Biosecurity Issues

June 4, 2003 (CIDRAP News) – A quarantine on poultry and pet birds in the El Paso, Tex., area is expected to be lifted in the wake of a recent finding that exotic Newcastle disease (END) did not spread beyond the backyard flock where it turned up in April, according to Texas and New Mexico officials.

The quarantine was imposed on five counties in Texas and neighboring New Mexico Apr 10 after the disease was discovered in a flock in El Paso.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today proposed rules that would require most food-related businesses to keep detailed records on all food products so that the government could trace a product's path through production and distribution in case of a contamination episode, the FDA announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – Exotic Newcastle disease (END) has been found in a backyard chicken flock near El Paso, Tex., prompting a ban on poultry movement in five Texas and New Mexico counties, Texas officials announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal food regulators should consider asking Congress for authority to gather information about security measures at food processing plants so they can better assess industry efforts to protect food from deliberate contamination, according to a new report by Congress's General Accounting Office (GAO).

(CIDRAP News) – Citing the likelihood of war with Iraq within days, federal officials have raised the terrorism alert level to "high" and launched "Operation Liberty Shield," a set of protective measures that includes increased food security and public health vigilance.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization has issued an alert over outbreaks of severe respiratory illness, including atypical pneumonia, that it has been investigating since mid-February in Vietnam, Hong Kong, and mainland China.

(CIDRAP News) –The results of a spraying program to control gypsy moths in British Columbia suggest that terrorists could use conventional crop-dusting equipment to spread anthrax spores over a city and potentially infect people, according to a report in a new biodefense journal.

(CIDRAP News) – Exotic Newcastle disease (END) has continued to spread through southern California poultry flocks and has spilled over into Nevada and Arizona in recent weeks, prompting emergency declarations in both states.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) warns in a new report that nations should take steps to defend themselves against food contamination by terrorists and the devastating human and economic damage that could result.

(CIDRAP News) – Starting next December, importers will have to start notifying the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at least a day in advance of every food shipment coming into the United States.