Dr. Rob Atwill conducted a workshop entitled, "California’s Water Resources: A Veterinarian’s Role in Reducing Waterborne Pathogens," organized by Dr. Nick Holden, School of Agriculture, Food Science & Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin, Ireland.

The workshop was well attended by public health and agriculture agency staff where we discussed the current state of knowledge regarding waterborne Cryptosporidiosis and effective intervention strategies that farmers and communities to use to minimize human and animal infection from this pathogen.

A second talk entitled, "Epidemiologic Approaches to Waterborne and Foodborne Zoonotic Disease," focused on preharvest food safety, with an emphasis on the research programs on produce food safety that are being conducted or funded by WIFSS and the Center for Produce Safety, UC Davis. This talk was given to the veterinary staff of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Government of Ireland, which was organized by Dr. Tom Murphy.

Follow up conversations are in progress on how our respective programs can collaborate on food and waterborne disease projects in northern Africa.

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Due to depressed farm gate prices, some industry analysts estimate that the average California dairy is losing approximately $100,000 a month and predict a 10-15% reduction in the number of dairies in the State for next year. Some producers are initiating anti-depressant therapy, and there have been at least two producer suicides reported.

In order to support family dairy farms WIFSS, the Kings County Agricultural Commissioner’s office and Colorado State University partnered with dairy industry organizations to offer a webinar on farmer stress, depression and suicide prevention for professionals allied with the dairy industry on June 11th.

Attending on 54 links from around the state were field staff from producer and processor organizations, dairy veterinarians, agricultural lenders, regulatory field staff and various educational groups working with producers such as UCCE livestock advisors, NRCS field staff and other consultants. Access to the webinar technology and logistical planning was provided by Tim Niswander, Agricultural Commissioner for Kings County.

The presenter was Dr. Robert Fetsch a educator from Colorado State nationally recognized for research and outreach in mental health issues for farmers and who has a family dairy background. County mental health professionals from the major dairy counties were on hand and several requests for information or assistance were received within several hours after the conclusion of the webinar.

A link to the recording of the webinar and other informational materials will be available in the near future at the California Dairy Quality Assurance Program’s website.

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The largest segment of the veterinary profession in California is small animal practitioners, those veterinarians who care for our dogs, cats and exotic pets. In order to keep this highly educated group of professionals current on food safety and other livestock societal issues, WIFSS’s Dr. Michael Payne gave three hours of continuing education presentations at this year’s Pacific Veterinary Conference, the annual meeting of the California Veterinary Medical Association.

Among the issues covered were recent food-related disease outbreaks, raw milk for human consumption, the environmental impact of livestock agriculture, safety of Chinese food imports, preparations for Avian Influenza (the “Bird Flu”), antibiotic use in food animals, and a “Mad Cow” update.

Small animal practitioners play an important surveillance role relative to the State’s bio-security evidenced by the fact that the first case of Exotic Newcastle Disease in the 2004 outbreak was identified through samples from a backyard rooster submitted to the state veterinary diagnostic laboratory by a small animal veterinarian.

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While it is illegal to ship or slaughter non-ambulatory cattle for human consumption, cattle with low energy reserves or injury may become recumbent at the packing plant. Unlawful efforts to move such cows into the human food chain lead to a 143-million-pound beef recall in southern California earlier this year and ultimately the closing of the involved plant.

In an effort to help prevent similar occurrences in the future, the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and other WIFSS partners joined efforts to offer two half-day symposiums addressing the causes, prevention, humane movement, care and euthanasia (when necessary) of non-ambulatory cattle.

The program uses slide sets, videos, real anatomical displays and "live-fire" training in the safe use of captive bolt devices (see pictures at right). This training will augment an on-line dairy beef website developed by the University of California's Cooperative Extension and other WIFSS partners.

This interactive curriculum uses narrated slide presentations, streaming video and quizzes addressing issues such as prevention of drug residues, carcass condemnation and BSE. Dairy Beef: Maximizing Quality & Profits can be viewed at: http://dairybeef.ucdavis.edu/.

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On June 22nd, a delegation from one of China’s top universities visited the UC Davis campus and the facilities of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Drs. Rob Atwill and Xunde Li met the delegation and talked about potential collaborations with WIFSS.

Heping Campus Jilin University is one of the top universities in China. It is an agricultural university and is well know for its leading position in education and research in veterinary medicine.

The delegation:

• Mr. Han Wenyu, Professor, President of Heping Campus, Jilin University
• Mr. Wang Zhongdong, Professor, Director of Center for Basic Courses
• Mr. Zhang Jiabao, Professor, Director of Center for Experimental Animals
• Mr. Han Junyou, Associate Professor, Associate Dean of the College of Plant Sciences

The two universities intend to collaborate in research, education, outreach in the area of pre-harvest food safety.

Drs. Atwill and Li are invited to attend a national DVM/Ph.D. training campus which will be held in Heping Campus in August 2009.

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