Emergency Animal Disease Bulletin: African horse sickness

Authors: Alice Kermond, Jenny Baird and Sally Thomson (Department of Agriculture, Water, and the Environment)   African horse sickness virus (AHSV) is a highly pathogenic arbovirus with the potential to cause severe, often fatal, circulatory, and respiratory disease in horses. It is a nationally notifiable disease that is exotic to Australia. Historically the spread of African […]

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Opinion: Eagle Post

Tom Donnelly reports from the USA. The COVID-19 pandemic has allowed a temporary relaxation of rules around remote animal care by veterinary telemedicine.  The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) fiercely contends that establishing a “veterinarian-client-patient relationship” (VCPR) by in-person examination is a prerequisite for telemedicine. Many states use the AVMA’s model veterinary practice act to create […]

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Abstracts: Facial action units, activity and time spent with dam are effective measures of pain in response to mulesing of Merino lambs

Repeatable measures of pain in ruminants following husbandry procedures are required to validate responses to pain relief. This study tested the hypotheses that facial action units, activity and time spent with dam can be used to assess the efficacy of pain relief in lambs following mulesing.

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Picture: Sam Fraser-Smith

In dingoes, colour is critical

The widely held belief is that the coats of pure dingoes are ginger in colour and any variations are indicative of hybrid animals with domestic dog genetics in their ancestry.             This idea has been challenged in a collaborative study involving 1325 wild canids across south-eastern NSW, that was published recently in the Journal of Zoology. Researchers found […]

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Abstracts: Pre-slaughter factors linked to variation in responses to carbon dioxide gas stunning in pig abattoirs

The stunning process is an important component of slaughter with implications for animal welfare due to the potential distress and pain in the case of a sub-effective or lengthy stun. This study examined the factors correlated with variation in responses to carbon dioxide (CO2) stunning of pigs in five Australian commercial abattoirs. A total of […]

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