The US Farm Bill of 2002 is the latest in a 7-decade history of farm subsidy laws that transfer funds to farmers and regulate and subsidize production of selected commodities. Fruit, tree nut, ornamental and vegetable crops, hay and meats remain outside scope of main subsidy programs. The new law continues many innovations of the 1996 Act, such as removal of authority for annual land idling and...

Bangladesh is a densely populated agricultural country with an acute shortage of dairy milk. There are about 24.5 million cattle in Bangladesh, of which about 10 million are breeding cows. They provide mainly milk, meat, draught power, transport, and hide (an important export item). Dairying is practiced in Bangladesh as a part of local crop livestock farming systems, typically involving one or...

BACKGROUND Understanding the ecological processes that are involved in the transmission of zoonotic pathogens by small mammals may aid adequate and effective management measures. Few attempts have been made to analyze the ecological aspects that influence pathogen infection in small mammals in livestock production systems. We describe the infection of small mammals with Leptospira spp., Brucell...

This study aimed to discern the contribution of poultry farms to the contamination of the environment with ESBL-producing Escherichia coli and therewith, potentially to the spread of these bacteria to humans and other animals. ESBL-producing E. coli were detected at all investigated laying hen farms (n = 5) and broiler farms (n = 3) in 65% (46/71) and 81% (57/70) of poultry faeces samples, resp...

A cross-sectional study of lungs from 1,887 randomly selected pigs from 471 farms from two provinces in the Philippines was carried out to estimate the prevalence of gross pathological lesions, identify potential risk factors and spatial clustering associated with high lung or pleurisy score farms. Lungs from pigs were scored at slaughter. Interviews with the farm managers were conducted to col...

| A survey was conducted to characterize calf management and hygiene practices adopted by dairy farmers at Chittagong, in Bangladesh. A total of 210 dairy farms located in 3 geographically distinct regions in Chittagong division, namely coastal, hilly and plain area, were surveyed. Calf management and hygiene practice related data was collected through a standard questionnaire and all sampled f...

BACKGROUND Direct and indirect contact among animals and holdings are important in the spread of Brachyspira hyodysenteriae. The objective of this study was to investigate the role of slaughterhouse vehicles in spreading B. hyodysenteriae between unconnected farms. RESULTS Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and Multiple Locus Variable number tandem repeat Analysis (MLVA) were used to character...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To compare exposure to microorganisms associated with allergic alveolitis (AA) and with febrile reactions to inhaled mold dust (organic dust toxic syndrome [ODTS]) in farmers and in normal subjects. DESIGN A prospective study in which exposure was evaluated within two weeks of medical consultation for AA or ODTS. Samples were collected during normal farming (background) and du...

This study aimed to analyze the financial impact of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks in cattle at the farm-level and the benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of biannual vaccination strategy to prevent and eradicate FMD for cattle in South Vietnam. Production data were collected from 49 small-scale dairy farms, 15 large-scale dairy farms, and 249 beef farms of Long An and Tay Ninh province using a qu...

A competitive environment, highly concentrated processing and retailing sectors as well increasing decoupling of direct payments from production volumes the area under cultivation incentivizes farmers to find alternative ways improve their bargaining position towards downstream companies. This article explores possibilities organic agriculture enhance power along with role concentration in indu...