FDA plans ban on cattle tissue in feed December 30, 2008

Rockville, Md. -- The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) is accepting comments through Jan. 26 on a planned regulation that would ban use of cattle tissues in animal feeds.

USDA releases report confirming AVMA's call for more food-animal vets December 12, 2008

Schaumberg, Ill. -- The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is using a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released this week to reiterate its call for more food-animal veterinarians.

Hong Kong killing 90,000 chickens, may change bird-flu vaccine after outbreak December 10, 2008

Hong Kong's government is considering changing the vaccine it uses to protect poultry against avian flu after 60 chickens were found dead at one of the city's largest poultry farms, forcing the slaughter of 60,000 birds on that farm and 30,000 more within a two-mile radius.

Johne's disease vaccine developed at Cornell December 3, 2008

Ithaca, N.Y. -- Researchers at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine have developed a vaccine against Johne's disease, a contagious, chronic and often fatal infection.

FDA action buys more time to mull extra-label ban of cephalosporins November 26, 2008

Washington -- The federal order banning extra-label use of cephalosporins in food-producing animals has been revoked -- at least for now.

FARAD gets reprieve until spring November 13, 2008

Washington -- The always-in-danger-of-closing Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank (FARAD) garnered a few extra months of operation, but with drastic cutbacks.

$1.4 million grant backs further study of chicken genome October 9, 2008

Starkville, Miss. -- Dr. Shane Burgess, a basic-sciences associate professor with Mississippi State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, along with Drs. Fiona McCarthy and Susan Bridges, received a $1.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue work annotating the chicken genome.

FARAD begins shutting down October 2, 2008

Washington - Neither a short-term cash infusion or the $2.5 million in long-term funding promised for the support of the Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank (FARAD) in this year's Farm Bill came through in time, so the resource used to keep contaminants out of the food supply for more than a quarter century began shutting down Oct. 1.

U.K. researchers working on bovine mastitis vaccine September 27, 2008

Nottingham, U.K. The University of Nottingham is using a grant of more than $4 million (USD) to dissect the functions of the bacterium that causes bovine mastitis (BM) and try to come up with a cure for the disease.