Sea Temple of Pura Luhur, Uluwatu, south Bali, Indonesia. (CIA.gov)

Indonesia’s foot-and-mouth outbreak prompts international measures

'Viral fragments' detected in meats brought into Australia

Reuters — Australia and New Zealand say they’ve stepped up protections against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) at their international airports following an outbreak of the disease in Indonesia. Travellers arriving in Australia from Indonesia will now be asked to walk across sanitation foot mats at airports, the latest measure to ramp up Australia’s biosecurity measures, the […] Read more

A new four-year project is delivering emergency response workshops and resources to improve the livestock industry’s emergency readiness.

Livestock community gets equipped for a disease outbreak

New webinar series aims to help animal owners and producers prepare for a disease emergency.

The Canadian livestock industry is taking steps to better prepare for a serious animal disease outbreak. As a leader in this process, the Animal Health Emergency Management (AHEM) project is teaming up with industry groups across Canada to deliver emergency response workshops and resources to improve industry’s emergency readiness.  “We’ve designed an engaging and informative […] Read more



Skunks, bats and wild carnivores run the highest risk of transmitting rabies.

Rabies in livestock often forgotten

Six tips to avoid rabies exposure

Rabies is a disease based in antiquity. It has been described through pictures and text since ancient times. The end result hasn’t changed: living creatures get rabies; they die. Globally, rabies claims over 55,000 human lives every year from every continent in the world except Antarctica. Fortunately, rabies is a relatively rare disease in humans […] Read more


Foot-and-mouth disease is regularly found in many parts of the world and threatens Canada’s livestock industry.

Much to learn about foot-and-mouth disease: Part 3 of 3

Vet Advice with Dr. Ron Clarke

In a crisis, affected people act on information differently than during non-crisis situations. They often exaggerate communication responses as they revert to more basic or instinctive “fight-or-flight” reasoning. Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in previously FMD-free countries always creates crisis circumstances because economies collapse. Plus producers are thrust into disorder of a magnitude that frightens most because […] Read more

Foot-and-mouth disease is regularly found in many parts of the world and threatens Canada’s livestock industry.

Much to learn about foot-and-mouth disease: Part 2

Vet Advice with Dr. Ron Clarke

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious, acute, viral disease affecting cloven-hooved animals including pigs, cattle, sheep and goats. Controlling FMD in countries previously free of the disease and wishing to re-establish freedom is a sophisticated process requiring technical expertise, persistence and tough decisions. The disease is characterized by formation of vesicles and erosions inside […] Read more


In February, veterinarians and industry staff travelled to Uganda to learn more about FMD and how to identify and contain it. Uganda has struggled with FMD for decades.

Preparing for a foot-and-mouth outbreak

Outbreak planning resources, training opportunities and the establishment of a Canadian vaccine bank all in the works to help the cattle industry prevent or respond to the disease

It’s a nightmare no livestock producer wants to experience; watching as your entire herd is put down. The devastation is written across the hardened faces of the farmers featured in a National Film Board of Canada documentary on the 1952 foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in southern Saskatchewan. The emotional toll of your cattle becoming infected […] Read more

The Canadian Beef Advisors have released their first set of goals designed to push the industry forward.

Texas A&M researchers developing first oral anthrax vaccine for livestock, wildlife

The College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences team is working toward a vaccine that would be easier to deliver

There may soon be a new weapon in the centuries-old battle against anthrax in wildlife thanks to groundbreaking work at the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVMBS). Anthrax, a disease caused by a bacterium called Bacillus anthracis, contaminates surface soil and grasses, where it may be ingested or inhaled by […] Read more


A disease that transfers from poultry to cattle is more likely to prove deadly than one that transfers between buffalo to cattle.

Livestock infections deadliest when host species are distant relatives

Research: News Roundup from the May 2019 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

University of British Columbia researchers have found that taxonomy can help predict infection severity when pathogens or parasites leap to a new species, Bovine Veterinarian reports. Some pathogens can infect multiple species. Researchers Maxwell J. Farrell and T. Jonathan Davies found that when pathogens move between distantly related species, the infection is more likely to […] Read more

Calves on clean straw. Scours remains a reality on cow-calf operations.

Developing a better diagnostic for cryptosporidiosis

Research: News Roundup from the March 2019 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

University of Arizona researchers are developing better diagnostic tools for cryptosporidiosis. Cryptosporidiosis, or crypto, is caused by a microscopic parasite. It’s a major culprit in scours in calves. It’s also a zoonotic and can cause serious infections in humans as well as other animals. Because the parasite can spread quickly and cause dangerous infections, early […] Read more