by Mary Rothschild | Jan 20, 2012

By Paula Parisi January 17, 2012

The five cases of EHV-1 diagnosed Jan. 11-15 in Orange County, CA, have been contained, according to sources close to the situation.

Although the California Department of Food and Agriculture has not given the official “all clear,” animal health branch chief Dr. Kent Fowler confirmed that the five cases were identified at a single facility and all affected horses have been quarantined. Movement to and from the facility has been halted except in emergency situations (for which a special permit must be obtained).

EHV-1 is a strain of Equine Herpes Virus. In its most serious form, neuropathogenic EHV, it can be fatal, but most forms produce only cold/flu-like symptoms. There are specific tests to determine whether an animal has neuropathic  EHV-1. Of those who do, only a fraction suffer serious impairment or death.

Of the five current cases of neuropathogenic EHV-1 identified in San Juan Capistrano, only one is exhibiting neurological symptoms.

The Langer Equestrian Group’s Los Angeles Equestrian Center Opener horse show will go on as planned Jan. 20-22 in Burbank, CA. The Blenheim EquiSports Winter Classic show, which was scheduled Jan. 13-15 in San Juan Capistrano, was cancelled due to the proximity of the outbreak, which occurred at a private barn in the area.

California had an EHV-1 outbreak last year marked by three separate cases  that resulted in 22 confirmed instances of neuropathogenic EHV-1, documented May through September, taking a devastating toll on the horse show business.

“This wasn’t like last year, [where the outreak] started at a show [in Utah] and spread when everyone went home,”  LEG CEO Larry Langer said. “These horses never set foot out of their stalls.” Langer lauded BES president Robert Ridland for putting safety first and cancelling his show “as a precaution.”

Ridland said he was in Cincinnati attending the United States Equestrian Federation’s annual meeting when his wife, Hillary, heard EHV-1 had been detected locally. She contacted their  barn manager, Lorraine Tathum, and BES  show veterinarian Dr. Richard Markell, who was able to get confirmation that the CDFA had quarantined a nearby facility. The next morning, Jan. 11, Markell and BES show manager Stephanie Wheeler conferred and made the decision to cancel the weekend show.

“It was a 15 minute conversation,” Ridland recalled. “Even though there was no evidence any of the exposed horses had left their facility or would be coming to our show, Richard advised that the most responsible thing would be to cancel, so we did.”

Only 12 hours earlier Ridland had participated in a discussion with USEF president David O’Connor about implementing a national first alert system that would allow for rapid, accurate and efficient communiqués to disseminate vital health information.

“The idea would be for all 50 state veterinarians to have a hotline to the USEF, so when things like this happen, they can quickly look across all disciplines to see what shows might be affected, because showing and traveling horses are the most common way that this virus spreads.” The disease can be transmitted by touch ― not only equine-to-equine, but also human-to-equine and canine-to-equine. The most common transmission, however, is through shared water and feed sources, Fowler noted.

Ridland said he saw to it that every trainer scheduled to attend the Winter Classic received a personal phone call alerting them to the situation, but explained that BES purposely did not post notice on the BES website or blast it out via email, “because we felt might cause a panic. Often these situations are handled correctly but the panic gets out of hand. A system like the USEF is proposing would go a long way toward minimizing the health and economic exposure we as an industry face in situations like this.”

Prior to 2011, the last case on record in the state originated in 2006 and lingered into early 2007.

Fowler said U.S. data indicates there have been more cases of EHV-1 in the past 10 years than in the 30 prior, but that it is unclear whether this is because there are more outbreaks or because diagnostic tools have improved.  It was only last year that the CDFA put neuropathogenic EHV-1 on the mandatory reporting list for labs. “Emergency conditions must be reported in the first 24 hours. EHV-1 falls into the second category, regulatory reporting, which is the first 48 hours. We moved  it up from the third category, monitored reporting, which means they need to submit data on a monthly basis. Part of the reason we made that change is because we saw an increase in cases while becoming aware of how effective early intervention was in preventing spread of the disease.”

Ridland considers the industry lucky that this outbreak occurred in January – a slow month for horse shows – rather than in February, when things start heating up for the spring season and the HITS Desert Circuit in Thermal, CA.

The CDFA’s Fowler advised that concerned horse owners look for symptoms including a fever, cough, nasal discharge, listlessness or swelling in the lower limbs . In the more severe case of neuropathogenic impairment, horses appear imbalanced and lose motor coordination.

“The virus is always present in the equine community, but is mainly dormant, the way people carry the virus for cold sores,” Los Angeles equine vet Dr. Bruce Ramey said. “For virologists it’s a non-event. Occasionally a horse will have a very serious reaction and that’s what scares everyone. In fact, a minority of the horses develop neurological signs.”

Fowler recommends common sense vigilance. “If you have any possibility of exposure, we recommend taking the temperature twice a day, and if it’s up above 101.5 notify your private veterinarian.” There are nasal swab t and blood tests used to definitively diagnose the disease. While there are no “labeled vaccines” for the neuropathogenic strain of EHV-1, experts feel that some of the commercially available high-antigenic vaccines can offer protective benefits.

“That is something people should talk to their private vet about, getting on a good herd health program,” Fowler said.

If no new cases are diagnosed 21 days after the last reported incident the CDFA will release the quarantine.

For updates, visit www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/animal_health/equine_herpes_virus.html.

Central Valley farmers are slowly getting hip to the idea that tilling land before planting seeds may not always be necessary.

Conservation tillage has long been in vogue in places such as the Midwest and South America. Now in California, leaving land undisturbed between planting and harvesting cycles has started to catch on.

Advocates say conservation tillage is an array of practices aimed not only at saving farmers money, but also enriching the soil and improving air quality.

In 2010, Valley farmers used conservation tillage practices on 14 percent of crops surveyed, according to a University of California study. That’s up from about 10 percent in 2008.

Between 2008 and 2010, Central Valley farmers switched to conservation tillage on nearly 1 million acres used to grow row crops such as corn and wheat silage, according to Sustainable Conservation, a nonprofit located in the Central Valley. That’s more than 1,500 square miles and represents nearly 15 percent of all row-crop acreage in California. From 2004 to 2010, conservation tillage practices rose 24 percent for all silage corn acreage in the San Joaquin Valley.

“There has been a definite trend towards greater use of these systems, especially for crops like corn that readily lends itself to these practices,” said Jeff Mitchell, agricultural scientist with UC Davis.

For California farmers, the decision whether to adopt conservation tillage isn’t always a clear one.

“The reason people did it back (East) is soil erosion,” Mitchell said. “You can’t tolerate soil loss where there are rolling hills.”

Conservation tillage techniques that allow the previous year’s stalks and roots to naturally decompose in the field, creating a hardy layer of topsoil that doesn’t blow away in the wind.

But that’s not as big of a concern in the relatively flat Central Valley. In California, traditional tillage practices that rip up and turn over land are a relatively inexpensive way to prepare soil for the planting season.

Michael Crowell, 69, said he was “skeptical” when a Bay Area company first offered its services to help him transition his corn and grain fields to conservation tillage. “But I said ‘come in and do 20 acres and we’ll just see what it looks like,’ ” he said.

Six years later, the 69-year-old dairy farmer in Turlock uses conservation tillage techniques on every acre of his farm. “It reduces the amount of equipment that you need to have to operate,” he said. “It also reduces the amount of fuel required to plant a crop. And it requires less labor because you’re not running as much equipment to get the job done.”

Crowell said there are tradeoffs. For example, with conservation tillage, crops have to be dry when harvested — otherwise the ground becomes too compacted and nutrient levels have to be measured closely.

However, he said conservation tillage not only saves him money, it also improves the health of his soil. He recently returned from a conservation tillage convention in St. Louis. He said many farmers he met there have been able to significantly reduce their use of nitrogen and other fertilizers because of the their soil quality.

“Once you start this, you don’t want to destroy the ecology, the soil structure, the organization that’s down there as far as bacteria and enzymes that are working in the soil,” he said. “We look at this dirt and we just think we’re standing on dirt. No. You go out in that field and that dirt is a living organism. It’s just alive. There are earthworms everywhere. And on tilled fields show me that. You just don’t see it.”

Reporter Joshua Emerson Smith can be reached at (209) 385-2486 or

jsmith@mercedsunstar.com.

A nearly bone-dry fall/early winter season has been accompanied by periodic freezing conditions in December and this week.

Hard freezes have already caused crop damage in some California fields, but agriculture industry officials say a good soaking – and the accompanying warmer temperatures – will go a long way toward easing landowners’ anxieties.

“The absence of rain has been of greatest concern to the cattle ranchers and other livestock owners,” said Dave Kranz, spokesman for the Sacramento-based California Farm Bureau Federation. “The rangelands have pretty well dried out. They need rain to replenish grasses on the hillsides and where cattle go to drink water.”

Central Valley farmers are likewise looking for storm clouds.

“They’ve been irrigating trees and vines that need moisture now, and they’re not getting it from the clouds,” Kranz said. “They’ve had to tap into their irrigation supplies weeks earlier than they typically would.

“Some good rainfall now would allow them to stop doing that.”

Agriculture groups throughout the state are still assessing crop damage caused by Tuesday morning’s hard freeze, which saw temperatures dip into the 20s in Northern California’s agricultural valleys.

Dean Thonesen, vice president and general manager of Sunwest Fruit Co. in Fresno County, said mandarins and navel oranges are being harvested in fields where wind and water machines are being used to moderate temperatures. He said it might take up to a week to determine the extent of any cold damage to crops.

The National Weather Service said temperatures dropped to as low as 19 degrees in some citrus-growing regions early Tuesday morning. Oranges begin to suffer at about 28 degrees. Temperatures are expected to continue gradually warming today, right up to Thursday’s expected rainfall.

California Citrus Mutual, the growers cooperative based in the Tulare County community of Exeter, said Tuesday that citrus damage did not appear to be widespread as temperatures stayed in the mid-20s in some key citrus regions.

Kranz pointed out that oranges have by now built up quantities of sugar and acid, “which actually helps insulate them from the cold … So we’re fairly optimistic that they have avoided significant problems.”

Kranz said mandarin oranges grown in the San Joaquin Valley are “a little more vulnerable” to cold conditions, but he said sugar buildup appears to have saved that crop from extensive damage.

The Fresno County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office, which has the authority to withhold damaged citrus from the fresh-fruit market, will examine fruit later this week to determine the extent of any damage.

Farmers in Monterey County on Tuesday reported some freeze damage to vegetables in that region. The extent of damage to artichokes and broccoli in the Salinas Valley is still being assessed.

Even farmers who are not now in urgent need of rain are eagerly anticipating its arrival. For example, it’s the offseason for rice farmers, but officials at the California Rice Commission said rice growers are hoping for sustained rains from the approaching weather system.

Kranz explained that last year’s unusually heavy rainy season created “a situation where we do have adequate water storage this year, so that’s one reason that people have not been as concerned this year as in past years.

“But (farmers) still want rain. The vast bulk of farmers and ranchers expect it to rain. You’d be hard-pressed to see anyone disappointed with a good, steady rain. That should take a little pressure off.”

 

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“This is a scaled-down model of our commercial barn,” he tells the teens. “As you can see, there’s plenty of space to move. They can move around. They can move in every direction.”

The presentation is part of an agriculture earth science class curriculum in which students study perspectives both critical and supportive of industrial agriculture. What’s at stake for the students is a letter grade. What’s at stake for JS West is millions of dollars. In an effort to satisfy California law, the company is retrofitting the cage systems in three of its barns.

“It’s hard to spend $3 million to remodel our barns,” Brantley said, addressing the class. “And what this has done is it has cut down on one-third of our birds. So now we have to produce one-third fewer eggs. You’re talking 300,000 (fewer) eggs a day. You’re talking a dollar a dozen. It’s a lot of money every day.”

By 2015, the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, a law passed by California voters in 2008, will go into effect regulating chicken cages in the state. Among other things, the law requires a chicken to be able to spread its wings, flap its arms without touching another hen, lay its eggs in private and exhibit all natural behaviors of being outside.

It’s not clear if JS West has gone far enough with the design of its new cages. The company is taking a “significant risk,” Brantley said. “We believe wholeheartedly that this is a very good way to fill in that void between the proposition and reality. We feel that this abides by everything the proposition has asked for.”

The presentation convinced at least one student. Colten Alva, 16, said at first he was skeptical, but after seeing the demonstration, he said he thinks the new cages will comply with state law.

“You really have to see both sides of the story to understand what they’re doing,” he said. “People are standing up for better food and better environments for the animals. What our ag departments are doing is creating a safer environment for all the animals.”

However, whether the new JS West cage system meets state guidelines may be a “moot point,” said Peter Brant, spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States, which helped spearhead the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act in California. Now the organization is backing federal legislation that would preempt the state law. Brant said that while the federal standards wouldn’t be as strict as California’s, on balance they would be worth passing to avoid state-by-state fights over poultry regulations.

“This was a compromise bill,” Brant said. “It sets in place a schedule for phasing in requirements over the course of the next 15 years.”

The bill is expected to be introduced in the next few weeks by Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader from Oregon.

For Brantley and JS West, the issue goes beyond laws and regulations. It’s about building wider public acceptance for industrial agriculture. Toward that end, the company has posted a live video feed of its chickens in the new cage system on its website, jswest.com.

“Our goal now is to recreate the industry and be leaders on this new frontier,” Brantley said. “We want everyone to understand what we’re doing, why we’re doing it. It’s going to start with the younger people. It’s going to start with the people who are still forming their opinions. We don’t want big agriculture to be a bad name anymore. We want big agriculture to be looked up to.”

Reporter Joshua Emerson Smith can be reached at (209) 385-2486 or jsmith@mercedsunstar.com.

By Steve Adler