The July 23 Cross-pollinating Community Conversation included a presentation by Glynn Tonsor, PhD, agricultural economist at Kansas State University. While Glynn's wheelhouse is livestock focused, he delivered a thought provoking discussion about the similarities between crop and livestock producers, how economics influences their decisions (both are very price and cost sensitive), linking biosecurity to conditional indemnity (proof of good effort in implementing biosecurity measures), and...

Cross-Pollinating Biosecurity was the theme of the July, 2020, Healthy Farms Healthy Agriculture Community Conversations. Planned jointly by Julie Smith of the University of Vermont and Deb Grantham of the Northeastern IPM Center, the goal was to get together folks whose work involves protecting plant and animal health to talk about common goals and challenges in what they do. Featured speakers helped get the conversations started during each session. Conversations can continue in a forum in...

I enjoyed the webinar. The information presented was very interesting, especially during these times when biosecurity is very important. Something that I found very interesting is that swines are considered to be by many people the ones guilty of transmitting diseases, but in reality humans are the ones that are bringing and transmitting more diseases, swines just had the bad luck to be intermediates. Another thing to point out, is the amount of salmonella that can be found in just a pathway...

This webinar was very interesting. I had no idea about this outbreak happening this year and I had never heard before about RHDV. I learned a lot about the disease and how to prevent it. Biosecurity protocols are very important to prevent the transmission of RHDV as it is very contagious. The speakers gave very important and helpful information on what is the disease, how can be spread, how to detect it, and how to prevent it. The best way to prevent rabbits from getting RHDV is to reduce or...

By Scott Merrill and Eric Clark, University of Vermont The Social Ecological Gaming and Simulation (SEGS) Lab is a multidisciplinary research lab designed to examine pressing problems in the interacting domains of natural ecology and human society. We work on problems ranging from water quality and energy, to looking at how Covid-19 related social distancing behavior changes in different environments – from the grocery store to the park. We also are engaged in trying to understand the...

Dr. Julie Smith , research professor and veterinarian in the University of Vermont Department of Animal & Veterinary Sciences, has been awarded funding for two projects from the National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program (NADPRP). NADPRP is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. One project aims to improve emergency disease plan mapping for livestock and poultry farmers: the other addresses coordination of...