Vital Systems Security

Another troubling disease event in China. What is interesting, from an event detection perspective, is the disjuncture between the Chinese government’s official description of the event (165,000 pigs infected with a common pig virus) and international estimates. Because of China’s reluctance to release data, international officials are basing estimates not on health-related information, but on economic data–skyrocketing pork prices. “In part, the skepticism comes from the fact that pork prices have skyrocketed 85 percent in the last year — an increase that, absent other factors, suggests the losses from disease are more widespread than Beijing admits.”

Article below.

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Though this isn’t confirmed yet, it might be an interesting biosecurity story to follow. From NYTimes, “An investigation, ordered by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on Tuesday concluded that the spread of foot-and-mouth disease among livestock at two farms in southern England was probably caused by human movement from nearby laboratory facilities that was either “accidental or deliberate.””
One key debate in Britain is whether to vaccinate all livestock. The issue is that once a nation’s livestock is vaccinated, there can be non-symptomatic carriers of disease. This then poses a threat to other national herds when animals or animal products are traded. Thus, if Britain goes ahead with vaccination, “it would immediately lose its designation as a country free of foot-and-mouth disease.” Article below.
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The VSS collaboration page on the main ARC site has been updated, with some new links to publications and events. More to come soon.