UC Blog
UC Davis is caring for horses with equine herpesvirus
[Update: CDFA confirms 10 cases of equine herpesvirus in California - including horses in the counties of Kern, Placer, Stanislaus, Amador and Napa. One horse in Kern County was euthanized after showing severe neurologic signs often associated with the disease.]
Magdesian said the animals at UC Davis were in stable condition as of yesterday morning.
Equine herpesvirus is highly contagious and can cause a variety of ailments in horses, including respiratory disease, abortion in broodmares, and myeloencephalopathy, the article said. The virus is not transmissible to humans. Signs of equine herpesvirus include fever, lack of coordination, weakness or paralysis of the hind limbs, and incontinence. The virus is generally passed from horse to horse when affected animals sneeze or cough, and contact with nasal secretions.
TheHorse.com reported that veterinarians in several states are determining the extent of a equine herpesvirus that may be tied to cutting horses involved in a April 29-May 8 championship show in Odgen, Utah. Several animals that participated in the championship were diagnosed with the neurologic form of the illness, and at least two horses were euthanized when their conditions deteriorated.
While the isolation facility at UC Davis is currently under quarantine, the general hospital remains open.
"The two horses with EHV-1 (at UC Davis) are under maximal isolation with no contact with the general hospital," the story quoted Magdesian. "All horses currently at the general hospital have tested negative for EHV-1. However, because of the external cases in the horse community, we have high level precautions in place to do everything possible to prevent a positive horse from entering our hospital."
Nominations sought for county structure task forces
ANR is forming task forces to evaluate UC Cooperative Extension structure in the counties. Cooperative Extension advisors and county-based program representatives are being asked to nominate one person per county to join the county director for their respective county on a county structure task force. The deadline for nominations is Friday, May 20.
The county structure task forces will be charged with collecting the data on staffing, facilities, transportation, information technology and administration for their county CE programs, including funding from UC, county government, grants and other sources. This information will be organized and will serve as the basis for evaluating our future structure of local delivery. The task forces will be organized around counties with historical affinities, and in some cases from declarations by the counties that they want to pursue a multi-county partnership within the grouping. The ultimate structure of our county programs will be informed from evaluation of the data provided by these task forces and other study groups within ANR.
The county groupings for each task force are as follows:
- Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara
- Butte, Tehama, Glenn, Sutter, Colusa, Yuba
- Fresno, Madera, Tulare, Kings, Kern
- Humboldt, Del Norte, Mendocino, Lake
- Marin, Sonoma, Napa
- Imperial, San Diego, Riverside
- Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino
- Mariposa, Merced, Stanislaus, San Joaquin
- Modoc, Siskiyou, Shasta, Trinity
- Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz
- Placer-Nevada, Sacramento, Yolo, Solano
- San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura
Each task force charge will be finalized and communicated as soon as the task force members have been identified.
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
Yudof responds to May Revise
Yudof responds to May Revise
Governor Jerry Brown released his revised state budget proposal yesterday, May 16. The governor’s revised budget holds UC cuts to $500 million, but also described reductions that would be proposed should the state adopt an “all-cuts” budget in lieu of extending certain temporary taxes.
“The governor in his budget document asserted that, in an all-cuts budget, reductions in state funding for the University of California would be doubled, to $1 billion in cuts,” President Yudof said in a statement released in response to the proposal.
“Doubling the cut would reduce the state’s contribution to the university’s core funds – monies that pay professors and staff members, light the libraries, maintain the campuses, and all the rest – to roughly $2 billion. State funding of UC at this diminished level has not been seen since the early 1990s, a time when the university enrolled 80,000 fewer students.”
Yudof’s full response can be read at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/25564.
On Wednesday, UC Regents will discuss the budget. They will establish budget reduction targets for the fiscal year in light of significant reductions in state funding. Their agenda is posted at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/mar11.html.
ANR’s budget reduction target will be announced in the next ANR Update.
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
Ventura celebrates strawberries
Leading up to the California Strawberry Festival, to be held this weekend at Strawberry Meadows at College Park in Oxnard, the Ventura County Star championed the fruit's contribution to the local economy in an article published yesterday.
In 2009, strawberries contributed $515.4 million to the county's $1.6 billion of total agricultural revenues, the story said. That was up 31 percent from $393.5 million in 2008.
Ventura County agricultural commissioner Henry Gonzales said the next crop report will show growers added another 100 acres of strawberries in 2010.
"It's a good thing," Gonzales was quoted. "It says to me there's still room for growth in the production side because there's growth on the market side."
Reporter Stephanie Hoops contacted UC Cooperative Extension strawberry advisor Oleg Daugovish to get his take on the current strawberry season.
The article said Daugovish described the season as "decent."
Meanwhile, strawberry growers are feeling pressure from a controversy over a new soil fumigant, methyl iodide, which the Department of Pesticide Regulation approved in December.
"Concern about the ability to use it is great," Daugovish was quoted.
In March, Gov. Brown said he plans to take "a fresh look" at the DPR decision. Environmental and farmworker groups are opposed to methyl iodide use in agriculture, but DPR approved the pesticide's use under strict safety measures, including buffer zones and site-specific permits from local agricultural commissioners.
Strawberries make a significant contribution to the Ventura County economy.
Agritourism in agriculture's heartland
Thirty percent of the farmers offering agritourism events supplemented their regular farm income by $50,000 or more in 2008, according to a study by the UC small farm program that was covered on the front page of today's Fresno Bee. Nearly two-thirds of California agritourism operators planned to expand or diversify over the next five years.
"There is no question that there is a lot of potential for growth, and we are seeing it happen," the story quoted Shermain Hardesty, small farm program director and a co-author of the report.
In the article, reporter Robert Rodriguez described several Valley agritourism destinations:
- Visitors can stay the night on the 95-acre tree Dinuba farm of Nori and Mike Taylor.
- Farmer John Olivas lets people pick their own fruit and operates a fruit stand on his three-acre berry farm in Hanford.
- Fresno farmer Mike Smith will allow people to pick their own flowers, lavender and produce on his 40-acre organic farm. In the fall, he will operate a pumpkin patch for the public and school tours.
"We know from all the consumer trends that people are willing to pay for an authentic experience and for specialty foods," said Ellie Rilla, community development adviser for UC Cooperative Extension in Marin County and co-author of the study. "And agritourism provides that."
The research article, California agritourism operations and their economic potential are growing, was published in the current issue of California Agriculture journal.
Bringing in visitors for a dinner in a barn is one form of agritourism.