Petco, the second-largest U.S. pet retailer is going all-natural. To a point. Representatives for the chain say that by next May, cat and dog treats and food sold at its retail locations and online will contain no artificial flavors, preservatives and colors. Company officials believe healthier foods and snacks that replace items with artificial ingredients will make up more … [Read more...]
Search Results for: Rats
Don’t let rodent control slip through the cracks
Mice and rats are looking for warmer digs and can sneak into any building anywhere. Elizabeth Ferry and Casey Zangaro write about pest control with a dairy view and their assertions fit scenarios animal health pros often encounter. Rodents have been recorded to carry up to 45 diseases than can easily be transmitted to farm animals if they are in the same vicinity Source: … [Read more...]
Zoonotic diseases quiz is timely
Among the current and future challenges of the Hurricane Harvey devastation is the risk of zoonotic disease exchanges. An entire underground population of rats, mice, feral cats, skunks, raccoons and who knows what else was forced to move along with people. Like humans, they will move back into the area carrying with them all sorts of zoonotic risks including leptospirosis, … [Read more...]
U.S. Court of Appeals puts gray wolf back on endangered list
The debate about whether or not to list or delist the gray wolf from the Endangered Species list will likely bring new legislation and further definition to managing endangered species. Still, the recovery of a nearly extinct predator has been a remarkable wildlife management process. Source: Drovers Cattle Network, August 2, 2017. Currently there are Republicans and … [Read more...]
Effectiveness of animal testing being compared to other methods
All drugs and some chemicals must be tested on animals before humans, but no one is certain how well such tests predict the toxic effects on people. A Johns Hopkins University team hopes to find out by comparing standard animal tests with more modern scientific methods that use human cells or computer models. Source: The Baltimore Sun, March 16, 2017 via AAHA NEWStat. Data … [Read more...]
TNR works to control feral cats
Challenges with feral cats spans centuries. Estimates on their numbers range from about half as many as there are owned-cats to one and a half times as many owned cats. With 74 million owned-cats, there could be 32 million to 106 million feral cats. Feral cats are both beneficial and problematic. Historically, they were tied to superstitions in medieval Europe when the Great … [Read more...]
Editorial – Wild horse advocates respond to BLM advisory board
The wild horse debate continues. Clearly, the overpopulation of wild horses on public lands is a problem. The challenges are ecological, geological and economical, all compounded by weather patterns. From one perspective, wild horses never seem to be labeled as feral. It may be time to look at their management and control as we manage feral hogs, feral dogs, feral cats and … [Read more...]
4 surprising flea-transmitted diseases you need to know
Unlike ticks, fleas don’t seem all that threatening. Mostly, we see the tiny bloodsuckers as a nuisance for pets and for us, not a serious threat to anyone’s health. Don’t dismiss them. Learn how fleas can transmit a surprising number of diseases to animals and humans. Source: Pet MD, September 12, 2016. Fleas can cause serious harm to you and your pet’s health through … [Read more...]
Drones dispense M&Ms to help endangered ferrets
The U.S. government is set to unleash drones that fire vaccine-covered M&Ms in a bid to save the endangered black-footed ferret. It faces a plague epidemic across America’s great plains. Both black-footed ferrets and prairie dogs are susceptible to the sylvatic plague, a flea-borne disease spread from rats that were introduced from ships arriving in California in the … [Read more...]
Understanding risk from zoonotic disease
The majority of infectious diseases emerging as human epidemics originated in mammals. Yet, we still know little about the global patterns of mammal-to-human pathogen transmission. Researchers at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and the University of Georgia have assembled world maps of what’s on record about mammal-to-human diseases. The work is helping to determine if … [Read more...]