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Veterinary Diagnostic Lab Confirms 10 West Nile Virus Cases

The Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory known as WADDL [pronounced, “waddle”], has confirmed 10 cases of West Nile Fever in horses since August 9.

The laboratory, located within Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, tested only 38 horses since Jan. 1; a number far below their capacity for testing.  All 10 cases confirmed positive recently were in unvaccinated horses in Spokane, Lincoln, and Pend Oreille counties in Washington and Boundary County in northern Idaho.  All 10 also had neurological disease that occurs with West Nile encephalitis characterized by inflammation of the central nervous system.

The West Nile Fever cases reported here are unrelated to the Equine Herpes Virus-1 case confirmed by WADDL last week in a hospitalized horse at WSU’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital.  The EHV-1 horse has since been humanely euthanized.

The exact reason for the spike in West Nile cases is unknown, however these most recent cases are located further north than detections in previous years.  Veterinarians in WADDL are urging horse owners to contact their veterinarians and seek their advice on vaccination and how to eliminate mosquitoes where they keep horses.

Source: wsu.edu


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What is the real-world impact of innovations like the PRRS-resistant pig for producers, scientists and the entire pork industry? For the Chinn family, sixth generation hog farmers in Missouri, who have dealt with devastating PRRS breaks before, the possibility of eliminating PRRS means the promise of passing the farm down to the next generation. For university researchers like Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam at UC Davis, it means scientists could use genetics to precisely decrease animal disease. And for consumers, it means the pork on your plate is no different, except for its resistance to disease.