Environmental group sues to halt killing practices of federal wildlife agency [Sacramento Bee]
The federal government's wildlife damage control program is based on outdated science and indiscriminate tools that kill many non-target animals, including protected species, according to a lawsuit filed Monday by WildEarth Guardians, a Colorado-based environmental group. The focus of the lawsuit is a little-known arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture called Wildlife Services that has long specialized in killing animals that are deemed to pose a threat to agriculture, the public and – more recently – the environment. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, asks that the agency's activities be halted until it prepares a new, more comprehensive environmental impact statement. The suit also calls for a halt to its aerial gunning of predators in federally designated wilderness areas.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/02/4458430/environmental-group-sues-to-halt.html
Are USDA assurances on mad cow case 'gross oversimplification'? [MSNBC Health Blog]
The mad cow discovered in California last week was not really a mad cow. It suffered from a closely related disease. There is no cause for alarm at this point, but several top scientists say the public health implications may not be as clear the U.S. Department of Agriculture would have us believe. The diseased dairy cow from a rendering (or carcass recycling) plant in Hanford, Calif., near Fresno, was infected with a condition variously known as BASE (bovine amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy), atypical BSE and L-type BSE, which has so far been found in about 70 animals in the world. Lyndsay Cole, a spokeswoman for USDA, confirmed the diagnosis in an email Tuesday….Some experiments have shown that this rare disease can jump from species to species, infecting lab mice and even non-human primates. The research also suggests that the infectious agent for the rare disease could be more virulent than BSE, more likely to appear in meat (classical BSE is mostly in brain and nervous tissue) and might be carried in milk. Many scientists are quick to point out that all this research consists of studies too small to be conclusive. The U.S. government has confirmed the first case of mad cow disease in six years, but the government is stressing there is no threat to human health. NBC's Robert Bazell reports. However, there is an urgent need for further study, they say.
Editorial: A mad cow warning [Los Angeles Times]
…This country's primary defense against mad cow is a ban on feeding cattle parts to other cattle. That is supposed to prevent one animal from infecting another — both mad cow and the human variant of the disease are spread by consuming parts of infected cattle. But that goal is undermined by one industry practice that is still allowed: Those cattle parts can be turned into chicken feed. Chickens can't contract the disease, but their uneaten feed and their droppings are then scooped up and processed into cattle feed. This procedure should be banned. USDA officials touted the California case as proof that their random sampling works. But the agency tests only one in about 900 cattle….The fact that testing found any cases is reason enough to increase testing. There's probably no cause for alarm, but that doesn't mean that the federal government has taken all the reasonably appropriate steps to protect and reassure consumers. South Korea halted imports of U.S. beef for five years after a previous case was discovered in this country, and two retailers there stopped selling last week. Indonesia is also banning imports. The U.S. beef industry itself should be calling for extra measures to protect the reputation of its products.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-madcow-california-20120502,0,2552488.story
USDA unveils rules to speed tracking of tainted meat [USA Today]
The government is unveiling new provisions today to keep potentially deadly E. coli from infiltrating summer barbecues and other outings when folks sink their teeth into meat. The updated rules by the U.S. Department of Agriculture allow inspectors to begin looking for meat contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 as soon as early testing shows a potential problem. The policy is designed to speed up the USDA's ability to track down contaminated hamburger and ground beef — and contain them. Under the new policy, the USDA will act quicker after the first signs of a potentially deadly spread. The agency previously did not begin investigating possible contaminated meat until several tests were completed, often taking days.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-05-02/USDA-ecoli-testing/54682840/1
Storm caused $20.4 million in damage to Kings County crops [Fresno Bee]
A vicious spring storm that dumped quarter-sized hail on parts of the central San Joaquin Valley three weeks ago caused more than $20.4 million in damage to crops in Kings County, officials said Tuesday. Other Valley counties have yet to complete their tally of damage to crops, and loss estimates are expected to grow, officials said. The afternoon storm on April 11 mowed down numerous crops, including cotton, kiwi, cherries, apricots, peaches, plums and nectarines as it moved from the west side of the Valley to the east.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/05/01/2821475/storm-caused-more-than-204-million.html
Lacking in snowpack [Visalia Times-Delta]
Despite storms that hit California in March and April, the snowpack in the state's mountain ranges remains extremely low. Surveys of the snow conducted in recent days in the Sierra and Cascade mountains show the snowpack at 60 percent below the average levels for this time of year, the California Department of Water Resources reports. The news is worse for the southern Sierra — which includes Tulare County -†where the snowpack is about 80 percent below average for the first of May, said David Rizzardo, chief of the department's Snow Survey Section.
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