1. Pigeon Fever Confirmed in Wyoming Horse
EDCC Health Watch
TheHorse.com
September 9, 2026
On Sept. 9, the attending veterinarian at a private facility in Albany County confirmed one horse positive for Pigeon Fever and two others exposed. The farm is under voluntary quarantine.
Full text: https://thehorse.com/1147088/pigeon-fever-confirmed-in-wyoming-horse/
2. Florida Sees First Equine WNV Case of 2026
EDCC Health Watch
TheHorse.com
September 9, 2026
On Sept. 8, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services confirmed that one horse in Suwannee County tested positive for West Nile virus and has been euthanized. This marks the state's first WNV case of 2026.
Full text: https://thehorse.com/1147086/florida-sees-first-equine-wnv-case-of-2026/
3. USPOULTRY and Foundation Approve Four New Board Research Initiative Topics
Topics address urgent challenges facing the poultry and egg industry
MorningAgClips.com
September 9, 2026
TUCKER, Ga. - USPOULTRY and the USPOULTRY Foundation have approved four new Board Research Initiative (BRI) topics for this year's competition. The boards of directors for both organizations approved the topics following recommendations from the Foundation Research Advisory Committee (FRAC). This committee assesses research proposals for their relevance to the industry and advises the boards on funding decisions. The FRAC members are professionals from various segments of the poultry and egg industry, bringing diverse expertise to the evaluation process.
The BRI was established by the boards of USPOULTRY and the USPOULTRY Foundation to address urgent challenges facing the poultry and egg industry. Operating alongside the Association's long-standing research program, the BRI enhances the original program's impact and long-term success. Each year, the boards select key areas of research for focus, ensuring that the Initiative targets the most pressing needs of the industry.
4. Nasal spray vaccine protects against bird flu in mice
By Washington University in St. Louis
Edited by Lisa Lock, reviewed by Robert Egan
MedicalXpress.com
September 9, 2026
WashU Medicine researchers led by Jacco Boon, a professor in the John T. Milliken Department of Medicine, report that an experimental bird flu vaccine provides strong immune protection in mice, including in animals previously vaccinated against seasonal flu. Because pre-existing immunity from prior seasonal influenza infection or vaccination could diminish the efficacy of H5N1 vaccines, showing that the new vaccine succeeds alongside existing immunity is a crucial milestone.
Building on Boon's prior work on bird flu vaccines delivered nasally, the new study, published July 10 in npj Vaccines, shows that delivering the vaccine to the nose offers better protection against infection in the nose and upper airways than a traditional injection.
The novel vaccine pairs a key protein on the surface of the H5N1 bird flu virus with an immune-boosting ingredient used in some newer COVID-19 and malaria vaccines to prime the immune system to attack this protein. In mice already vaccinated against seasonal flu, a single dose of the H5N1 vaccine generated strong virus-fighting antibodies against the strain of bird flu identified in the 2024 U.S. outbreak, which heavily affected the poultry and dairy industries and caused two human deaths. In contrast, mice with no prior flu exposure required two doses of the new vaccine to achieve the same level of protection.
Full text: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-nasal-spray-vaccine-bird-flu.html
5. Illegal Horse Traffic Raises New Concerns
KMJNow.com
September 9, 2026
Illegal movement of horses across the U.S.-Mexico border is raising concerns about a potential gap in efforts to prevent New World screwworm from reaching American livestock.
A Reuters investigation found horses and other livestock are being moved illegally across parts of the Texas-Mexico border, bypassing the normal animal-health inspection system.
The practice has taken on new significance as U.S. officials work to prevent the flesh-eating parasite from spreading northward.
Full text: https://www.kmjnow.com/2026/09/09/illegal-horse-traffic-raises-new-concerns/
6. How Hord Family Farms Fought Back Against PRRS With Filtration
After watching his team's morale get "completely destroyed" by a virus they couldn't control, Phil Hord decided he was done taking punches. He shares his family's journey with barn filtration in an area where PRRS wasn't supposed to run rampant.
By Jennifer Shike
PorkBusiness.com
September 9, 2026
For decades, Hord Family Farms operated with confidence knowing they were in a historically healthy region of Ohio where devastating porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) outbreaks happened "somewhere else."
Even so, they prioritized biosecurity. Admittedly, they weren't sold on filtering barns at first. They raised their own replacement gilts internally, ran their own tightly controlled transportation loops, washed and baked their own trailers, and used advanced sanitation protocols. They weren't cutting corners.
Then came 2021.
Almost overnight, the red "positive" diagnostic reports began flashing on computer screens - a sight that Phil Hord, co-owner of Hord Family Farms, says still triggers a sense of PTSD.
"At first, you think it's an anomaly. You think, 'Oh man, we must have walked it in,'" Hord recalls. "But then it happens again. And again."
Between 2021 and 2025, the virus tore through their unfiltered sow farms. They tried closing herds. They waited. In one case, a herd remained closed for over a year, yet the virus stubbornly persisted, forcing them to make the difficult decision to depopulate.
Full text: https://www.porkbusiness.com/news/how-hord-family-farms-fought-back-against-prrs-filtration