Louis, Buseman said, health officials started closing schools and limiting public gatherings as soon as the mortality rate from influenza increased above its normal level. The prospect for another influenza pandemic is of grave concern to public health officials. Public health officers have some advantages that their counterparts didn't have in 1918: Detection has improved, medical care is vastly more advanced, and there's a global network. In today's world, health officials estimate that...

While the number of clinics has dropped by one or two compared with previous years, the clinic hours have been extended in most cases, Kalailieff said. In addition to the clinics, flu shots are also available through many family physicians, walk-in clinics, pharmacies, home nursing services and some workplaces. Kalailieff said the health department doled out about 130,000 doses of flu vaccine to its community partners last flu season. People planning on going to the health department s flu...

Guest lecturer David Sherman compared the 20th century with the biblical story of Noah, who gathered animals and his family in a boat to save them from extinction. Avian influenza best illustrates the importance of the one health approach, with veterinarians, physicians, wildlife biologists, ecologists and epidemiologists all working together to address a complex problem, Sherman said. When you provide veterinarian service, you re improving food security and improved nutrition, and you can...

Robb expects the pork and poultry production to increase, while beef production will decrease. Chicken production is expected to remain profitable for several more months, while pork production is expected to draw red ink in the fourth quarter of 2007 and first quarter of 2008. Grimes said that fourth quarter slaughter would be about 4.7 percent higher than last year. Producers have experienced recent good success raising pigs. hog producers intend to have 2.964 million sows farrow during...

AVON PARK ? Shannon Peacock summed up in four words the reason small businesses may be hesitant about exporting their products: ?fear of the unknown. Shannon Peacock, plant manager of Bowsmith inc., stands before the irrigation tubing the company distributes nation wide and also internationally. Peacock?s fears were alleviated after he attended an exporting workshop earlier this month that was hosted by the Hardee County Economic Development Council, Hardee County Chamber of Commerce,...

More detailed information from registered producers will be gathered in private databases, such as those kept by state agencies, breed associations or commodity groups. With technology still in the infancy stage, it s ridiculous to try and implement that kind of program where the people paying the cost of it are not getting any kind of benefit. This entails not only hogs, cattle, sheep and poultry, but also more non-traditional species, such as elk, bison and horses, among others. A year...