Category Archives: planetkillers

Drug-Resistant Bacteria on Chicken: It’s Everywhere and the Government Can’t Help – Wired Science

Two important, linked publications are out today, both carrying the same message: The way we raise poultry in this country is creating an under-appreciated health hazard, and the government structures we depend upon to detect that hazard and protect us from it are failing us.

The two pubs are:

A long piece that will be in the Feb. 2014 edition of Consumer Reports but has been placed online today.

A companion report by the Pew Charitable Trusts, addressing some of the systemic problems raised by the Consumer Reports story.

Short version: Independent tests show that multi-drug resistant disease-causing bacteria are widely present on chicken, and the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has insufficient personnel, or legal authority, to change that.

via Drug-Resistant Bacteria on Chicken: It’s Everywhere and the Government Can’t Help – Wired Science.

VDU’s blog: Influenza A (H10N8) virus, the new kid one the block…

Step by step we seem to be getting familiar with the entire influenza spectrum of naming combinations and permutations. When you consider that even 2 influenza viruses with the same common naming scheme (like H7N9) may have completely different evolutionary histories and clicnial impact, well, influenza is a tough act to follow epidemiologically.

The latest, called H10N8 was detected in a human (73-year old female) for the first time Dec-6th. H10N8 has been found in the environment in the past.

via VDU’s blog: Influenza A (H10N8) virus, the new kid one the block….

Horse Slaughter Plants Prepare to Open – Why?

It was the third time in five months that the horse plants were scrambling to open. Valley, which led the effort to resume domestic horse slaughter two years ago after Congress lifted its ban on the practice, along with Rains and Responsible, were preparing to open in August when The Humane Society of the United States and other animal protection groups sued to contest the Department of Agriculture\’s permitting process.

A federal judge in Albuquerque issued a temporary restraining order, prompting the Iowa company to convert its operations to beef. But U.S. District Judge Christine Armijo threw out the lawsuit in November, allowing all three companies to proceed.

The animal protection groups filed an immediate appeal to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which issued an emergency motion that again blocked the plants from opening. The appellate court lifted that order late Friday, saying the groups \”failed to meet their burden for an injunction pending appeal.\”

Dunn said it could be six months before there is a final ruling in the case, but he called the action good news and a sign the appeals judges found it unlikely that the animal protection groups would be able to prevail.

The Humane Society said \”the fight for America\’s horses is not over.\”

via Horse Slaughter Plants Prepare to Open.

Can angora production ever be ethical? | World news | The Guardian

now we\’ve seen the video of a Chinese angora farm, will we ever look at Nastassja Kinski\’s backless sweater in the same way again? A rabbit is screaming, as best it can, while chunks of its wonderful soft fur are ripped away to leave just a bald, raw and bleeding body. Rows and rows more rabbits are locked alone in filthy cages, waiting for their turn.

These, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), based on the 10 farms they visited, are standard conditions for angora rabbits in China, where around 90% of the world\’s angora wool is now produced. Certainly there are no laws there to prevent people plucking rabbits, which yields longer hairs, and thus more valuable yarn, and is quicker to do. Topshop, H&M, Boden, Primark and dozens of other retailers have halted orders immediately.

And yet there\’s no denying that, if you own an angora rabbit, it would be inhumane not to remove some its fur. Left alone, the animal becomes too hot, gets covered in thick clumps and tends to lick off any moulting hairs, which accumulate in its stomach. (Whether it was ethical to breed rabbits this way in the first place is another matter.)

Indeed, even Peta accepts that – when done on a very small scale – angora production can be ethical. \”If you had someone who has a companion angora rabbit who sat on their knee, and they put their fingers through their coat and, as happens, they find the fur gently comes away, then if somebody wanted to collect that and make a pair of gloves that would be entirely different,\” says Yvonne Taylor, Peta\’s campaigns manager.

via Can angora production ever be ethical? | World news | The Guardian.

Avian Flu Diary: FAO: Surge In Animal Disease Increases Zoonotic Threats

With an increasingly mobile global population now numbered over 7 billion, huge increases in the number of animals being raised for food consumption (often in environments conducive to the spread of diseases), and man’s continual encroachment into remote jungles and forests of the world – you have a huge potential to introduce new `exotic’ diseases to mankind.

via Avian Flu Diary: FAO: Surge In Animal Disease Increases Zoonotic Threats.

Avian Flu Diary: Pakistan: 3 More Polio Workers Killed

At least three people have been killed in Pakistan\’s tribal areas after the resumption of an antipolio campaign.

RFE/RL\’s Radio Mashaal reports that gunmen shot and killed two police officers assigned to protect a team of polio-vaccination workers in northwestern Pakistan.

The incident occurred north of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, on December 13.

Reports said the attackers fled the scene.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

In a second incident, Esmattulah Wazir, a political administrator in the tribal areas, said unknown assailants shot dead a polio worker named Yousef in his home.

via Avian Flu Diary: Pakistan: 3 More Polio Workers Killed.

Bubonic plague killed 20 villagers in Madagascar, health experts confirm | World news | theguardian.com

Once feared as the Black Death – the rodent-born disease that wiped out a third of the world\’s population in the Middle Ages – bubonic plague has killed 20 villagers in Madagascar in one of the worst outbreaks globally in recent years, health experts have confirmed.

The confirmation that bubonic plague was responsible for the deaths last week near the north-western town of Mandritsara follows a warning in October from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that the island nation was at risk of a plague epidemic.

The Pasteur Institute of Madagascar revealed on Tuesday that tests taken from bodies in the village last week showed that they had died of the bubonic plague. The institute added it was concerned the disease could spread to towns and cities where living standards have declined since a coup in 2009.

via Bubonic plague killed 20 villagers in Madagascar, health experts confirm | World news | theguardian.com.

Joan Jett Serves SeaWorld With Cease And Desist Over Use Of ‘I Love Rock N Roll’: Gothamist

Continuing her protest of SeaWorld, Joan Jett has served the \”controversial captivity center\” with a cease and desist over the unauthorized use of her music in \”Shamu Rocks.\” The park has been under extra scrutiny since the release of Blackfish, a documentary which focuses on their allegedly inhumane treatment of its whales. The doc has also led to concert cancelations—Heart, Willie Nelson, and Barenaked Ladies all canceled their upcoming shows at the Orlando park. And at this year\’s Macy\’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, a 12-year-old jumped the barricades in protest of the SeaWorld float.

via Joan Jett Serves SeaWorld With Cease And Desist Over Use Of ‘I Love Rock N Roll’: Gothamist.

Fast Food CEOs Rake in Taxpayer-Subsidized Pay – IPS

During the past two years, the CEOs of the top six publicly held fast food chains pocketed more than $183 million in fully deductible \”performance pay,\” lowering their companies’ IRS bills by an estimated $64 million.

YUM! Brands enjoyed the biggest taxpayer subsidy for its CEO pay largesse. This firm, which owns Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut, paid CEO David Novak $94 million in fully deductible “performance pay” over the years 2011 and 2012. That works out to a $33 million taxpayer subsidy to YUM! – just for one executive’s pay.

 

McDonald’s received the second-largest government handout. As CEO in 2011 and the first half of 2012, James Skinner pocketed $31 million in exercised stock options and other fully deductible “performance pay.” Incoming CEO Donald Thompson took in $10 million in performance pay in his first six months on the job. Skinner and Thompson’s combined performance pay translates into a $14 million taxpayer subsidy for McDonald’s.

via Fast Food CEOs Rake in Taxpayer-Subsidized Pay – IPS.

Major study! Avian Influenza and Ban on Overnight Poultry Storage in Live Poultry Markets, Hong Kong

Totally validates my research into influenza and its connections to live markets and especially in live markets leading up the Lunar New Year celebrations and Spring holidays. Read this and you will see why Hong Kong is no longer a primary breeding ground or virtual laboratory for new flus!

Previous influenza pandemics originated from influenza viruses of birds (1). Live poultry markets play a crucial role in maintenance, amplification, and dissemination of avian influenza viruses (2,3) and are high-risk locations for potential zoonotic transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus (H5N1) to humans (4,5). From September 1999 through May 2011, fecal dropping samples were collected monthly under the poultry cages in live poultry markets in Hong Kong as part of a systematic longitudinal avian influenza surveillance program. During the 12-year period of surveillance, several interventions were implemented by the Hong Kong government in response to outbreaks of influenza virus (H5N1) in live poultry markets and on poultry farms. In July 2001, a monthly rest day was first implemented; under this system, all poultry in live poultry markets must be sold or slaughtered at the end of the day, poultry stalls must be cleaned and disinfected, and the stalls must be left free of live poultry for 1 day before restocking any live poultry the next day. In February 2002, a ban on sales of live quail was implemented in because an influenza virus (H9N2) lineage commonly isolated from quail possessed the internal genes of the virus that caused the avian influenza (H5N1) outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997 (6). In response to further incursions of avian influenza (H5N1) into poultry markets and farms in Hong Kong, a second monthly rest day in live poultry markets was introduced in March 2003, and a complete ban on holding live poultry overnight in live poultry markets was implemented in July 2008.

via Avian Influenza and Ban on Overnight Poultry Storage in Live Poultry Markets, Hong Kong.