FROM THE DIRECTOR
H. Leon Thacker, DVM, PhD
Animal diseases continue to be highly visible news items
in the world news media. The sites of continuing Foot
and Mouth Disease outbreaks around the world is very newsworthy
and ongoing; I am hopeful that the recognition of the
potential ease of spread of this high impact economic
disease by the general public of this country will cause
each and every citizen to practice those biosecurity measures
necessary to keep it out of our livestock and other susceptible
animal populations. In addition to the potential direct
loss to producers that could be affected by an outbreak
of FMD or other foreign animal disease in this country,
the indirect loss would come from reduced consumption
of animal products by consumers would also be significant.
From the standpoint of establishing a definitive diagnosis
of a foreign animal disease on an Indiana farm, I would
re-emphasize the request that we make a visit to a farm
or other premises to inspect a potential FMD case rather
than transporting the suspect animal to one of our laboratories
so that confinement of spread can be maintained as thoroughly
as possible. One of the major contributing factors in
the spread of FMD in the recent outbreak in England was
the movement of animals during the outbreak. ADDL diagnosticians
or other state and/or federal veterinarians will travel
to a premises on very short notice to investigate any
suspected case of a foreign animal disease. We remain
most hopeful that we continue to have our animal populations
free of such diseases as FMD and BSE but, if such diseases
enter our country, the sooner we know of it and take the
necessary actions to control and eradicate them, the lower
will be the economic, physical, emotional and animal suffering
consequences.
Regarding some of the interesting cases we have recently
in the ADDL, for some unknown reason we have had quite
a number of recent lead poisoning cases in cattle, the
source of which remains undetermined. We have also had
a number of aborted foals presented, although nothing
like the hundreds or thousands seen and reported around
Lexington; so far we have not detected elevated levels
of cyanide or other toxins in the tissues of the aborted
foals examined from Indiana.
We’re well into the rush of testing of exhibition
animals for fairs and shows. We hope that we can accommodate
your requests and we ask for your patience in those instances
when transportation, communication or other glitches get
in the way of quick turnaround of test results. We will
do everything we can from this end to get results to you
as soon as possible.
Hope you all have a great summer; stop in to see us if
you are in our vicinity.
