News

Gulf of Mexico - The number of birds, sea turtles and mammals injured or killed as a result of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to swell, according to a new estimate released by the Unified Area Command in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Schaumburg, Ill. - The Texas Veterinary Medical Association (TVMA) proposed a resolution asking the American Veterinary Medical Association's (AVMA) Executive Board to conduct a risk-benefit analysis of AVMA's Council on Education's (COE) accreditation process for foreign veterinary schools.

Dr. Robert M. Miller reviews the book I Wanna See a Veterinarian.

Today's veterinary students just don't have the same drive and determination as the Baby Boomers have.

Schaumburg, Ill. - The Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) might get voting rights on accreditation decisions if a bylaws amendment is approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) House of Delegates (HOD) at its annual meeting in July.

Place hand sanitizer at the check-in area, near pens and other items clients may touch.

Janet Van Dyke, DVM, talks about the significance of the new ACVAMR specialty designation and trends in animal rehabilitation.

Weigh clinical, radiographic evidence as well as client expectations when approaching this preventable disease.

Schaumburg, Ill. - New federal regulations, under the the Higher Education Opportunities Act that went into effect July 1, are already changing the way the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Council on Education (COE) operates.

Dr. Osborne's journey with Parkinson's disease.

To tell or not to tell, that is one veterinarian's question. See his answer.

Rockville, Md. - The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) proposal to phase out antibiotic use in food animals unless there is medical necessity drew comments from interested veterinary groups.

In general, this fungal infection in dogs is either sinonasal or disseminated.

Do: Meet and greet as much as possible. Don't: Wear flip-flops and a sweatshirt; be professional.

Regarding the article "Incidental finding of renal agenesis in a cat," this condition may be a common finding in the Northeast.

A variety of treatments can get patients back comfortably on all fours.

National Report - Since it's 2008 ban, America has exported the job of equine slaughter to its neighbors to the north and south - Canada and Mexico, both of which have cited increases in slaughter rates over the last three years.

Bartonella species is a new and emerging bacterial pathogen for veterinarians.

Schaumburg, Ill. - Two new resolutions submitted by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Executive Board to the House of Delegates would define the role of veterinarians in the antimicrobial debate.

Everything we have discussed to this point is actually about establishing a records plan that will allow us to serve the dairy industry of the future using the records that are efficiently gathered so we are not spending all of our time keeping or organizing the records. As our herds get larger, as the number of animals examined at any one time increases, as we are examining groups of diverse animals at one time, and as we struggle to maintain a cow side presence, the organization of the records becomes more critical.

The agricultural community is an extremely small percent of the general population and much of that population lives in densely populated areas of the country. They draw their perceptions of food animal care from their experiences and perceptions about zoos, their own companion animals, and the visual stories presented electronically from opponents of the animal industry.

Because one goal of proper heifer development is to improve second parity pregnancy percentage, a beef producer may ask "what is the impact of higher pregnancy percentages during the second breeding season on costs and income?" Table 1 displays the effect of changing pregnancy percentage for first-calf heifers in 5-percentage point increments on the percent of the herd that must be replaced each year and the average age of the herd. In general, given the assumptions in the table, for every 5-percentage point improvement in first-calf heifer pregnancy percentage, the number of replacements needed for the herd decreases by about 1 percentage point and average cow age increases by .01 years.

The Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine (FDA CVM) approves drug labels. The Environmental Protection Agency approves pesticides and products used on premises.

Multiple physiologic mechanisms act in concert to maintain the concentration of ionized calcium in the extracellular fluid (ECF) within a very tightly-regulated range. Hypocalcemia most commonly occurs when the physiologic demand for calcium for fetal bone growth or milk production exceeds the dietary supply of calcium and overwhelms the homeostatic systems aimed at maintaining adequate ionized calcium in the ECF.

Lead-based paints, lead-based gasoline, solder, combustion residues, caulking compounds, improperly glazed pottery, batteries, buck-shots, sewage sludge, some canned commercial dog foods, electronic wastes, etc.

At the time of this writing, the focus on farm animals by the media (and likely therefore consumer perception) seems to be on antimicrobial use in animal agriculture and on farm animal welfare.

Suckling calves are commonly in contact with the breeding herd during early gestation, prior to the time the bovine fetus develops a competent immune system. As a result, PI suckling calves are considered to be the primary source of BVDV infection in breeding herds causing pregnancy loss, pre-weaning mortality and the induction of PI calves in the next generation.

The gastrointestinal tract is the primary route of exposure. Ethylene glycol is a small molecule (62 dalton) which undergoes rapid absorption from the gastrointestinal tract, distributes to the liver where it is rapidly metabolized by the hepatic alcohol dehydrogenase pathway to toxic metabolites (glycoaldehyde, glycolic acid, glyoxlic acid, oxalic acid, and formic acid), and is excreted in the urine. These metabolic intermediates (organic acids) induce severe metabolic acidosis, kidney failure and subsequent death, in exposed animals and humans.

In a 1996 survey of over 5,100 U.S. sheep producers, 9.4% of lambs born alive were reported to have died prior to weaning. Worldwide, hypothermia and starvation are considered to account for the majority of preweaning lamb losses, with predation and respiratory disease also being important causes.

"Susceptible" and "Resistant" are thrown around in the fields of microbiology, medicine, public health, and epidemiology with great frequency. Unfortunately, these classifications are often used in a manner inconsistent with their correct application.