Weekly livestock news: July 4, 2022

Producers should start preparing for changes to livestock antibiotic rules

Certain over-the-counter livestock antibiotics will begin requiring a veterinary prescription by next June, meaning producers need to be ready for changes in how they get medications for their animals. Similar to the 2017 veterinary feed directive, new classes of livestock antibiotics—those used in human medicine—will fall under the rule. This includes injectable and oral bolus products containing penicillin, tetracycline and other antibiotics. It will affect all mastitis and dry cow treatments. The FDA website has a full list of affected products. The goal is to ensure medicines are used at the right dosage and for the proper duration to avoid antibiotic resistance, which is a risk to human and animal health. Manufacturers may start producing products with the required labeling before next June, so a veterinarian prescription may be necessary even before the rule takes effect. “The most important step in preparing for this labeling change is to ensure you have a valid veterinary-client-patient relationship, or VCPR, with a veterinarian” who can help determine the best products and appropriate prescriptions for herds, Penn State University assistant professor Hayley Springer writes in American Agriculturist.

New prescription vaccine platform could be crucial for quick disease response on hog farms

USDA’s Center for Veterinary Biologics has approved a new customized vaccine platform allowing veterinarians to prescribe vaccines that target viruses circulating on specific hog farms. Approving the manufacturing platform, as opposed to a specific vaccine, allows for a much quicker process between the time a virus is identified on a farm and the time producers get a vaccine. With the new technology, after identifying a virus, a veterinarian can write a prescription for a vaccine, send it to the company, called Medgene, and have the vaccine in as little as two or three days if the company has the correct protein. If it’s a novel virus, the process can take up to 12 weeks. Either way, it’s much faster than the conventional vaccine development process, which can be as long as five years with the time it takes to get regulatory approval. Medgene’s “construct bank” currently holds more than 250 insect proteins, which are the backbone of the vaccines, in three viral families: rotavirus, coronavirus and influenza. The company has also developed a prescription vaccine platform for viral diseases in cattle, which is expected to have USDA approval shortly, Agri-Pulse reports.

FDA launches webinar on low-risk intentional genomic alterations in animals for food use

The FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine announced new resources for people interested in the development of intentional genomic alterations in animals. The resources include a pre-recorded, on-demand webinar about the agency’s risk-based review process for IGAs in animals that may pose low risk, as well as revamped web resources for biotechnology products at CVM. The webinar includes an overview of the agency’s recent determination of low risk for the marketing of products, including food, from two genome-edited beef cattle and their offspring after determining that the gene alteration doesn’t raise any safety concerns. This was the agency’s first low-risk determination and decision to exercise enforcement discretion for an IGA in an animal for food use.

USDA scientists want to convert insect pests into poultry feed

A team of scientists at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service is working to convert pests such as mosquitoes and house flies into food sources for poultry. According to ARS, the research team has tested and refined several types of insect traps and examined captured insects to make sure they won’t transmit pathogens up the food chain when they’re eaten. When the design is finalized, the traps could be used by individual farmers to feed their own animals, or by larger commercial operations that could be net exporters of insect-based feed. Mosquitoes are as much as 63% protein, “and we are competing with [feed made from] soybean, which is in the range of 40% protein,” said researcher Alex Chaskopoulou, adding that insects are part of the birds’ natural diet, “so biologically [the chickens] know what’s good for them.”

As Colorado’s avian flu emergency order expires, state veterinarian says shows should still be postponed

Colorado’s emergency rule on avian influenza expired as of June 30, but the state veterinarian says the poultry industry should still hold off on shows, sales and other events. These events had been suspended since March 30. “While this rule will expire, the Colorado State Veterinarian’s Office recommends that all poultry shows, sales, swaps and commingling events continue to be postponed or canceled at this time,” said State Veterinarian Dr. Maggie Baldwin. Highly pathogenic avian influenza “has affected more than 40 million domestic birds nationwide, and more than 3.5 million chickens in Colorado alone, and we are asking all Colorado bird owners to practice good biosecurity measures, including limiting exposure of domestic flocks to wild birds and other poultry flocks and limiting introduction of new birds into their flocks,” Baldwin said.

Pirbright Institute will study how to control future avian flu outbreaks in the United Kingdom

The U.K.-based Pirbright Institute is leading a new research consortium in the country to develop strategies to control future bird flu outbreaks. The consortium has received 1.5 million pounds from the Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The key aims of the consortium include monitoring current flu virus strains; understanding the spread of disease in different bird populations; developing models to predict how the avian flu virus may spread; and developing strategies to decrease risk of transmission to people. “Avian influenza is an economically important virus that has devastating effects on the poultry industry, therefore improved understanding of the virus will give us more insight into how it spreads and inform our control strategies to prevent it from spreading to people and other animals,” said Munir Iqbal, head of Pirbright’s avian influenza virus group.