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Study: Shortage of large-animal vets could affect U.S. food safety
By DAVE SKRETTA, Associated Press Writer
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) -- A projected shortfall in veterinarians specializing in livestock could threaten food safety and the United States' ability to handle outbreaks of catastrophic animal diseases, a new study shows. The study, commissioned in 2004 by a coalition of veterinary organizations and conducted by Kansas State University's College of Business Administration, projects a major shortfall in the vets by 2016.

The projected shortfall comes as Americans are increasingly aware of bird flu and foot-and-mouth disease, and meat exports have been curtailed by skeptical nations like Japan, which has twice cited concerns over mad cow disease in closing its lucrative market to U.S. beef. "Not having enough veterinarians in rural communities, out in the field, to do adequate disease surveillance threatens our food security," said Dr. Lyle Vogel, director of the Animal Welfare Division of the American Veterinary Medical Association. "For the first time, this study has scientifically documented there is a shortage and shown the shortage is going to get worse."

The study, released Thursday and the most comprehensive of its kind, found that while demand for food-animal veterinarians is projected to increase 12 to 13 percent over the next decade, four out of every 100 jobs will go unfilled. The shortfall is also expected to affect government agencies like the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which is entrusted with protecting U.S. agricultural health.

USDA officials declined to comment without seeing the report. Spokesman Jim Rogers said disease response teams can be on the ground anywhere in the U.S. within four hours.

Donning overalls and rubber boots to deliver calves at all hours of the night is often unappealing to students, who are coming in fewer numbers from rural backgrounds. "It's a national trend," said Dr. Ralph Richardson, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University, one of the nation's top agricultural and veterinary schools. "I've tracked the job opportunities for veterinary graduates and it's fairly consistent. It's clearly an increasing problem."

The study suggested improved recruiting strategies emphasizing food-animal careers, loan forgiveness and other incentives, and improving the image of rural veterinarians as the most promising ways to attract students.

Related AgEdNet.com Lesson:
** CR105 Career Opportunities in Veterinary Medicine

Photo credit: Photo showing a cow licking her newborn calf was provided by Dr. James Lawhead, and is used by permission.

Farm turns miscanthus grass into cash
By The Associated Press
MONTICELLO, Ill. (AP) -- Standing on a hill not far from his farmhouse, John Caveny looks down at the grass growing around his feet and says he's looking at the future of Illinois agriculture. "The purpose of this farm is to turn grass into cash," he says.

Caveny stands in a plot of miscanthus, a perennial grass that by summer's end will grow about 12 feet tall and has the potential to become not only a cash crop for farmers, but also a source of electrical power and motor fuel. As the nation's No. 2 corn ethanol producer and leading consumer of soy biodiesel, Illinois already is a major player in biofuels. Yet farmers and farm researchers also are studying ways to use miscanthus and other crops, livestock and the by-products farms produce to help the nation wean itself from foreign oil.

At the University of Illinois' ag school alone, 42 faculty are looking into how energy creation might alter the state's rural scene in years to come. "Reality in most of the world today is we produce enough food, so we have the luxury of thinking about what else can we use this landscape for," says Robert Easter, dean of UI's College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in Urbana. "I think a significant component of that future is going to be energy."

Related AgEdNet.com Wednesday Special:
** 12/14/05 -- Heating Things Up

Scooping poop keeps parasites at bay
By KIM MARIE LABAK
University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine
Have you ever walked away from a pile your pet has left on public property? Have you gone days, or even weeks, without picking up your pet's piles in the back yard? Many pet owners do not realize that cat and dog feces carry parasitic worms capable of infecting humans.

Not only is picking up after your pet hygienic, lawful, and courteous, but it can also help keep the soil free of parasites such as roundworms and hookworms and can help keep humans safe from infections. In addition, keeping pets on a regular worm preventive and practicing good hygiene can help control and prevent the spread of these parasites.

Dr. Allan Paul, veterinary parasitologist at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine in Urbana, explains that two parasites found in pet poop, roundworms and hookworms, can infect humans through ingestion or skin contact. Both are very common in puppies and kittens.

Roundworms can be spread to puppies from their mother before they are born; dormant roundworm larvae in the mother's bloodstream can become activated during pregnancy and cross the placenta to infect the puppies. In fact, according to Dr. Paul, virtually 100 percent of puppies are born with roundworms. Unlike puppies, kittens do not acquire roundworms from their mother in utero, but nursing milk that contains roundworm larvae can infect them.

If left untreated, roundworms can migrate in the body to infect vital organs and cause permanent, even fatal, damage, so young animals are usually put on a deworming program at a few weeks of age. Adult dogs and cats can ingest roundworm eggs or larvae from the environment, but don't usually get sick. Rather, the larvae remain throughout the body in the dormant form.

Hookworms are another parasite that can be acquired via mother's milk or through direct ingestion. Hookworm larvae can also be absorbed through the skin, causing skin lesions, and may travel through the body to infect the intestines. Once they infect the intestinal tract, they can suck large amounts of blood, causing anemia. Like roundworm infections, hookworm infections can be treated with deworming drugs.

If a pet's roundworm or hookworm infection goes untreated, not only can a puppy or kitten develop serious disease, but also the environment can become contaminated with eggs that are excreted with feces and pose a health risk for humans. Roundworm and hookworm infections are as serious for humans as they are for pets.

One female roundworm can lay up to 200,000 eggs a day. Dr. Paul explains that these eggs are very resilient, and the only way to effectively destroy them is with flame or steam. Indoor kennels can be steam cleaned to reduce contamination. Since chemicals cannot destroy the eggs, contaminated lawns can pose a challenge, especially since the eggs can survive in the soil for many years. Fortunately, roundworm eggs do not become infective until two to three weeks after leaving the body through feces and only mature to this infective state if environmental conditions are just right.

Hookworm eggs, however, become infective only two days after leaving the body, so they too can pose a contamination problem. Humans, like dogs and cats, can acquire roundworms via ingestion, and can contract hookworm infection through ingestion or skin contact. People at higher risk for infection by these parasites include children, especially those who may eat sand or dirt, and people who work with soil and sand that may be contaminated, such as landscapers and plumbers.

An effective way to prevent infection is keeping the environment clean. Picking up after your pet promptly when it defecates in public spaces, such as parks, and cleaning feces out of your yard or litterbox at least every other day can keep roundworm and hookworm eggs from reaching their infective stage. Keeping children's sandboxes covered when not in use can keep the sand clean and parasite free.

In areas where hookworms can be a problem, you can minimize your contact with contaminated soil or sand by wearing shoes and sitting on blanket when relaxing outdoors. Of course, washing hands thoroughly after working or playing outside and before eating can prevent ingestion and spread of parasites as well as other infectious agents like bacteria and viruses.

In addition to keeping the environment clean, Dr. Paul suggests some simple steps to keep your pet from acquiring active infections. Standard deworming drugs can decrease worms in a puppy or kitten and decrease shedding of eggs in feces by up to 100 percent. A veterinarian should examine a pet's stool sample every six to 12 months, when the pet gets its routine veterinary examination.

Monthly drugs, taken orally or applied topically, can prevent roundworm and hookworm infections, and some monthly heartworm treatments include these preventives. Keeping dogs in a fenced yard and cats indoors has numerous health benefits, since animals allowed to roam naturally run a higher risk of getting parasites and other infectious illness.

On the Net:
** Centers for Disease Control - Healthy Pets Healthy People: http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/
** University of Illinois - Pet Columns: http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/petcolumns/

Related AgEdNet.com Lesson:
** VS037 Fecal Examination for Parasites

Houseplants will still need water while you vacation
By KATHLEEN W. WARD
K-State Research and Extension
MANHATTAN, Kan. -- The dog can go along or go to the kennel. The lawn will survive on its own. But, houseplants can suffer while the family's on vacation. "The best alternative, of course, is to have someone water them while you're gone. If you don't want to hand over house keys to someone else, though, you've still got some alternatives," said Ward Upham, Master Gardener coordinator for Kansas State University Research and Extension.

The traditional method is to place the plants' pots on pebble- and water-filled pans, Upham said. Three other methods can do a more dependable job, however:

1. Place well-watered plants inside a plastic bag, using wood dowels or something similar to keep the plastic propped up and off the leaves.

   "This can keep plants happy for about a week," the horticulturist said. "You can't leave them where they'll receive full sunlight, because the heat buildup inside the bag could cook the plants. But, they should be fine in bright, indirect light."

2. For this approach, you need an old dish-drying rack(s), some shoelaces and a bathroom that gets natural light. Place the rack upside down in the bathtub. Push the end of a shoelace through the drainage hole and into the soil of each houseplant's pot. Put the pot(s) on the rack, so that the loose end of the shoelace dangles down. Then fill the tub with several inches of water.

   "You end up with a wick system that will replace water in the pot as the plant uses it," Upham said. "Plants can last a couple of weeks in this setup if they get enough natural light."

3. Shop early and get one of the many commercial products that can automatically water houseplants. All will have a reservoir for water. They'll either siphon or pump that water to the individual plants.

   "The real advantage of these products is that you normally don't have to move your plants to ensure they get water while you're gone," he said. "And, your houseplants should last as long as the reservoir water does."

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