Contact allergy affects around 20% of the population in the western world. Scientists are working intensively to develop alternative test methods that do not require animal testing. A research group at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has now developed a unique test method that enables graded results to be obtained using cultured skin cells…
Bleeding calf syndrome (bovine neonatal pancytopenia or BNP) affects new born calves resulting in low blood cell counts and depletion of the bone marrow. It first emerged in 2007 and a serious number of cases are reported each year. In affected calves, bone marrow cells which produce platelets are also destroyed…
Veterinary associations have strongly welcomed the announcement by Defra that it is strongly minded to include a controlled cull of badgers as a key component of the bovine tuberculosis (TB) eradication plans for England…
Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), also known as Goat Plague has become a serious threat to worldwide food supplies and poverty relief in poorer nations, leading animal health experts and veterinarians warn in the latest issue of Veterinary Record, a BMJ journal. Animals infected with the PPR virus have a very high risk of death, the authors add…
The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has welcomed the announcement that Great Britain is to be declared bluetongue (BTV8) free on 5th July. Defra has announced that Bluetongue-free status will mean that animals exported from GB to bluetongue-free countries will not require vaccination or have to meet any other bluetongue requirements…
Alpharma says it is going to voluntarily suspend sales of poultry drug 3-Nitro (Roxarsone) in the USA, after an FDA study detected more inorganic arsenic in treated chicken’s livers compared to untreated ones. Arsenic is a known carcinogen - a substance or agent that causes cancer…
Our country faces a critical shortage of veterinarians and veterinary medical services in certain areas designated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Legislation introduced today by U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee chairwoman Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss…
Veterinary associations are taking urgent action to address the serious problem of TB fraud that has come to light. Defra Minister of State Jim Paice today announced that he has received evidence that a small number of farmers have been illegally swapping cattle eartags in order to retain highly productive TB reactors…
EU farmers hold their own well in competition with the rest of the world, despite the comparatively high demands the EU places on agricultural production. “We have investigated the connection between animal welfare regulation in the EU and competitiveness…
Anyone taking the recent, mysterious deaths of 200 steers in a Portage County, Wis., feedlot as a sign of the apocalypse can rest easy. The cows, according to the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, were done in by bad spuds. Specifically, the cows were poisoned by a toxin found in moldy sweet potatoes, which apparently were mixed in with potato waste fed to the animals…