Archive | July 14, 2016
40,000+ birds to be killed due to avian flu in Friesland, Netherlands
Thousands of laying hens have had to be destroyed on a farm in the Netherlands following an outbreak of Bird Flu.
The outbreak of H7N9 low pathogenic avian influenza was discovered on a poultry unit in the Hiaure, Friesland, region in the Netherlands. In the end more than 40,000 birds were destroyed to prevent further spread; a 1-kilometer restriction zone was set around the farm to restrict movement.
United Kingdom poultry farmers have been urged to be extra vigilant following the outbreak, by the department of agriculture. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the risk level remains the same, low but heightened, because there are several strains of avian influenza viruses that have been reported in recent months across Europe.
On the Dutch farm about 48,000 hens were destroyed in two production units, the majority of which were in an organic unit. The remainder had access to an outside field. No other poultry units were found in the 1-kilometer restricted zone around the farm.
The department said it wanted to remind all poultry keepers to maintain high standards of biosecurity, remain vigilant and report any suspect clinical signs promptly. In addition, use testing for avian notifiable disease where appropriate for early safeguard.
The latest outbreak in the Netherlands was in laying hens. The department has advised that any important mild clinical signs, such as egg drop, be reported quickly, so testing can take place. The precautions are also applicable in the United States.
Courtesy of agriview.com
100 bull sharks found washed up dead on beaches in Mobile Bay, USA
A mystery on Mobile Bay this morning when close to 100 bull sharks washed up on the beach.
Residents and vacationers staying at homes on the beach on Belleair Boulevard, near Dauphin Island Parkway, woke up to find the sharks. They were left with plenty of questions, but very few answers.
Sabrina Rios and her family are staying in Mobile on vacation and found the sharks this morning. They said they also found a net with close to 40 sharks inside.
Rios said, “It definitely caught our attention because I know that that is illegal and you shouldn’t be doing that. We just didn’t know what to do about it.”
The smell of the dead sharks was too much to handle. So Rios along with others in the area decided to bury as many as possible.
Rios added, “It seems like such a waste. I mean whatever was in the net, it seems like they took it, and then they left the poor sharks there to die.”
The sharks cause of death is unknown at this time. It is also unknown how they got to the beach on Mobile Bay.
Officials with the Marine Resources Division and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab are investigating the deaths of the sharks.
News 5 spoke with officials with Dauphin Island Sea Lab this morning. They currently have 57 sharks in their possession, at this time, there is no exact number of sharks that were found on the beach.
Officials will know more Tuesday when the shark specialist from the Sea Lab returns and performs the necropsy on the sharks to determine the cause of death.
Courtesy of wkrg.com
14,000 ducks to be killed due to avian flu in Ontario, Canada
Less than a year after Ontario was declared free of avian influenza, 14,000 ducks will be killed after the virus was found on a commercial farm in St. Catharines, Ont.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency released a statement Friday that the virus was found in the 12-week old birds, and continued testing will be used to confirm which strain is present, though it is connected to the H5N2 strain.
The CFIA says the highly contagious virus has the potential to hit other farms in the area in the coming days.
The infected farm raises only ducks, most of which are around 12 weeks of age, and have now been placed under quarantine to control disease spread.
The CFIA is in the early stages of doing a full epidemiological investigation, said Dr. Harpreet Kochhar, Chief Veterinary Officer of Operations at the agency.
The CFIA says there’s no reason to be afraid.
“Avian influenza does not pose a risk to food safety when poultry and poultry products are properly handled and cooked and rarely affects humans,” Kochhar said.
The first steps for the agency are to identify the strain, set up a surveillance zone and maintain the appropriate bio-security measures on the quarantined farm.
“We’re trying to figure out what would make sense in terms of the high risk contact farms,” said Kochhar. The goal being to “contain the virus as well as have commerce in the rest of Ontario.”
“Were working diligently to get to that level,” he said.
Courtesy of cbc.ca
Thousands of dead fish found in a canal in Florida, USA
An algae bloom of unknown origin has killed what a Pinellas County official described Thursday as “thousands and thousands” of fish in an outfall canal between Lake Tarpon and the northern reaches of Tampa Bay.
The algae bloom near Oldsmar appears to have absorbed much of the oxygen in the water in that area, suffocating thousands of juveniles of a type of fish known as menhaden.
“The menhaden are the only ones that have been affected,” said Kelli Hammer Levy, director of the county’s environmental management division.
The first calls to the state’s fish kill hotline came in over the Fourth of July weekend. When officials from the county and the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission checked it out Tuesday, they found the water in the canal near Curlew Road was very low in oxygen.
The bloom and fish kill occurred near the Gull Aire Village mobile home park on Curlew Road. No one at the park’s homeowners association responded to a request for comment.
The algae found in the canal is not the same as the toxic algae bloom now plaguing the state’s Atlantic coast, Levy said. That algae bloom has so far not caused a fish kill, although its putrid smell has driven tourists away and residents indoors.
Instead, the samples taken from the outfall canal turned up two types of algae: heterosigma, which has caused fish kills in Louisiana, Japan and Brazil; and gymnodinium, which is associated with Red Tide and has been found for more than 100 years in Florida coastal waters from Pensacola to the Dry Tortugas. Both are found in salty or brackish water, not freshwater.
Algae blooms and fish kills are rare in the freshwater of Lake Tarpon, but not unknown. In the summer of 1987, Lake Tarpon suffered a major bloom of a type of blue-green algae that covered 80 percent of the lake. The bloom persisted all summer, but there were only minor fish kills.
No one knows what causes a handful of microscopic algae to suddenly erupt in a bloom of millions of the plantlike creatures that coats the water. Usually it occurs when the water is extremely warm — as it is now — and in areas where nutrient pollution provides a type of fertilizer for rapid growth.
Menhaden spawn in the saltwater offshore, but then the young move into estuarine nursery areas such as Tampa Bay, where they spend the early part of their lives in brackish water. That’s likely where the thousands of dead fish in the canal came from.
The county has no plans to go out and scoop up all the dead fish, so anyone who lives nearby has to put up with the smell for a while.
“We do not clean them up,” Levy said. “They make fine eating for some birds.”
Courtesy of tampabay.com
VERY POWERFUL INFLUX OF ENERGY WILL STRIKE THE WEAK MAGNETOSPHERE FROM THE 15th – 18th JULY 2016
**VERY URGENT**
VERY POWERFUL INFLUX OF ENERGY WILL STRIKE THE WEAK MAGNETOSPHERE FROM THE 15th – 18th JULY 2016. FURTHER EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANO ACTIVITY AND ADVERSE WEATHER WILL BE GREATLY INFLUENCED BY THE COSMIC RAYS STRIKING THE EARTH’S CORE
**BE ALERT**
MAGNITUDE 5.4 SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=518281
Subject To Change
Depth: 2 km
Distances: 389 km S of Bandung, Indonesia / pop: 1,699,719 / local time: 01:28:04.4 2016-07-15
341 km S of Tasikmalaya, Indonesia / pop: 271,143 / local time: 01:28:04.4 2016-07-15
335 km SW of Kroya, Indonesia / pop: 23,255 / local time: 01:28:04.4 2016-07-15
MAGNITUDE 4.7 WESTERN IRAN
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=518268
Subject To Change
Depth: 2 km
Distances: 119 km SW of Eşfahān, Iran, Islamic Republic of / pop: 1,547,164 / local time: 21:48:17.0 2016-07-14
60 km S of Shahr-e Kord, Iran, Islamic Republic of / pop: 129,153 / local time: 21:48:17.0 2016-07-14
38 km SW of Borūjen, Iran, Islamic Republic of / pop: 52,654 / local time: 21:48:17.0 2016-07-14
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