled. We’ve never seen anything like this, and it means the landfill situation is producing bigger hogs, more hogs, and a safety risk. Allowing wild pigs access to a landfill is counter to controlling wild pigs.”

Yet, beyond wild pig control, the gravity of the Mayer-Kilgo research is noted in the report’s conclusion: “Several credible scenarios exist for the introduction of ASFV (African swine fever Virus) into the United States. Based on the paths of transmission across Eurasia, a number of these scenarios involve wild pigs foraging in landfills.”

Mayer offers a blunt, vernacular translation. “ASF could wreck the U.S. pork industry, and this is right in front of our face, and there are plenty of experts that believe ASF in the U.S. is just a matter of time. We know landfills played a role in ASF transmission in other parts of the world, and we know wild pigs are accessing landfills across the U.S. right now and could consume contaminated pork products. Look what just happened to China in 2019. They had about 440,000,000 pigs when ASF hit, the largest herd in the world, and had to kill at least 200,000,000.”

Game Over

ASF unleashes a sledgehammer effect on pig health, and triggered the death of a quarter (or more) of the world’s pig population over the last several years. The virus often carries a mortality rate close to 100% and is the kiss of death for a hog herd. If the virus reaches the U.S. pork industry, long-term losses are projected as high as $50 billion, according to a 2020 report partially funded by Iowa State University.

The report projects a strong possibility of ASF entry into the U.S. domestic pig herd through back door access: “The likelihood of the disease entering the U.S. through illegal entry of swine products and byproducts is high…”

“Illegal entry” of ASF into the U.S. is the precise scenario fostered by landfills and wild pigs, Mayer contends. “We’ve watched ASF spread like wildfire to the Middle East, Eurasia, Russia, Korea, China, and now into Western Europe. Landfills were a big component of ASF’s expansion in other parts of the world, and the same thing could happen here. We’ve never had an ASF outbreak in the U.S., and the last thing our pork industry wants is that economic devastation.”

Landfills, potentially the domain of heavy wild pig presence, are often the final destination for pork products illegally brought into the U.S., Mayer continues. “We get people from Asia coming into airports carrying pork products, and that pork gets confiscated by airport authorities. Everyone knows this has been going on, and still is. The confiscated pork gets thrown in the landfill, and all it takes is one sample infected with ASF to send the virus through a wild pig population, and eventually right into the domestic herd. We’ve got specially trained beagles in our airports (USDA’s Beagle Brigade ) seeking out pork products—that’s how serious the situation is.”

The U.S. has at least 500 active landfills, most with no fences, and many within easy access of wild pigs. “Seminole County Landfill near Orlando, or Guadalupe Landfill beside San Jose, or landfills at Fort Rucker, Alabama, or so many other landfills; take your pick,” Mayer says. “I wish they would put fencing up, but that’s probably not likely due to the expense.”

“If you want to prevent ASF from having a greater likelihood of entering the U.S. pork industry, open access landfills are counter to that prevention,” Mayer adds. “We’re talking about high-stakes ASF consequence and the potential devastation for American pork. In many ways, ASF could be game over.”

For more stories from Chris Bennett (cbennett@farmjournal.com), see:

While America Slept, China Stole the Farm

Where’s the Beef: Con Artist Turns Texas Cattle Industry Into $100M Playground

The Arrowhead whisperer: Stunning Indian Artifact Collection Found on Farmland

Fleecing the Farm: How a Fake Crop Fueled a Bizarre $25 Million Ag Scam

Truth, Lies, and Wild Pigs: Missouri Hunter Prosecuted on Presumption of Guilt?

US Farming Loses the King of Combines

Ghost in the House: A Forgotten American Farming Tragedy

Rat Hunting with the Dogs of War, Farming’s Greatest Show on Legs

Misfit Tractors a Money Saver for Arkansas Farmer

Predator Tractor Unleashed on Farmland by Ag’s True Maverick

Government Cameras Hidden on Private Property? Welcome to Open Fields

Farmland Detective Finds Youngest Civil War Soldier’s Grave?

Descent Into Hell: Farmer Escapes Corn Tomb Death

Evil Grain: The Wild Tale of History’s Biggest Crop Insurance Scam

Grizzly Hell: USDA Worker Survives Epic Bear Attack

A Skeptical Farmer’s Monster Message on Profitability

Farmer Refuses to Roll, Rips Lid Off IRS Behavior

Killing Hogzilla: Hunting a Monster Wild Pig

Shattered Taboo: Death of a Farm and Resurrection of a Farmer

Frozen Dinosaur: Farmer Finds Huge Alligator Snapping Turtle Under Ice

Breaking Bad: Chasing the Wildest Con Artist in Farming History

In the Blood: Hunting Deer Antlers with a Legendary Shed Whisperer

Corn Maverick: Cracking the Mystery of 60-Inch Rows

Against All Odds: Farmer Survives Epic Ordeal

Agriculture’s Darkest Fraud Hidden Under Dirt and Lies

The Wild Hog Knows No Fear: True Stories of One of Ag’s Biggest Threats

Tue, 06 Apr 2021 17:44:28 GMT

“The wild hog is very possibly the most dangerous animal in the wild. And he knows no enemies and he knows no fear,” says Hank Berdine of the Mississippi Levee Board in a new video series, Feral Swine in America.

Listen to true stories from farmers and ranchers in a gut-wrenching new video series from USDA that chronicles the impact of feral swine damage on American livelihoods and ecosystems. Through personal accounts from farmers, ranchers, land managers, conservationists, and others who deal with feral swine damage, this series aims to show the heartache caused by one of the country’s most invasive enemies.

Berdine tells his story in Episode 1, describing the Mississippi levee system that protects the area from Memphis, Tenn., to Vicksburg, Miss.

“The integrity of the levee has to be such that during high water times, we do not have any weak spots in the levy, any areas where trucks have rutted the levy up and could cause erosion. When hogs come out of the woods and go rooting around, they’ll root up an area half as big as a football field in a couple of nights. It’s decimating the integrity of that levee,” Berdine explains. “We’ve got to go in after those hogs damage it and fix those areas because we cannot afford to go into a flood situation with these areas like that.”

“Lots of times when I get up in the morning and go out into the river or out in the woods, it absolutely just chokes me up to see what we have right here in this area and how the hogs are destroying a good bit of it,” he shares.

USDA estimates that feral swine cause more than $1.5 billion annually in damage and management costs nationwide. Berdine is concerned about what that means for the future of areas like the Mississippi Levee that he works so hard to protect.

Source: Episode 1, Feral Swine in America, YouTube

“Lots of times when I get up to go duck hunting in the winter time on a Sunday morning, folks say ‘you aren’t going to church?’” Berdine says. “I tell them, ‘I’m sitting in my church. I’m out here right now amongst all of God’s great glory and creation. In the woods is as good a church to me as going into a brick-and-mortar church.’”

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) partnered with MODOC Stories to create the video series and tell stories like Berdine’s.

“We wanted to highlight how diverse and widespread feral swine damage can be. So, we reached out to ordinary people in Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas to share their personal stories,” explains Dr. Dale Nolte, National Manager of the APHIS National Feral Swine Damage Management Program.

To date, the series includes three short videos ranging in topics from feral swine damage to farms, ranches, and levee systems to archaeological sites, native wildlife, and natural resources. To view the free videos, visit APHIS’ Feral Swine in America YouTube site or click on the episode links below:

• Episode 1 - Mississippi
• Episode 2 - Oklahoma
• Episode 3 - Texas

Future episodes will focus on feral swine damage management and removal efforts and impacts to endangered species in California and Georgia.

The APHIS National Feral Swine Damage Management Program was established in 2014 with the overarching goal to protect agriculture and natural resources, property, animal health, and human health and safety by managing damage caused by feral swine in the United States and its territories. APHIS also collaborates with Canada and Mexico to support border activities and facilitate an informational exchange on feral swine disease monitoring and control activities.

Read more stories of wild pig encounters here:

Killing Hogzilla: Hunting A Monster Wild Pig

Monster-Sized Wild Pigs are on the Rise in Canada

Wild Pig Wars: Controversy Over Hunting, Trapping in Missouri

Texas Pork Producers Face Uphill Battle with Wild Pigs

Deadly Terrorist Threatens the Lone Star State’s Domestic Pig Herd

March of the Wild Pigs

Wild Pig Bomb Still Rocking Agriculture

Vilsack Weighs In On Parallel Between COVID-19 and Animal Disease Outbreaks

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 13:36:43 GMT

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught the country anything, USDA Secretary of Agriculture nominee Tom Vilsack said it’s that there is a tremendous amount of synergy between the circumstances of a pandemic involving humans and those involving animals.

During the Coalition for Epi Response, Engagement and Science (CERES) Biosecurity Infectious Disease Symposium at Colorado State University (CSU) on Jan. 28, Vilsack explored the parallels between the animal and human infectious disease pandemics with CSU Vice President for Research Alan Rudolph.

A coordinated response
Vilsack said there are three lessons learned from the pandemic that can help the country better prepare for future human and animal infectious disease outbreaks.

“It’s pretty clear. Lesson number one is the sooner you can detect a problem, the better,” Vilsack said. “Clearly, we didn’t respond aggressively to the pandemic early in the process and we are currently paying for that failure to early detect.”

The second lesson learned is that incredible coordination is required during a disease outbreak, whether it’s an animal disease situation or human disease situation, he said. This starts with the ability of every government level – local, state, federal – to coordinate and work together.

“We’re now seeing that the challenge with reference to the vaccine distribution not being well coordinated, and obviously lives are at stake,” Vilsack said. “Tragically, we are seeing in places like Los Angeles, difficulties with this issue as it relates to the pandemic. We’ve certainly seen it with animal disposal as well. We need a more effective and efficient disposal method.”

Thirdly, the country needs to be able to create, distribute and manufacture vaccines more quickly. All of this involves effective communication, he added.

“It’s pretty clear that we need to continue to invest in research and development, both in animal health and human health and understand the connection and coalition between the two. And that’s going to require some resources. Hopefully, we’ve learned from this pandemic, and previous experiences, that it’s important and necessary to invest in research and development,” Vilsack said.

Human and animal disease parallels
Being able to flex between human and animal disease research is important, Rudolph said. Many of the labs in the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) that sit on land-grant campuses have flexed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Many of these NAHLN diagnostic labs have shifted to being human CLIA diagnostic labs and really supported the infrastructure. We’ve seen a plasticity that I think is also a really interesting lesson learned – that we can flex between human and animal,” Rudolph said.

When Vilsack previously served as Secretary of Agriculture, the U.S. began building new assets to deal with large animal disease outbreaks like African swine fever and foot-and-mouth disease, Rudolph noted.

“It’s pretty clear that we needed to modernize our facilities,” Vilsack said. “Plum Island was in very difficult shape. And while it was isolated from the continental 48 states and had a significantly lower risk of an escape of some disease or problem that would cause significant problems in the animal world, the move to Manhattan, Kan., creates a very incredibly secure facility with modern capacity to do what we need to do to better understand the nature of disease, how viruses are formulated and how they mutate over a period of time.”

Vilsack said it will be an important asset in the effort to detect disease early and be able to more effectively respond and prevent. However, he said the challenge is that we will always be confronted with animal diseases of one sort or another.

“We learned from the avian influenza situation that it took us a while to figure out what, and then it took us a while to figure out how to produce a vaccine, and then it took us a little while to produce it, and then a little while to distribute it,” Vilsack said. “The reality was that we saw fairly significant destruction of chickens and turkeys that really impacted and affected consumers, and obviously affected producers.”

Because of the pandemic, he believes the country has a heightened awareness now of the necessity of being able to respond quickly and effectively – from a national security perspective and economic security perspective – if the U.S. is hit with a pandemic or animal disease outbreak.

Editor’s Note: The CERES coalition brings together six premier land grant universities: University of California-Davis, Texas A&M University, Colorado State University, Kansas State University, Iowa State University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to mobilize land-grant university discoveries and innovations in agricultural infectious diseases. The coalition has integrated a network of federally funded bio-containment resources for surveillance, diagnostics and countermeasure production, while actively engaging communities through Extension engagement and outreach.

Read more:

ARS Advances Fight Against Deadly African Swine Fever Virus

5 Ways USDA Protected Animal Ag in 2020

Canada Fights Back Against Out-of-Control Wild Pig Population

K-9 “Kody” Sniffs Out Prohibited Sausages at Newark Airport

Animal Protein Sector Needs to Realign with 2020 Foodservice Survivors, CoBank Says

Feral Swine Eradication: USDA invests $11.65 Million to Expand Program

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 16:04:27 GMT

An $11.65-million investment by the USDA will help agricultural producers and private landowners trap and control feral swine as part of the Feral Swine Eradication and Control Pilot Program. This new investment will fund 14 projects to expand the pilot program in Alabama, Hawaii, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas.

This program is a joint effort between USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). This second round of funding is for partners to carry out activities as part of the identified pilot projects in select states, USDA said in a release.

“These awards enable landowners to address the threat that feral swine pose to natural resources and agriculture,” NRCS Acting Chief Kevin Norton said. “The projects we have identified will be key to addressing the feral swine problem.”

NRCS will provide funding to partners who will provide financial assistance, education, outreach and trapping assistance to participating landowners in pilot project areas, USDA said. All partner work will be closely coordinated with the APHIS operations in these areas. Between the first and second round of funding, there will be a total of 34 active projects across 12 states for the life of the 2018 Farm Bill. Learn more here .

USDA said new pilot projects and areas were selected in coordination with NRCS state conservationists, APHIS state directors and state technical committees based on areas in greatest need of assistance due to high densities of wild pigs.

The three coordinated components of the projects include feral swine removal by APHIS, restoration efforts supported by NRCS and assistance to producers for feral swine control provided through partnership agreements with non-federal partners. Projects will be completed by the end of September 2023.

More from Farm Journal’s PORK:

Western States Unite to Keep Feral Pigs from Crossing U.S.-Canada Border

Can You Really Trap Feral Pigs with Your Cell Phone?

Feral Swine: USDA Monitors World’s Worst Invasive Alien Species

How Colorado Eliminated Feral Hogs

Feral Hog Stomachs Tell Story of Destruction

Montana Puts Plan in Place to Keep Canadian Feral Hogs Out

Texas Community Hires Consultant to Fight Feral Hog Problem

New Research: 900 U.S. Farmers Weigh In On Water Management Practices

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 03:41:59 GMT

Kinsie Rayburn is a Conservation Knowledge Officer with Farm Journal’s Trust In Food. Learn more at www.trustinfood.com

“Without water there is no food.” –Nebraska farmer

Water challenges play a central role in five of the top 10 risks currently facing humanity. Of those top five risks, water challenges are central to four, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks 2019 report.

Many of these challenges are human-driven: climate change induced increases in extreme weather events, poor public infrastructure management leading to breakdowns, and pollution derived from human society—including from agriculture. These challenges are complex, multifaceted and will take a systems-based thinking approach to solve.
One clear pathway to addressing and mitigating water challenges is to engage farmers to continuously improve water management practices.

In 2019, Trust In Food, in collaboration with American Public Media’s (APM) The Watermain, conducted research into farmer perceptions of water. This research yielded several key findings on what farmers know about water-related issues, their concern around water resources, and conservation actions they take to protect water resources that their operations unequivocally rely on. Overall, perspectives from more than 900 farmer-respondents, representing all nine farm production regions and 43 states, were analyzed.

The resulting report, U.S. Farmer Perspectives on Water: A communicator’s road map for engaging with U.S. farmers around water challenges U.S. Farmer Perspectives on Water: A communicator’s road map for engaging with U.S. farmers around water challenges, is meant to serve as a way for water communicators to strengthen relationships between farmers, the agri-food value chain and the public to secure clean water, in perpetuity, for everyone.

The report encourages communication towards engagement tactics that:

Strengthen the foundation farmers need to serve as solutions to water challenges.

Build awareness and understanding among farmers of the outsized positive impact they can have on the health and wellbeing of the nation’s water resources and infrastructure.

Engage with farmers through mitigation and resilience-building programs aimed at minimizing water challenges.

Build on the high baseline levels of concern farmers have for water issues to engage through geographically and culturally targeted tactics.

Empower farmers to maintain and improve their role as a solution to water challenges.

Equip farmers with the tools, education and systemic frameworks they need to continuously improve the concept of agriculture as a solution to water-related issues.
Acknowledge the challenges and celebrate the successful implementation of practices that improve downstream water quality to prevent farmers from being misunderstood or mischaracterized.

To learn more and read the full report, visit: https://bit.ly/Farm-Water-TIF .

While Trust In Food captured Farmer Perspectives on water, the APM Research Lab, The Water Main, conducted research into the nation’s connection to water. This is the first nationally representative survey of its kind and is a useful tool for researchers, journalists and advocates in gauging how in-tune the rest of the country is with the water-related challenges we face today. More information on data from the APM survey can be found at https://www.thewatermain.org/water-and-us

Don't Miss It! Farm Journal Field Days Registration Is Open.

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 05:21:03 GMT

A wealth of agriculture innovation, technology and practical know-how are about to be available to you with the launch of the first-ever Farm Journal Field Days .

This one-of-a-kind, new show features more than 100 free informational sessions. You’ll get on-site and virtual discussions, tours, agronomic and management solutions and presentations from key industry leaders, all over the course of three days — August 25, 26 and 27.

Farm Journal understands the importance and value of farm community events and the need for deeper connections for members of the ag industry, now more than ever. The company has used strategic and insightful leadership to design Field Days, so its informative sessions will be available to you live and also on-demand.

There’s more exciting news to come — including a complete lineup of exclusive speakers — so this is just a sampling of what you can expect:

Powerful and Insightful Speakers: Hear from leading experts such as meteorologist Eric Snodgrass, ag economist David Kohl, machinery expert Greg Peterson, Farm Journal columnist John Phipps and more!
Easy Access: Since it is online, you are not limited by geography or time restraints. This type of programming is more convenient in every way.
On-Demand Learning: Even though the virtual event spans three days, you can learn at your own pace. Log on at certain times to hear your favorite speakers, and then you can revisit other topics when you have the time.
Interactive Farm Tours: Take a behind-the-scenes look at our two hosts farms—Blue Diamond Farming Company in Jesup, Iowa, and Newcomer Farms in Bryan, Ohio.
A Safe Environment: You don’t have to worry about safety or health concerns. Farm Journal understand being #Covidsafe is essential.
Opportunity to Learn As a Team: Normally, only one or two folks from your family or farm can attend in-person events. With Farm Journal Field Days, you can all learn together. Make the lunch hour a watch party, and then discuss what you learn.
Direct Access to Exhibitors: You can visit their virtual booths, ask questions and learn about their latest offerings.
It’s Free: To access the 100-plus sessions, you simply have to register—at no cost to you!

Along with the great opportunities to learn innovative information you can put to work on your farm or ranch, you’ll get to enjoy Grammy-nominated, award-winning country artist Lee Brice in an exclusive #FarmON benefit concert. He joins a slate of top country performers in a free, virtual concert. As the grand finale of Farm Journal Field Days, the concert is Farm Journal’s way of saying thank you to everyone in agriculture for keeping our nation’s food supply moving forward.

Donations from the concert will benefit the National 4-H Council’s FOURWARD fund.

To register and learn more information about Farm Journal Field Days and the #FarmON Virtual Benefit Concert, go to www.FarmJournalFieldDays.com .

How a Group of Veterinarians Helped Save a Rural Iowa Community

Fifteen years ago, Audubon, Iowa, was the typical picture of rural decline. Disheveled downtown buildings and vacant storefronts signaled the death of small businesses and a sense of community.

But a small group of people decided to change that. They came together, proving the power of hard work, renovations and financial dedication, to bring the small town of 2,100 people in central Iowa back to life.

“Audubon looks very different today than it did years ago with new businesses and housing efforts,” says Kate Hargens, owner of The Bakery on Broadway. “Rural communities are the heartbeat of America’s farm country. Unfortunately, aging infrastructure and declining populations in small towns drive the loss of small businesses in rural towns.”

Reviving Rural America
Maintaining grocery stores, coffee shops and recreation opportunities is critical for quality of life, Hargens points out.

The Bakery on Broadway

(Kate Hargens)

“In order to continue to recruit people back into rural communities for jobs, we need to support the growth and essential businesses like a grocery store and stores that improve quality of life such as a rec center, coffee shop or movie theater,” she explains. “Young professionals currently entering the workforce with young families are not willing to sacrifice the comforts of a larger town or city when looking for a job.”

Providing a place to bring the community together is crucial and one of the reasons why AMVC, a diversified agricultural business decided to get in the game, literally. AMVC is headquartered in Audubon and heavily invested in the community where they have a swine management company, traditional mixed animal veterinary clinics, a research business and construction and remodeling equipment sales business.

“When I came and interviewed here 18 years ago, I remember riding around with Steve Schmitz, one of our senior partners and current chairman of our board of directors, and he was talking about this idea of a rec center for Audubon,” says Jason Hocker, AMVC partner and veterinarian. “He wanted to build a place where everybody could get together and have a common meeting place.”

The Audubon Recreation Center is a central place for the entire community to come together.

(Jason Hocker)

Schmitz says the idea started when their kids told them there wasn’t anything to do in the evenings in town. In 2007, Schmitz and his wife Jane organized a group of people to come up with options.

“We surveyed the community, went to the schools, talked to the kids and came up with the concept of a recreation center consisting of a bowling center with restaurant, community room, half-court basketball, racquetball court, children’s play area and a walking track. The thought was to involve all ages. The original group that met eventually became the board of our non-profit and has been key to the rec center’s success,” Schmitz says.

Eleven years later, after raising $2.6 million through fundraisers, business and private donations, and grants, the rec center finally opened in the fall of 2018. Three years ago, another group started the push to add a full-sized gym and fitness area. Hocker led the subcommittee group focused on the gym process.

New gymnasium in the Audubon Recreation Center

(Jason Hocker)

“The initial committee invested over a decade of time and energy into it. So, we said, ‘You guys have done the heavy lifting, let us finish it.’ A group of eight couples with kids that are in that age range who will utilize this facility to its fullest potential moved it on by leading the phase two fundraising effort, applied for grants, and coordinated getting it built,” Hocker says.

Bringing Audubon Back to Life
The $6-million facility was completed in 2024. As the largest employer in the county, AMVC believes it’s important to have a rural community that is inviting and thriving.

“There are probably a lot of philosophical reasons we need to invest in our rural communities but ultimately, they are where we live, raise our families and have our friends. AMVC wants to see our communities grow, not only economically, but also in the quality of life that rural communities can provide,” Schmitz says.

The rec center has done a lot to foster community in the small town.

“This summer we had a regional final for softball and made it to state, which is super cool. Afterwards, we all walked across the street to the rec center and hung out with the teams and the families. It’s been great to have a common meeting place to do cool things like that,” Hocker says. “If we didn’t have this facility, people would have gone to somebody’s house and congregated in smaller groups. But this is a place where the entire community can come together and celebrate community things like a state softball championship berth.”

The Audubon Recreation Center was the perfect place for the entire town to celebrate qualifying for the state softball tournament.

(Jason Hocker)

AMVC is very supportive of these opportunities, he adds. Many AMVC employees are involved in the community, from economic development groups to the city council to the sports boosters to the chamber of commerce.

“AMVC has been a successful company over the years, which has given us the ability to give back to our community. We have a lot of very talented people that are willing to donate their time and talent,” Schmitz says. “AMVC has supported the renovation of an old movie theater which draws many people to town. Over the years, AMVC has taken the lead on other projects including turning an unsightly salvage yard at the intersection of two highways into a park, buying a dilapidated swine operation and turning it back into farmland and the removal of an old gas station.”

Hargens says the work AMVC does for the community doesn’t go unnoticed. She appreciates AMVC’s support of new growth and improvements that have been so important in continuing the momentum of renewal in Audubon.

“People are invested in pushing the community forward,” Hocker says. “I like to think as a company we are big proponents of that, because it not only benefits us from a business perspective, but also personally by keeping the town vibrant and growing.”

One of the popular phrases in town has become, “If you can’t get out, get in.” Hargens coined that phrase years ago when she built her coffee shop, The Bakery on Broadway, that has become a popular hang-out in the community.

The Bakery on Broadway in Audubon

(Kate Hargens)

Hocker is proud of the way Hargens and others continue to find ways to make the best of what they have. He says it’s a great environment to raise a family in – around people who look for ways to make things better for everyone, not just themselves.

“It’s important to invest within your community so there’s places for people to come back to,” he says. “When small towns start to die out, some of that’s self-induced because you’re not looking at what would bring people back. That’s what you need to provide the engine for your school system and your workforce – families and kids. Making sure you’re providing that is going to help your community thrive.”

Your Next Read: The Power of Community in Rural America