WHY IT MATTERS: The cases of swine flu set off alarm bells due to the pandemic potential of the swine flu virus if it recombines with a human flu virus, which could happen if a pig is infected with both at the same time.

In a later statement, the Catalan health department said the risk assessment for the population was considered “very low”.

The person infected did not exhibit flu-like respiratory symptoms, it said, and tests on direct contacts showed the virus had not retransmitted.

An earlier report by newspaper El Pais citing Catalan health department sources said the patient — who has since recovered — had no contact with pigs or pig farms, leading experts to conclude it was a human-to-human transmission of the pathogen.

This set off alarm bells due to the pandemic potential of the swine flu virus if it recombines with a human flu virus, which could happen if a pig is infected with both at the same time, the El Pais report added.

The WHO did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.

In 2023, the Netherlands notified the WHO of a confirmed human infection with a swine influenza A(H1N1)v virus in an adult with no history of occupational exposure to animals.

In 2009, the swine flu pandemic in humans infected millions of people. It was caused by a virus that contained genetic material from viruses that were circulating in pigs, birds and humans.

— Reporting by Joan Faus, Emma Pinedo and Olivia Le Poidevin

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Asked about communication received by the WHO from Washington on the H5N1 outbreak, Christian Lindmeier told a press briefing in Geneva: “Communication is a challenge indeed. The traditional ways of contact have been cut.”

He declined to elaborate.

A U.S. outbreak of the H5N1 virus has infected nearly 70 people, mostly farm workers, since April 2024. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported for the first time last week that a second strain of bird flu was found in dairy cattle in Nevada, a discovery that ramped up concerns about the U.S. outbreak.

Under WHO rules known as the International Health Regulations (IHR), countries have binding obligations to communicate on public health events that have the potential to cross borders. These include advising the WHO immediately of a health emergency and measures on trade and travel.

Other countries have privately voiced concern at the idea that the United States would stop communicating about emerging viruses that could become the next pandemic. “If such a big country does not report anymore, what message does it send?” said a Western diplomat in Geneva.

Argentina has also said it plans to withdraw from the WHO, citing “deep differences” regarding the agency’s management of health issues, notably the COVID-19 pandemic.

— Reporting by Emma Farge

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The official also urged stronger efforts to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus to new species of animals and to humans.

“What we really need globally, in the U.S. and abroad, is much stronger surveillance in animals, in wild birds, in poultry, in animals that are known to be susceptible to infection,” WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove told an online press conference.

The agency said it is in touch with partner agencies such as the World Organization for Animal Health and Food and Agriculture Organization to increase surveillance in animals.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture last month confirmed the presence of H5N1 bird flu in a pig on a backyard farm in Oregon.

Pigs represent a particular concern for the spread of bird flu because they can become co-infected with bird and human viruses, which could swap genes to form a new, more dangerous virus that can more easily infect humans.

“For us at the WHO we are always in a constant state of readiness as it relates to influenza, because it isn’t a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” Kerkhove said, adding that the risk to the general population for avian influenza remains low globally.

So far, 55 human cases of H5N1 bird flu, including in a child, have been reported in the United States this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A teenager in B.C. was also reported to be hospitalized with avian influenza.

Most of these cases were among farm workers who had contact with infected poultry or cows. There has been no person-to-person spread associated with any of the H5N1 bird flu cases, according to the CDC, but dairy and other farm workers are considered to be at higher risk of contracting the virus.

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“China has been importing a large quantity of meats this year, and has detected virus on the packaging of cold chain products many times, even as lots of disinfection has been done domestically,” Gao Guan, spokesman for the China Meat Association, said by telephone on Tuesday.

“It should be better to handle this (virus control) at the meats exporting origins, and carry out disinfection at the production plants,” as the cost would be lower, and efficiency higher, Gao added.

China has ramped up disinfection and virus testing on frozen food after it found coronavirus on imported products and packaging.

The measures have pushed up costs, disrupted trade, and irritated major exporters.

The semi-official industry body suggested exporters in COVID-19 hit countries should disinfect the outer packaging of products and the inner side of containers before sealing export products, a statement published on the association’s official WeChat account said at the weekend.

The initiative was proposed to “ensure the safety of imported cold-chain food and boost consumers’ confidence in imported cold-chain products,” the statement said.

The proposal came after some major exporters, including JBS in Brazil, started to take measures including extensive disinfection of products and storage sites, to supply China with safe products, Gao said.

Reported cases have shown that contact with packaging contaminated with coronavirus could lead to human infection, said the Chinese association.

The World Health Organization has said the risk of catching COVID-19 from frozen food is low. Chinese officials echoed that such risk was low, but there was still a risk.

“The virus is new. We are still accumulating experience when fighting against it,” Gao said.

“We should get together and discuss how to use the most scientific, efficient and low-cost way to secure public health, and trade at the same time,” Gao added.

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Glyphosate, first developed by Bayer’s Monsanto under the Roundup brand, has generated intense global debate over its safety since a World Health Organization agency concluded in 2015 that it probably causes cancer.

While regulators worldwide have determined glyphosate to be safe, Bayer agreed in June to settle nearly 100,000 U.S. lawsuits for $10.9 billion, denying claims that Roundup caused cancer.

France will grant a temporary tax credit of 2,500 euros ($3,030) to farmers who declare in 2021 and/or in 2022 to have stopped use of glyphosate in the sectors most affected by a halt in the use of the weedkiller, such as wine, orchards and grain crops, the ministry said.

It also increased to 215 million euros planned financing to help farmers in the European Union’s top agricultural producer to change their agricultural equipment.

“The challenge is to put in place mechanisms to compensate for farmers’ costs due to the withdrawal (of) glyphosate, because today a farmer who invests to phase out glyphosate does not benefit from immediate value creation,” the ministry said in a statement.

Stopping the use of glyphosate on a grain farm leads to a loss in gross operating profit of up to 16 percent, which amounts to an extra cost of up to 80 euros per hectare, or up to 7,000 euros for an average farm of 87 hectares, the ministry said.

Last week Macron told online channel Brut that he had not changed his mind on the objective of ending use of glyphosate but recognised he had not succeeded in doing it within three years – a pledge he had made in 2017 – describing it as a collective failure.

France’s health and environment agency ANSES in October announced restrictions on glyphosate in farming, but stopped short of a full ban because of a lack of non-chemical alternatives in some areas.

($1 = 0.8260 euros)

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Health authorities found virus strains in humans and in mink which showed decreased sensitivity against antibodies, potentially lowering the efficacy of future vaccines, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at a press conference.

“We have a great responsibility towards our own population, but with the mutation that has now been found, we have an even greater responsibility for the rest of the world as well,” she said.

“The mutated virus in mink may pose a risk to the effectiveness of a future vaccine,” Frederiksen said, adding that it “risks being spread from Denmark to other countries.”

The findings, which have been shared with the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, were based on laboratory tests by the State Serum Institute, the Danish authority dealing with infectious diseases.

The head of WHO’s emergencies programme, Mike Ryan, on Friday called for full-scale scientific investigations of the “complex, complex issue” of humans — outside China — infecting mink which in turn transmitted the virus back to humans.

Outbreaks at mink farms have persisted in the Nordic country, the world’s largest producer of mink furs, despite repeated efforts to cull infected animals since June.

The country’s police, army and home guard would be deployed in order to speed up the culling process, Frederiksen said.

Tougher lockdown restrictions and intensified tracing efforts would be implemented to contain the virus in some areas of northern Denmark, home to a large number of mink farms, authorities said.

“The worst-case scenario is a new pandemic, starting all over again out of Denmark,” director at the State Serum Institute, Kare Molbak, said. The new strain showed diminished sensitivity towards antibodies, he added.

“That’s why we have to take this extremely seriously,” Molbak said.

Minks have also been culled in the Netherlands and Spain after infections were discovered.

Authorities had registered five cases of the new strain on mink farms and 12 cases in humans.

There are between 15 million and 17 million mink in Denmark, authorities said.

Canada, at the end of 2018, had 98 mink farms, down from 237 in 2014, according to Statistics Canada.

Of the 98, 43 were in Nova Scotia, 28 in Ontario. six each in British Columbia and Newfoundland, four each in Manitoba, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, and three in Quebec.

Canada’s National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) maintains a code of practice for the care and handling of farmed mink. A five-year review was completed in 2018.

NFACC, on its website, says the code is “currently undergoing an amendment,” expected to be completed in March next year, with a public comment period now running into December.

Issues flagged as “major challenges” expected to be addressed in those amendments include pen sizes, access to nest boxes and methods of euthanasia.

— Reporting for Reuters by Nikolaj Skydsgaard and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; additional reporting by Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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That study, by a team of Chinese scientists and published by the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), warned that a new swine flu virus, named G4, has become more infectious to humans and could become a potential “pandemic virus.”

However, China’s agriculture ministry said in a statement that the study has been interpreted by the media “in an exaggerated and nonfactual way.”

An analysis by the ministry concluded that sampling of the published study is too small to be representative, while the article lacks adequate evidence to show the G4 virus has become the dominant strain among pigs.

The ministry said it drew its conclusions after holding a seminar on the G4 virus’s impact on the hog industry and public health. Participants included Chinese veterinarians and anti-virus experts, as well as the leading authors of the PNAS study.

The participants concurred that the G4 virus is not new, the statement said. Furthermore, such a strain has been monitored continuously by the World Health Organization (WHO) and related agencies in China since 2011, the statement said, citing a senior WHO official.

In addition, the authors of the published study agreed that the G4 virus does not effectively replicate in the human body and cause disease, according to the statement.

The ministry’s statement was authored by Yang Hanchun, a swine viral disease scientist at China Agricultural University who also serves the role of expert on a ministry anti-epidemic committee.

— Reporting for Reuters by Samuel Shen, Hallie Gu and Ryan Woo.

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The EPA’s announcement reaffirms its earlier findings about the safety of glyphosate, the key ingredient in Bayer’s Roundup. The company faces thousands of lawsuits from Roundup users who allege it caused their cancer.

“EPA continues to find that there are no risks to public health when glyphosate is used in accordance with its current label and that glyphosate is not a carcinogen,” the agency said in a statement.

Farmers spray glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in U.S. agriculture, on fields of soybeans and other crops. Roundup is also used on lawns, golf courses and elsewhere.

The EPA did previously find ecological risks from the chemical and has proposed new measures to protect the environment from glyphosate use by farmers and to reduce the problem of weeds becoming resistant to it.

Bayer said it was pleased the EPA and other regulators who have assessed the science on glyphosate for more than 40 years continue to conclude it is not carcinogenic.”Bayer firmly believes that the science supports the safety of glyphosate-based herbicides,” it said in a statement. The company has repeatedly denied allegations that glyphosate and Roundup cause cancer.

But critics of the chemical disputed the EPA’s assurances.

“Unfortunately American consumers cannot trust the EPA assessment of glyphosate’s safety,” said Nathan Donley, a senior scientist at the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity.

Monsanto developed Roundup as the first glyphosate-based weed killer, but it is no longer patent-protected and many other versions are available. Bayer bought Monsanto last year for $63 billion (all figures US$).

The debate over glyphosate’s safety has put a spotlight on regulatory agencies around the world in recent years and, more recently, on U.S. courtrooms.

In 2015, the World Health Organization’s cancer arm classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” But the EPA in 2017 said a decades-long assessment of glyphosate risks found the chemical was not likely carcinogenic to humans.

In February, analysts at Brazilian health agency Anvisa also determined the weed killer does not cause cancer while recommending limits on exposure.

In the first U.S. Roundup trial, a California man was awarded $289 million in August 2018 after a state court jury found the weed killer caused his cancer. That award was later reduced to $78 million and is being appealed by Bayer.

A U.S. jury in March awarded $80 million to another California man who claimed his use of Roundup caused his cancer.

— Reporting for Reuters by Tom Polansek; additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London.

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However, as of Dec. 1, animal owners now need the involvement of a veterinarian for purchase of all antimicrobials for animal health to ensure their prudent use.

New federal regulations will require all antimicrobials used in animals be under the oversight of a registered veterinarian and will require a medical record and prescription be generated prior to their purchase.

The intention of this initiative is to address the development of antimicrobial resistance which has recently been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be an urgent global concern.

Antimicrobial resistance happens when micro-organisms such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites change when they are exposed to antimicrobial drugs. Antimicrobial drugs include antibiotics, anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-parasitic agents. Antibiotics are only one of many drugs that belong to the class of antimicrobials, although the two terms, antibiotics and antimicrobials, are often used interchangeably to mean the same thing. Micro-organisms that develop antimicrobial resistance are sometimes referred to as ‘superbugs.’ As a result, the medicines become ineffective. Health-care professionals, both in human and animal health rely on antimicrobials to treat, prevent and control infections.

The WHO is leading multiple initiatives to reduce antimicrobial use and address antimicrobial resistance in order to avoid the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance. This includes optimal use of antibiotics in both humans and animals.

In accordance with the WHO, federal regulatory bodies such as Health Canada recognizes that only veterinarians operating within a veterinary-client-patient relationship (VCPR) have the necessary training to assess the health of the animals and to diagnose disease conditions. By determining the need for antimicrobial treatment, veterinarians can ensure that the right antibiotics at the correct doses are prescribed and administered to effectively manage disease in animals.

So what does this mean for the individual horse owner?

In the past, farm and ranch supply stores have been licensed to sell a variety of over-the-counter animal health products, including antimicrobials such as procaine penicillin G and tetracyclines. Now the status of these and other antimicrobials have been added to the federal veterinary prescription drug list.

With these new regulations in place animal owners will no longer be able to visit a veterinary practice or medicine outlet (such as a farm supply store or feed mill) to pick up antibiotics for treating sick animals, as has been done in the past without first establishing a valid veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR). The VCPR is necessary to establish a need for antibiotics and generate a prescription. A prescription is a direction issued by a registered veterinarian that an animal or group of animals be treated with a specified drug at a specified dose for a specified period of time for treatment of a specified condition. In order to issue a prescription, a veterinarian must document that a valid VCPR exists.

The limits of the VCPR will vary with the experience level of both the veterinarian and the animal owner. Each situation will be different and will depend on the veterinarian’s professional judgment and the presenting circumstances of the animal or group of animals in question. However, in general all animal owners, including horse owners, will notice a greater degree of vigilance from the veterinarian and their support staff in establishing a VCPR prior to the purchase of antibiotics.

Initial contact will begin with a conversation between the animal owner and the veterinarian. The veterinarian will ask questions in order to establish and document a medical record which then determines whether or not there is sufficient need for the use of an antibiotic. It will be at the veterinarian’s discretion as to whether or not “sufficient” need has been established. Circumstances will vary. At times a picture, or short video of, or email about the animal may suffice. Under other circumstances clinical examination of the animal(s) by the veterinarian may be the requirement necessary to fully establish sufficient knowledge of the animal(s) on which to base the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of the medical condition.

The upcoming federal regulations and policy changes will also address the personal importation of medically important antibiotics through avenues that existed in the past such as online purchases.

As part of a global community we all have a role to play in the stewardship and prudent use of medically important antimicrobials. This includes a better understanding of the reasons why regulatory changes are taking place and allows all stakeholders to maintain the highest-quality care for both humans and animals.

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New regulations passed by Health Canada that come into effect Dec. 1 will require that all medically important antimicrobials (MIA) — including those that are injected, dissolved in water, fed in feed, or administered as a bolus — will need a prescription.

Just dropping by the local feed store to pick up those ready-to-access pharma such as implants, all forms of penicillin, and tetracyclines will now require a full prescription. That means for every treatment you will need to have an existing veterinary-client-patient relationship.

Before you panic on cost and drug access, this has been coming down the pipe from a global perspective for a long time. The World Health Organization issued warnings on antibiotic use a few years ago and Health Canada has responded. There are also active research trials going on to further investigate how to reduce the antibiotic and growth promotant load in food animal production.

It is not clear if the new regulation requires that each animal be physically seen and the prescription be for that specific treatment or if the whole bottle goes home. A good relationship where the veterinarian knows your herd or flock can help with preventive planning. It is common sense that the vet does not need to drive 200 kilometres to see an obvious foot rot that you have sent a photo of over your smartphone. But if there is a pen of sick calves, then it is a good idea to have your vet pop by to look and take some samples as there are a variety of viral or bacterial possibilities. Although with the technology today there are ways to view the problem to further address the concern, it does not however, negate the need to have a prescription.

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As all antibiotics do not act the same or cover the same issues, a blanket treatment such as feed additives and water-soluble medications will now require a prescription.

Take the time now to have a discussion with the veterinarians in your area if you do not have a veterinary-client-patient relationship, and open an account with the one of your choice. Invite the vet to do an initial visit to ensure he or she understands your operation and your standard operating procedures. This is important as the vet will have to set foot on your farm in order to write a script.

Some veterinary clinics are now offering this as a free one-time consult. Take advantage of this or ask that the initial visit be free. Talk about goals and expectations, and disclose if you are interested in strictly conventional or alternative animal care as several clinics are licensed for both. Ask about preventive programs and ensure that you follow through. For pet owners and small farm owners, ensure that your pets and small herd or flock are known to the clinic. This includes raising bees and fish (aquaculture).

The question of education has been brought to my attention and I know there is great value in education. But that does not make for a diagnosis nor will it reverse this legislation (which also applies to human medicine). Ask your veterinarian what you need to know, and also what he or she needs to know in the future to ensure early diagnosis and a quick response.

Will this hurt local businesses, such as small veterinary clinics?

On the contrary, the way that some established clinics are buying smaller ones indicates that they expect an increase in traffic. So don’t think that your local clinic will be closed. It likely will get busier, and even though you get the prescription from your vet who has a clinic 100 miles away, in Alberta, you can fill that prescription at the local clinic.

Do not, however, count on driving to the local farm supply store to buy food animal treatments any longer. These must be purchased at an establishment licensed to do so. Old standbys that are needed immediately, such as scour boluses, are included in the new regulation so advanced planning is really important. Again, early detection on your part, especially with a small flock or herd, will be critical so you have time for a consult and to fill a prescription if needed.

Think of it as having a relationship with your doctor. You have gone in and found out that treatment is necessary. The prescription he/she writes can be filled anywhere but you cannot go to the drugstore and pull it off the shelf.

It is the same now in veterinary medicine. You need a doctor, a prescription, a place to fill the prescription, and instructions on how to use the prescribed drug.

Veterinarians will now be required to submit an annual antimicrobial sales report and have been required by law to keep a record of the prescriptions on hand. The regulations are in play and are seen as the first step in antimicrobial stewardship.

Stay tuned for more information.

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