Source:
GIVEN the complexity of the subject and differences in attitudes and approach, devising a strategy to help improve animal welfare across the European Union is an ambitious undertaking, but the European Commission has attempted to do just that. A communication on an EU Strategy for the Protection and Welfare of Animals 2012-2015, which was adopted by the European Commission last week (see p 87 of this issue) has already attracted criticism, with animal welfare groups describing it as lacking in ambition and a missed opportunity. Others, including farmers, have welcomed the strategy, which, it could be argued, presents a pragmatic approach that offers real opportunities for improvement in the future. One only has to look at some of the issues surrounding implementation of EU legislation banning battery cages for laying hens to see the kinds of problem that can arise in this notoriously difficult field.

Read more ...

Source:

The One Health Initiative team of Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP, Bruce Kaplan, DVM, Thomas P. Monath, MD and Jack Woodall, PhD proudly announces that Lisa A. Conti, DVM, MPH has officially joined with our autonomous pro bono team / website www.onehealthinitiative.com as an active participant. We greatly appreciate and welcome her addition to our One Health efforts.

Among many other previous career accomplishments, Dr. Lisa A. Conti, a veterinarian, is the former Director of the Florida Department of Health’s Environmental Health Division (USA) where she supervised over 200 employees. She is an associate professor of Pathobiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL (USA). In addition to numerous public speaking engagements and professional journal publications, Dr. Conti was co-author/writer with the prominent American public health physician at Yale Medical School, Dr. Peter M. Rabinowitz, of the groundbreaking ‘first of its kind’ One Health book entitled Human-Animal Medicine – Clinical Approaches to Zoonoses, Toxicants and other Shared Health Risks http://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/product.jsp?isbn=9781416068372.

Please see Dr. Conti’s current curriculum vitae http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/publications/conti%20cv%2011_11.OHI%2....

Utrecht University, the Netherlands

This conference is the second in a series of conferences about scientific, ethical and social issues related to human interactions with and uses of animals.

The aim of the conference is to bring together academics from different areas (animal welfare, animal ethics, and animal studies in general) with politicians and a broad variety of interest groups.

The conference offers a platform for exchange of information about research developments, debates about controversial political and ethical issues concerning the treatment of animals and a variety of cultural activities around animals.

Read more ...

Karnal: (INDIA) National Dairy Mela is being organized at the National Dairy Research Institute, (NDRI) during 25-27th February, 2012 has been announced by Dr. A.K. Srivastava, Director of the Institute.

He said that the Dairy Mela is one of the regular activities in the annual calendar of NDRI but this year the activity will encompass much bigger dimensions and cover a plethora of new activities. He added that the National Dairy Mela 2012 offers a unique opportunity to showcase the latest technologies and address new opportunities in the Dairy Sector as nearly 15,000 progressive dairy farmers, farm women, dairy entrepreneurs, professionals from dairy & food industry, and other stakeholders will be the focal participants.

Source:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Comment
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Ambitions on welfare

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Research
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Control and prevention of brucellosis in small ruminants: time for action
Henk L. Smits

Evaluation of spinosad for the oral treatment and control of flea infestations on dogs in Europe
S. Wolken, M. Franc, E. Bouhsira, S. Wiseman, B. Hayes, B. Schnitzler, D. E. Jacobs

Brucellosis control in Tajikistan using Rev 1 vaccine: change in seroprevalence in small ruminants from 2004 to 2009
D. Ward, R. Jackson, H. Karomatullo, T. Khakimov, K. Kurbonov, M. Amirbekov, J. Stack, A. El-Idrissi, C. Heuer

Impact of PIT tagging on recapture rates, body condition and reproductive success of wild Daubenton's bats (Myotis daubentonii)
E. L. Rigby, J. Aegerter, M. Brash, J. D. Altringham

Culturing adult canine sensory neurons to optimise neural repair
I. Gerhauser, K. Hahn, W. Baumgartner, K. Wewetzer

Seroprevalence of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis in elks in Korea
J-M. Kim, B. K. Ku, H-N. Lee, I-Y. Hwang, Y-B. Jang, J. H. Kook, S-C. Jung

Source:
A vaccine against a monkey virus could offer clues to defeating HIV. Scientists have created a vaccine that protects rhesus monkeys from infection with a potent form of the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), which is distantly related to the virus that causes AIDS in humans.

SIV vaccines have been successful before, but the protective effects have proved difficult to carry over to HIV. Scientists are hopeful that the latest results, which appear online in Nature, can be combined with findings from a modestly successful vaccine trial in humans to point the way to an effective HIV vaccine.

A vaccine cut chances of contracting simian immunodeficiency virus by 80% in rhesus monkeys. “To me, if it’s possible in monkeys it’s got to be possible in humans,” says Bruce Walker, a virologist at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard in Boston, Massachusetts, who was not involved in the study. Because HIV does not cause disease in monkeys, SIV is the best model for evaluating vaccines before they are tested in humans, says Dan Barouch, a virologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and the lead author of the latest paper.

In the past, SIV vaccines have protected macaque monkeys from only the SIV strains used to make the virus, or from strains that are easy to kill, says Barouch.

Read more ...

Source:
On 19 January, the European Commission adopted the 2012-2015 Animal Welfare strategy paper.

FVE is pleased that several of its recommendations have been taken into consideration. On the other hand the Federation regrets that the document is not more ambitious in its objectives and planned action: the strategy "could have gone further" in the field of companion animals.

Read more ...

Source:
The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has broadly welcomed the European Commission’s new Animal Welfare Strategy but urges the Commission to ensure robust implementation and enforcement of existing and proposed measures to improve animal welfare in the European Union. The BVA also expressed disappointment that there is no reference to welfare guidance for dairy cattle and that there is a lack of measures relating to companion animals.

Lack of enforcement of EU legislation by Member States is seen as a major issue adversely affecting animal welfare in the EU, as is the lack of sufficient economic incentives for compliance. Another gap is the lack of sufficient knowledge about welfare amongst many of those who handle animals. The new four-year strategy (2012-2015) adopted by the European Commission aims to address these issues by setting up a comprehensive animal welfare legislative framework focussing on welfare outcomes and on the education of all concerned parties as well as the reinforcement of current Commission actions.

Commenting, Carl Padgett, President of the BVA, said:
“We must continue to strive for the highest possible standards of welfare for the animals we keep and this latest move by the Commission is to be welcomed. Effective implementation and enforcement of legislation throughout the EU is essential if we are to make a significant difference to the welfare of animals.

Read more ...

Ejercicio de simulacro - Belarrús / Exercice de simulation - Bélarus
Source:

Dr Yury Pivovarchik, Chief Veterinary Officer, Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Belarus, Minsk, informed the OIE that a simulation exercise on African swine fever (ASF) is taking place in the base of the Dubrovensky district in the Vitebsk region, Belarus, from 27 to 28 January 2012.
The aim of this exercise is to perfect the joint activities of the emergency response to be implemented in case of an ASF outbreak.
********************
Animal Health Information Department
World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)
information.dept@oie.int
This information is accessible on the OIE website at Simulation exercises

Source:
The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has reiterated its call for heightened vigilance following confirmation by AHVLA that Schmallenberg virus (SBV) has been detected on four sheep farms in Norfolk, Suffolk and East Sussex.

At this early stage the virus is understood to be vector-borne (although other routes of transmission have not been ruled out) and the clinical signs seen along with meteorological modelling of risk suggests that the four farms were affected during summer/autumn 2011, with congenital defects now becoming visible at lambing time.

Animals imported from the affected areas in northern Europe are also considered to be potentially at risk and their destination in the UK has been identified.

Read more ...