New Foot and Mouth Disease Test distinguishes Between Virus Infected and Vaccinated Animals

Oct 07, 2019

A newly developed Foot and Mouth Disease assay can distinguish between the antibodies caused by immunization and those caused by actual disease. On behalf of the Swine Health Information Center Iowa State University has developed a Foot and Mouth Disease Virus Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Swine Oral Fluid Specimens.

Swine Health Information Center Executive Director Dr. Paul Sundberg says one of the most important distinctions of this test is its ability to diferentiate between vaccine antibody and antibody that comes from exposure to wild type virus.

Clip-Dr. Paul Sundberg-Swine Health Information Center:

There are FMD vaccines that are available and should we get FMD in North America those vaccines will be proably be deployed to help control and prevent the spread of the virus. That would lead to a conundrum if the blood from those vaccinated animals were to be tested for antibodies because the antibodies that will show up from the vaccine could look like the antibodies that could show up from a natural infection.

The natural infection might result in animals carrying the virus long term. The vaccine would not and it's going to be important to be able to diferentiate those two. This test has a real advantage in that it can tell the difference between the antibodies that would be caused by vaccine and the antibodies that would be caused by natural exposure.

Thus we would be able to diferentiate those animals and we'd know which animals are at higher risk of being further sources of virus to other animals, a real important distinction that we'll need to have should we need to respond to an outbreak.

Source : Farmscape

Video: Is China Buying US Soybeans + USDA Nov 14th Crop Report could be “Game Changing”

After a week of a U.S./China trade truce, markets/trade is skeptical that we have not seen a signed agreement nor heard much from China or seen any details. There are rumors that China is buying soybean futures & not the physical. Trust in Trump?
12 MMT of U.S. soybean purchases by China by year-end is better than 0 but we all need to give it more time and give it a chance to unfold. China did lower the tariffs on Ag and is buying U.S. wheat and sorghum.
U.S. supreme court could rule against Trumps tariffs, but the Trump administration does have a plan B.
U.S. government shutdown is now the longest in history at 38 days.
But despite a U.S. government shutdown we will be getting a USDA November crop report next Friday and it could be “game changing.” If the USDA provides a bullish surprise with lower U.S. corn and soybean yields and ending stocks that are lower than expected both corn and soybean futures will break out above their ceilings at $4.35/bu and $11.35/bu respectively.
The funds continued their selling in live and feeder cattle futures on continued fears that the Trump administration want to lower U.S. beef prices. The fundamentals have not changed, only market psychology has.
Stocks markets continue to worry about a weak U.S. job market, but you can blame ChatGPT for that. In the future, we will have a more efficient, productive and growing economy with a higher unemployment rate until we have more skilled AI workers.
After 34 new record highs in the S & P 500 and 124 new records in the NASDAQ in 2025 we are back to a correction and investor profit taking as AI valuations may have gotten too stretched near-term ahead of NVDA’s 3rd quarter earnings announcement on Nov. 19th. But this is not an AI bubble.
75% of Tesla shareholders approved a $1 trillion pay package for Elon Musk!
It has rained in South America in the last 7 days, but both the American and European models agree that Central Brazil remains dry in the next 14-days!

Being thankful ahead of Thanksgiving

Cavendish Farms opens new potato plant in Alberta