Livestock and equine news: December 23, 2020

Meat industry workers should be among first to receive COVID-19 vaccine: CDC

The CDC has recommended meat and poultry industry workers be among the first Americans to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, placing them and other essential workers after health care workers and long-term care facility residents. This group of meat industry workers, first responders, teachers and others is estimated to include about 49 million people, or nearly 15% of Americans, Feedstuffs reports. The group after that includes other essential workers from transportation, logistics and food service and includes 129 million Americans, or more than a third of the country.

COVID relief bill includes $13 billion for ag

The new pandemic relief package passed by Congress includes $13 billion for agriculture assistance and programs, and another $13 billion to provide nutrition assistance, Feed Strategy reports. Nearly $1 billion will support a dairy donation program and supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage payments for small and medium-sized producers. More help will be made available to specialty and non-specialty crop growers, and the Paycheck Protection Program will be expanded, allowing small farmers to continue operating and paying their employees.

Nosebands can cause nasal bone damage to horse, study shows

Abnormalities in some horses’ facial bones suggest they might be damaging their own skulls “in a bid to seek comfort” under tightened tack, according to a researcher involved in a new study reported by The Horse. The horses’ facial bones became abnormally thicker or thinner in the noseband and curb chain regions, creating lesions visible on X-ray and that could even be felt or seen, according to the study. “If bit pressure prompts a horse to open his mouth in search of relief from the pressure but is denied comfort because of a restrictive noseband, he may not simply give up but may just keep working against the stricture of the noseband,” said Paul McGreevey, a professor of animal behavior and animal welfare science at the University of Sydney. “My fear is that these lesions may be evidence of animals in training, competition or work who are essentially mutilating themselves.”

USDA and NASA sign new collaboration agreement

USDA and NASA have signed a memorandum of understanding “aimed at strengthening their longstanding partnership on space-based assets benefitting life on Earth,” the agencies announced. The agencies will study research gaps important to the agricultural community that could be addressed through “Earth observation systems” and technologies developed over the next decade. The collaboration will also address recommendations made in the 2017 National Academies’ Earth Science Decadal Survey.