Forwarded from Patrick Bosold on the Leopold Group listserve. Two stories of interest to CAFO watchers: 1. Lab Official Says Iowa Could be Breeding Ground for Next Flu Epidemic CORALVILLE, Iowa (AP) -- as printed in Fairfield Ledger and Sioux City Journal Online Edition, Friday, Aug 15 2003 Iowa's diverse livestock population could make it susceptible to a catastrophic flu epidemic, a state lab official says. Mary Gilchrist, director of the University of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory, said pigs have receptors that make them susceptible to both bird and human viruses, which when mixed, evolve rapidly and spread to other mammals, including humans. "In both 1957 and 1968, the influenza viruses that evolved in China were coming out of the duck population and moving into the swine population, sort of Peking duck meets sweet and sour pork," she said. She said when viruses combine, a process happens which makes the virus more potent. That's what happened when the Spanish flu epidemic struck the Cedar Rapids Swine Show in 1918, Gilchrist said. Healthy and sick pigs were brought together and when the show ended two weeks later, the newly infected pigs returned to farms throughout the Midwest, helping to spread the deadly virus, she said. Such zoonotic diseases, or those that are transferred from animal to human are becoming more prevalent, Gilchrist said. Rabies, Mad Cow disease, West Nile, monkeypox and SARS all involve humans being infected, one way or another, by diseases that originated in other species. "There's incredibly more (disease) coming to us through zoonotics, more now than ever," Gilchrist said. There are about 15 million pigs in Iowa, and when all those pigs are combined with Iowa's 42 million chickens and nearly 9 million turkeys, Gilchrist said a potentially dangerous mix is created. That's why she's been trying to encourage livestock farmers to put plenty of distance between swine and fowl confinement operations. "Avians (birds) don't get respiratory disease, but have virus in their GI tracts, so the problem is avian feces," she said. "Flies get in the feces and move from one place to another. There's quite a bit of opportunity for insects to enter hog confinement buildings, where the pigs inhale what the flies leave behind." There is no one aggressively funding research in zoonotic transmission, and her concerns have been met with some skepticism from the state's pork farmers, Gilchrist said. "They seem surprised to learn this process is going on at all," she said. "I'm not advocating that they tear down existing facilities that are closely grouped, but we should be able to provide them with some advice." 2. Subject: WHO calls for phase out of antibiotics in animal ag production WHO Renews Call for Phase Out of Subtherapeutic Antibiotic Uses in Animal Agriculture Production: The World Health Organization this week renewed its call for a phase out of the subtherapeutic use of growth-promoting antibiotics in animal production, citing Denmark's experience following a 1998 ban. The WHO report, authored by an international panel of officials with expertise in veterinary medicine and infectious diseases, said Denmark' s action contributed to a 54 percent reduction in that country's use of antibiotics in animal production with "no serious negative effects." The panel did note that discontinuing the routine use of antibiotics in Denmark led to some deaths from infection and an increase in diarrhea in hogs, which then required therapeutic drug treatments in some animals. The panel also said the change resulted in a 1 percent increase in pork production costs, while poultry production costs were unaffected. The panel cited as a benefit of the ban a significant decline in the levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria present in farm animals, which it said contributed to public health. Specifically, the report said 60 to 80 percent of chicken had bacteria resistant to three widely used antibiotics prior to imposition of the ban, but that those levels declined to 5 to 35 percent after the ban was imposed. Similar reductions were noted concerning the presence of two widely used antibiotics in pork. But the report also said that human health problems attributable to antibiotic resistance from consumption of treated animals had been rare in Denmark before - and had not changed significantly following - implementation of the ban. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask]