In New Zealand scientists are warning that biosecurity is at risk with new trade deals. With allowing the new free trade agreements and all the tourism at the border, this is where the risk comes from. Figures have shown that little less then have of one of their major exported crops had been on the market before the disease it was carrying was reported. This will on average cost producers of the crop $200 a year to unsure that the crop is not infected (Morton). Biosecurity- especially in the food industry- is important to ensure that animals and food for human consumption will be healthy and safe.
Biosecurity is the set of practical measures that are taken to prevent the entrance of an infection into a farm and to control the spread of the infection with in the farm. The goal of a biosecurity program is to keep out pathogens that herds have not been exposed to and to minimize the impact of endemic pathogens. Biosecurity is made up of three separate sets of actions and overlapping components: bio-exclusion, bio-containment, and bio-management. The goals of a farm or production unit will determine how these are blended into a biosecurity plan ("Biosecurity of Pigs and Farm Security.").
Bio-exclusion is the overall process of preventing any introduction of unwanted diseases into a farm or system. This is where most swine producers pay attention to and where recent research has put its attention ("Biosecurity of Pigs and Farm Security."). This is where farmers monitor the coming and going of livestock to their production whether it be bought-in or coming home from a show. The best way to prevent any disease entering a herd is by keeping a closed herd, meaning that no new animals are introduced to the herd until they have been qua...
... middle of paper ...
...
Works Cited
"Biosecurity for Swine Producers ." AgriLIFE Extension. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Aug. 2013. .
"Biosecurity of Pigs and Farm Security ." University of Nebraska . N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Aug. 2013. .
Morton , Jamie . "Scientist warns biosecurity at risk from new trade deals." The New Zealand Herald 12 July 2013: n. pag. The New Zealand Herald. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Mee, John . "Biosecurity - bioexclusion." Animal Health Ireland. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
"Equine Biosecurity and Biocontainment Practices on U.S. Equine Operations ." Veterinary Services Centers for Epidemiology and Animal Health. N.p., 1 Nov. 2006. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
"Building Functional Biosecurity Plans." National Hog Farmer Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
Nestle, Marion. Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003.
This is not the first time or even the first animal to have become a problem. Other problem animals such as the feral hogs, Norwegian rats and the German cockroach’s’ are examples of what happens when a problem goes untreated or under treated. In 2011, the Department of the Interi...
Feral swine are considered to be in the top 100 problematic invasive species. Sus scrofa are native to Eurasia and North Africa, but are currently found on all continents except Antarctica (Timmons et al, 2012). Swine arrived in North America in 1493. Escaped domestic swine were the first to begin the feral swine population, and when settlers first arrived, there continued to be an increase in escaped pigs. Hunters would intentionally release swine to build up sport hunting. Many of these released swine were domesticated European wild boar mixes (Kaller & Kelso, 2006).
With over nine million types of horses in the United States, the need for quality health care for the horses has never been stronger. It’s certain that more equine veterinarians than ever before will be needed in the years to come to provide the care that owners want for their horses. According to the American Association of equine practitioners (AAEP), nearly half of the equine veterinarians are involved with performance horses(44.8%). The AVMA’S most recent employment survey of 2016 indicated that there were about 3,874 veterinarians in exclusively equine practice, with and additional 4,177 involved in mixed practices.
Ryan, Jeffrey R., and Jan F. Glarum. Biosecurity & Bioterrorism: Containing and Preventing Biological Threats. Oxford: Elsevier Inc., 2008.
On January 4, 2011 President Obama signed into law The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). This law has shed new light on the safety and security of our food supply. The last update to the food safety laws in the United States was in 1938. The food safety modernization act pays special attention at trying to modernize the food safety policies in the United States in hopes to prevent problems and concerns before they happen. As we all know, most of our food comes from overseas or sometimes from your neighboring state. The food products travel by car, truck, airplane, boat, or even train. We are all very happy to be receiving our bananas from Costa Rica and all of our other fresh fruits and vegetables that are imported into the United States, but we never stop to think about what pathogens are contaminating our produce and other foods on the way over and if they are safe for us to eat. In an article by Neal Fortin, he states that the law also gives the FDA new standards to hold imported foods to the domestic food standards and it also encourages the FDA to establish and develo...
Donahue believes that censoring science is putting the United States at the same risk as not censoring. The author states “the effort to suppress scientific information reflects a dangerously outdated attitude.” Donahue supports this claim by explaining several cases in science where sharing information on microbiological studies have helped science move forward. The author mentions an article that was published describing how susceptible the United States milk supply is to the botulinum toxin. This article was suspended by the National Academy of Science because they believed it to be a “road map for terrorists” (p. 1). The author believes however, that instead of censoring such an article this information should be shared, this way other scientists will be able to discover ways to defend against terrorist attacks.
The rapid pace of vaccine development convinces people that they are safe from the infectious diseases. Unfortunately, the anthrax outbreak in 2001, having killed five people, reveals the vulnerability of the public health, suggesting that further research on contagious epidemics should be developed abruptly. In response to this issue, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) granted Boston University a $128 million funding for the construction of a new leading facility known as the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory (NEIDL or BU Biolab), which would be sited on the Boston University Medical Campus, to battle against contagious ailments. Besides conducting research on infectious diseases, the BU Biolab will also perform research to prepare for bioterrorism (Le Duc). According to the Center for Disease Control, there are four levels of increasing of containment for research on infections ranging from Biosafety Levels 1 through 4 (BSL-1 to BSL-4). While much of the research on epidemics is done in laboratories with BSL-2 to BSL-3, the BU Biolab, with the highest level of precaution, BSL-4, will conduct research on rare contagious epidemics including anthrax, ebola, and plague, which are usually life threatening.
"Special Pathogen Branch." CDC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17 Jul 2009. Web. 9 Dec 2011. .
Visser, Nick. "After Fears Of Antibiotic Resistance, 25 Drug Companies To Phase Out Use In Livestock." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 27 Mar. 2014. Web. 20 May 2014. .
However, health concerned organizations want to ban the use of these products due to the increasing fears that they can cause harm to the consumers. For over 50 years, antibiotics have been added to the food of animals such as poultry, cattle and pigs. The main purpose for doing so is to lower the risk of disease in animals. Farm animals are housed together in overcrowded areas, which are very dirty. The hygiene level can get to such a poor state that they are often in contact with their own excreta as well as excreta of the other animals they are housed with and because of tight single air space they share, the likelihood of catching diseases from one another is further increased and very often a whole heard can be infected at one time.
Meat cultivation uses more land, water and resources to house, transport, and slaughter animals and their grain and food than it would cost to fund in vitro meat studies. In April 2008 the In Vitro Consortium first met at the Norwegian Food Research Institute. The consortium is “an international alliance of environmentally concerned scientists striving to facilitate the establishment of a large scale process industry for the production of muscle tissue for human consumption through concerted R&D efforts and attraction of funding fuels to these efforts. ”Meat in both its production and its consumption has a number of destructive effects on not only the environment and humans but also live stock. Some of these effects are antibiotic resistant bacteria due to the overuse of antibiotics in livestock, meat-borne pathogens (e. coli), and diseases associated with diets rich in animal fats (diabetes).
Although Australia has had outbreaks in the diseases mentioned above, they have been successfully eradicated. A comparative example of another country’s quarantine is Africa where there are outbreaks of Fruit Flies and Black Sigatoka. These diseases are out of control and are damaging the economics of Africa’s agricultural industry. This indicates that Australia has effective quarantine methods.
A SWOT analysis of the food control system in Bahrain revealed that certain strengths and weaknesses are inherent in the system. In addition to the weaknesses and the strengths, there are threats that would negatively affect the system if not prevented or brought under control. Nevertheless, the there are opportunities available for responding to the threats, making the Bahrain food control systems more efficient and effective. It is therefore important that some or all of these strengths, opportunities, threats, and weaknesses are reviewed. Conspicuous among the weaknesses is the fact that limited resources are available for the agencies and the personnel employed in the Bahrain food control system. Related to lack of resources is the lack of skills and competencies in applying modern techniques, more so in microbiological and chemical analysis. The second weakness of the Bahrain food control system is that most of the laws and regulations on food safety and control are not based on risk- or science-based analysis. In other words, the laws could be outdated and irrelevant in comparison with the latest mechanisms by which pathogens and other contaminants affect foodstuffs (Nestle, 2007). Furthermore, Bahrain lacks the technical expertise or competent enough personnel who could assess the effectiveness and the applicability of their food control laws.
Food safety is an increasingly important public health issue. Governments all over the world are intensifying their efforts to improve food safety. Food borne illnesses are diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by agents that enter the body through the ingestion of food. “In industrialized countries, the percentage of people suffering from food borne diseases each year has been reported to be up to 30%. In the United States of America, for example, around 76 million cases of food borne diseases, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths, are estimated to occur each year.” (Geneva 2)