1. New World screwworm detected in Bandera County horse [TX]
By Victoria Arredondo
FoxSanAntonio.com
November 11, 2026
BANDERA COUNTY, Texas - A case of New World screwworm was confirmed in a Bandera County horse two days ago.
In a Facebook post by the Kendall County Office of Emergency Management & Fire Marshal, officials advised Texas residents to contact their veterinarian if they suspect an infestation in their animals.
2. USDA Announces Proposal To Strengthen Enforcement of the Horse Protection Act
APHIS Stakeholder Registry
November 12, 2026
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is seeking public input on a proposed rule to strengthen its regulations under the Horse Protection Act. The proposed rule would modernize the inspection procedures consistent with those used in other horse sports and ensure greater oversight of industry inspection programs. These proposed changes would ensure consistent inspections at covered events, enhanced due process protections for horse owners, trainers, and exhibitors, and better align APHIS' oversight with the Act and achieve its dual purposes of ending soring and restoring fair competition at horse shows and exhibitions.
The proposed rule would:
Strengthen conflict of interest safeguards and competency standards for Designated Qualified Persons (DQPs), including requiring APHIS-provided training from experienced equine practitioners, an additional apprenticeship, and an evaluation before licensure and when performing inspection duties;
Require uniform, modern inspections that include swabbing and blood testing, expanded movement exams, and pad removal for first place horses and when soring is suspected;
Strengthen provisions to ensure that exhibitors, management, horse industry organizations and associations (HIOs), and other individuals do not interfere with APHIS or DQP inspections of horses;
Prohibit the use of masking agents and other substances that conceal evidence of soring (such as sedatives or topical numbing agents);
Remove the scar rule consistent with a district court decision finding that the scar rule exceeded USDA's statutory authority;
Establish strong due process protections through dual veterinarian concurrence and real time appeals to neutral veterinarians serving as Appeals Officials; and
Clarify the responsibilities of management for disqualification of sore horses and the prohibitions on horses otherwise not in compliance with the Act or regulations.
APHIS remains committed to ending soring and ensuring fair competition at horse shows, exhibitions, sales, and auctions. The proposed rule will be available for public review and comment for 30 days.
3. Fighting Superbugs With Better Antibiotic Monitoring
Project aims to develop a secure data repository that aggregates antimicrobial use statistics while keeping individual information private and secure
MorningAgClips.com
November 12, 2026
ITHACA, N.Y. - Researchers hope that by closing a critical gap in monitoring antimicrobial use in dairy cows, poultry and companion animals, animal caretakers may make more informed decisions when treating pets and livestock and help reduce antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can proliferate when the medicines are used.
The project is made possible thanks to a five-year, $7.5 million grant from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Resistant bacteria could jeopardize food security for over 2 billion people and increase annual healthcare costs by $159 billion annually by 2050, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
The researchers say it is challenging to monitor antibiotic use in animals because farmers and veterinarians are reluctant to share that data, and because of inconsistent standards of measurement. The team hopes to make it easier to collect existing data by addressing reasons why farmers and veterinarians don't trust sharing information.
The project aims to develop a secure data repository that aggregates antimicrobial use statistics while keeping individual information private and secure. A dashboard that provides average national and local antimicrobial use may help farmers and veterinarians make smarter decisions about how to treat their animals.
Full text: https://www.morningagclips.com/fighting-superbugs-with-better-antibiotic-monitoring/
4. A second chance to see: Challenging ophthalmology case offers a path for future treatment [edited]
By Troy Johnson
Auburn Univ. CVM
November 9, 2026
It's difficult to pinpoint exactly how "Birdie," a 3-year-old warmblood mare, sustained a micropuncture to her left eye. No matter how pristine a barn may be, and despite the vigilance of owners and trainers, horses encounter an assortment of everyday items that can cause eye trauma - hay and straw, dust and debris, tree branches or the bristle-like tips on pasture grasses being among the most common.
What Birdie's care team at the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine can attest to with certainty is that she was at risk of permanently losing vision in her left eye when she made the trip from Tennessee to the J.T. Vaughan Large Animal Teaching Hospital in September for treatment. A small wound quickly deteriorated into a severe corneal infection and inflammation that made enucleation (surgical removal of the eye) a potential outcome.
"It did not look great," said Dr. Anna Catherine Bowden, assistant professor of veterinary ophthalmology. "Dr. (Emma) Collins and I were researching implant options for her to try to get something cosmetic.
Auburn Vet Med's ophthalmology service treats a variety of eye disorders in small and large animals, including glaucoma, tumors, retinal diseases and cataracts. For equine patients like Birdie, micropunctures and resulting fungal infections represent a common reason for a referral to Auburn. Bowden said the team typically sees multiple cases per month and, during heavy periods, multiple cases per week.
"Unfortunately, fungal infections are particularly difficult to treat," Bowden said. "We see them more frequently in the Southeast due to the environmental heat and humidity."
The size and scope of Birdie's infection and inflammation necessitated a multi-pronged approach to treatment. Equine ophthalmologists sometimes refer to "multifactorial" cases because they may be trying to head off several destructive processes occurring simultaneously. Fungi can penetrate deep into the cornea, where it may be difficult for topical medications to reach. Plus, no single antifungal works against every fungal species.
Full text: https://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/blog/cvm-news/a-second-chance-to-see/
5. Elevated dietary iodine impacts nursery pig growth performance
Emerging evidence suggests that iodine may play a more dynamic role in swine metabolism than previously recognized.
By Tomas Porcel de Peralta, Sara Virdis, Mike Tokach, Jason Woodworth, Joel DeRouchey, Robert Goodband, Katelyn Gaffield, Jordan Gebhardt and Josh Flohr, Kansas State University
National Hog Farmer
November 12, 2026
For decades, energy and protein requirements in swine have been determined based on the levels needed to achieve optimal growth and feed efficiency. In contrast, recommendations for vitamins and trace minerals have historically been based on the minimum concentrations required to prevent deficiency symptoms and maintain basic metabolic functions. This fundamental difference in the criteria used for determining nutrient requirements has often led to an underutilization of trace minerals in swine nutrition. However, extensive research over the past 75 years has demonstrated that supplementing trace minerals well above deficiency-prevention levels can enhance growth and reproductive performance in pigs.
Iodine is a trace mineral of particular interest due to its central role in the synthesis of thyroid hormones, which regulate the basal metabolic rate. The NRC (2012) estimates a dietary iodine level of 0.14 ppm for all nursery and growing pig stages, based on data demonstrating the elimination of deficiency symptoms and normalization of thyroid size and growth rate. However, emerging evidence suggests that iodine may play a more dynamic role in swine metabolism than previously recognized. Recent research by Dove et al. (2024) has shown that feeding dietary iodine at levels up to 100 times the NRC requirement estimate can significantly improve average daily gain and increase plasma thyroxine concentrations in nursery pigs. In that study, dietary iodine levels of 0, 0.14, 1.4, 14 and 140 ppm were evaluated, with pigs fed 14 ppm having the greatest improvements in both ADG and plasma T4.
These findings suggest that dietary iodine levels well above current recommendations may enhance growth performance through increased thyroid activity and altered metabolic regulation. This highlights the need for further research to determine the optimal dosage that supports performance without triggering adverse effects linked to excess iodine. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of increasing dietary iodine on nursery pig performance.
6. Researchers discover protein that could improve strangles testing in horses
By Camryn Haines, Texas A&M University
Edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Andrew Zinin
Phys.org
Novenber 12, 2026
Strangles is one of the most common infectious diseases of horses worldwide, but accurately determining whether a horse has been exposed to the bacterium that causes it can be challenging. Researchers at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) have identified a protein that could help change that.
In a study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, researchers found that a protein they called P92 could be used to more accurately detect antibodies against Streptococcus equi subspecies equi (SEE), the bacterium that causes strangles.
The discovery could improve existing blood-based diagnostic testing and serve as the foundation for new tools that make detecting exposure to the bacterium easier.
Full text: https://phys.org/news/2026-11-protein-strangles-horses.html