Fountain Report Excerpts Feb 27, 2024

Fountain Report Excerpts
  1. The University of Maryland Eastern Shore hopes to become the second historically Black university to have a veterinary school in the United States, with classes to start by 2026. Puerto Rico’s first veterinary college, the Ana G. Mendez University School of Veterinary Medicine, is accepting student applications for its inaugural class, planned to start in August. The school received a letter of reasonable assurance of accreditation from the AVMA’s Council on Education. Recently, the Kentucky House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow Murray State University to offer doctoral degrees required to become licensed in veterinary medicine.
  1. The USDA anticipates identifying a vaccine for the current strain of bird flu in “18 months or so” and is developing a process to distribute it, Reuters reports, citing Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The agency has found bird flu in eight commercial flocks and 14 backyard flocks so far this year, affecting 530,000 poultry, according to agency data. More than 81 million U.S. poultry and aquatic birds have been killed by avian flu across 47 states since January 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The USDA plans to discuss poultry vaccinations with trading partners, amid concerns that other countries could restrict imports of vaccinated U.S. poultry, Vilsack said.
  1. According to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, there will be “chaos” in the U.S. meat marketplace without congressional action on California’s Proposition 12 law that tightened animal welfare requirements for pork products sold in the state, Reuters reports. Proposition 12, which requires pig confinements to be large enough for animals to turn around, was passed by ballot initiative in 2018 and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023. The pork industry has said the law burdens pork producers and would not improve animal welfare. It has called on Congress to repeal Prop 12 through federal action. The Biden administration supported the industry’s position before the Supreme Court.

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