Tag Archives: Georgia department of agriculture

New World Screwworm Threat Has Georgia Cattlemen on High Alert This Calving Season

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Thomaston, GA |

With the U.S. cattle inventory now at a seventy-five-year low, the industry has little margin for disruption. That’s why the recent detection of New World Screwworms in the southwest is raising serious concerns among cattlemen across the country. The last major outbreak — more than six decades ago — caused losses of as much as ten percent for producers. With calves being especially susceptible to the pest, Georgia cattlemen are keeping a close eye on their herds as spring calving season winds down.

“Getting towards the end of spring calving season, most of our cattlemen around here are seeing their cows every day — and we just need to continue to do that,” said Danny Bentley, an Upson County cattleman. “Once all these calves are born and on the ground, we have to be vigilant. We have to be good stewards. We’re looking for open wounds, navels on newborn calves. When we tag and band these calves — we band them now, we don’t cut them anymore — we try to do it in the first two days of birth so we can see the calf from one end to the other. We’re looking at those weak areas like the navel and the rear end, and checking for things like barbed wire cuts on cows to make sure there’s no infection, no worms.”

REPORT IT QUICKLY

If anything unusual is found, Bentley says getting it reported as quickly as possible is the top priority — starting with a trusted local veterinarian and then moving up the chain to state officials.

“We’d call our local veterinarian first — we have a good relationship with our local vets,” Bentley said. “And then obviously the next call would be to our state veterinarian through the Georgia Department of Agriculture, because they would need to know as well. Right now, this is strictly an animal situation. There’s no harm that could come to any resident of Georgia. Meat is still safe. We’ve got the safest meat in the world.”

A FIRSTHAND PERSPECTIVE

Bentley brings a unique perspective to the issue — he saw firsthand what the screwworm could do the first time around. While the Southeast was less severely impacted than other parts of the country, it wasn’t spared entirely.

“With the animal, you clean those things out. I don’t remember all the specifics, but you sprayed them and doctored on them real well,” Bentley recalled. “With the technology we have today it might be different, but as I recall, the sterile male fly program was what got rid of them — and that’s what made the difference.”

GEORGIA’S POSITION IN THE MARKET

As for the overall concern level for Georgia producers, Bentley says the state is somewhat insulated from the worst-case scenarios — largely because Georgia is a significant net exporter of beef cattle rather than a finishing state.

“So much of ours is going out. We’ve got twenty, twenty-one stockyards in Georgia, and with all the private sales, most of that cattle is leaving the state. We don’t have feed lots here — maybe one,” Bentley said. “So yeah, we’re not as pressed on that side as a lot of producers in other states are.”

Still, with the national herd at historic lows and the screwworm making its presence known again, Georgia cattlemen aren’t taking any chances. Vigilance, Bentley says, is the best tool they have.

By: Damon Jones

Avian Influenza Hits Georgia Poultry Industry: Impact on Farmers, Consumers & Prices

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Gainesville, GA |

Poultry production is big business here in Georgia, accounting for more than a quarter of the state’s agricultural income. So, when a threat like the avian influenza finds its way into commercial production here in the state, industry experts, government officials and most importantly farmers all work together in addressing the problem quickly.

“I believe they have a really high level of awareness of the role that they play in preventing the disease, the virus from entering the farm. I think there’s a high level of concern, but it’s grounded in a lot of education and outreach that’s been going on for many years,” says Mike Giles, President of the Georgia Poultry Federation.

“It’s a big concern for the poultry industry. It affects our exports. It affects our markets. So, we want to make sure that we stamp it out as soon as possible. So, along with the Georgia Department of Ag and USDA, we, we have a very strong team to do this quickly,” says Dr. Louise Dufour-Zavala, Executive Director of the Georgia Poultry Lab.

After the infected flock has been depopulated by the State Agricultural Response Team, the priority then shifts to preventing the virus from spreading to surrounding operations. That’s where the Georgia Poultry Lab gets cranked up, testing thousands of birds in the area.

“What we have to do is make sure that the virus has not spread to a ten kilometer or about six-mile radius around that farm or beyond. So, the response includes surveillance of all those farms. So, we have to test twenty-two birds per house for all of those dozens and dozens of farms that are around that infected premise,” says Dufour-Zavala.

While this outbreak can be contained in the short term, it is a major concern that might stretch into the future.

“It’s in wildlife. So, it’s not like we can stop it very quickly because the source of the virus is in the wild bird and the migratory waterfowl, etc. So, it’s hard to tell exactly when we’re going to get out this because the viruses have their life cycles through wildlife. So, it’s very difficult to tell when we’re out of it. So, I think we’ll always have to be vigilant and be looking for it basically,” says Dufour-Zavala.

Consumers are certainly feeling the effects of this most recent bout with avian influenza, as egg prices have soared to more than four dollars per dozen.

“Late October of 2024, in our nation, we’ve lost between thirty to forty million hens that are producing eggs that we eat. So, just to give you some context on that, when our nation’s flock is, fully supplied or stocked to meet the demand, we can be around three hundred and twenty million hens. So, that’s a very significant reduction in the supply,” says Giles.

While the prices for these items might be alarming, their safety shouldn’t be as each product goes through rigorous testing before heading to market.

“We test a lot of chickens. We test all of the flocks anyways, even when we don’t have avian influenza around. We test every single flock before they go to market. Then, if we find it, we stamp it out. So, no, there is no danger of this getting into the food supply at all,” says Dufour-Zavala.

By: Damon Jones

Fighting Foreign Animal Diseases in the U.S.

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Jekyll Island, GA |

African Swine Fever, Mad Cow Disease, Foot and Mouth Disease; these are just a few of the many diseases that are capable of endangering our nation’s food supply and is the reason why attendees at the annual Georgia Farm Bureau Convention got to hear from experts on just how dangerous these diseases can be to the livestock industry – a threat that has increased as the world becomes smaller and moves faster.

“The threat level varies depending on the regions that are affected with the disease. But with our changing world, with increasing commodity exchange, our concern is ever heightened because of the speed of commerce and the different modes in which these diseases are transmitted,” says Marcus Webster, Associate State Veterinarian for the Georgia Department of Agriculture. “We used to live in a day where things were much slower and we could take our time to trace movements. In today’s world, with everything moving so fast, I would say that our concern is growing more.”

According to Webster, being proactive is key, which is why he says it’s important that livestock producers stay in the know and always practice bio-security measures on their operations.

“Becoming familiar, doing some investigation either with the Department of AG, Extension Agents on some diseases that are of concern for us, both nationally and internationally; that’s one step. Also, getting some information, education on biosecurity, which is highly important. Staying tuned in with other producers, having open discussions at meetings such as any animal commodity group. Having that as an ongoing conversation. So, education, understanding the disease threats to your particular species, and also biosecurity, which is going to be paramount in any situation because good biosecurity can ward off the most common things, whether it’s something that’s in the United States and pretty much common versus a foreign animal disease,” says Webster.

Webster says another important tool is traceability, as he says electronic ID tags can be of great help if an animal disease outbreak ever occurs as he says they would be able to track the animal’s footprints and isolate the threat much faster than ever before.

“When it comes to putting that tool in emergency response, it lets us know as well as a producer, if I have an animal that was exposed to a particular disease, I can look at that group, see where it went out; trace that group out and back to make sure that we’ve mitigated any threat both in that location and the animals moving forward to where their destination is or back to their origin where they came from to secure our food supply,” says Webster.

By: John Holcomb