U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers are working to solve a swine disease that has a major negative effect on the pork industry. USDA scientist Dr. Joan Lunney says Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, or PRRS, costs U.S. pork producers money and pigs every year. “Overall, in the United States, PRRS costs us 642-million (dollars) a year and if you take into account veterinary costs, it’s one billion a year in the U.S. alone,” Lunney says. For young pigs, being sick means respiratory problems and loss of growth, so it’s a major issue in terms of production.

“In the adult sow, if she gets PRRS when she’s pregnant, she can lose her litter, and/or her litter becomes sick and some pigs die in utero or are very unthrifty when they’re born,” Lunney says. To alleviate this situation, Lunney and her colleagues in Beltsville, Maryland — just outside of Washington D.C. — have discovered a genetic marker that shows which pigs are resistant to the effects of PRRS.

“We’ve been able to show that there is a region on swine chromosome four that is associated with decreased viral levels and increased growth,” Lunney says. “So, this is really important because it means that we can help farmers now to decrease the effect of PRRS in their herds.” With this knowledge, producers and animal breeders could introduce PRRS tolerant swine into their herds thereby reducing the effects of the virus.

“They would be buying pigs that are resistant, but not completely resistant to PRRS,” Lunney says. “This is not a situation where we have zero PRRS. It is a 15-percent decrease in PRRS and an 11-percent increase in growth traits.” The researchers are now trying to find the exact gene that leads to PRRS tolerance in hopes of developing a vaccine and treatment. Iowa is the nation’s top pork producing state, with approximately 30 million hogs raised in Iowa each year.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Electrical Examining Board is expected to decide Aug. 15 whether Iowa farm buildings must be inspected. The Des Moines Register says the board weighed conflicting opinions on the matter at a hearing Thursday. A judge had ordered the board to reconsider rules adopted after electrical regulatory legislation was passed by the Legislature in 2007. The judge said the board had gone too far in requiring the inspections.

Some farmers and their supporters object to the inspections as a power grab by the board. Other farmers and their supporters say the inspections are needed for safety.  State records say that since 1994, Iowa has had 15 farm deaths from electrocution.

Andrea Farrior and Jim Field talk about the latest animals available at the Atlantic Animal Shelter.

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w/ Dr. Keith Leonard.

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w/ Denny Heflin

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s top agriculture official says hay and straw producers should be sure to keep their information on a state directory updated to help market their products. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey says with the continued tight supply of forage crops used for livestock feed, the Iowa Hay and Straw Directory is a critical link for buyers and sellers.

The listing is available to interested buyers throughout the nation. Only sellers from within Iowa are on the list. The information may be accessed and updated on the IowaAgriculture.gov website.

w/ Kate Olson

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(Updated with revised numbers 10:48-a.m. Wednesday)

The Iowa Department of Public Health reports that as of today (Wednesday), they are continuing to receive reports of confirmed cases of Cyclospora infection. The onset dates of the illness suggest the ill people had eaten contaminated food in mid-June. Officials say while the source of the outbreak remains unknown, at no time was an Iowa-grown fruit or vegetable suspected as a cause.

The number of confirmed food-borne intestinal illnesses related to cyclosporiasis in Iowa, is 87, and 27 counties are affected. The Iowa Department of Public Health says at least five people have been hospitalized. Linn County in eastern Iowa continues to lead the state with 31 cases. Polk County has 7 cases, and Pottawattamie County now has 6 cases. Two cases of the illness have been reported in Mills County, and one each in Montgomery, Woodbury and Monona Counties, in western Iowa.

Public health officials say the illness, which causes prolonged diarrhea, is rare. It comes from eating food or drinking water contaminated with feces containing the cyclospora parasite. Many people are reportedly still ill, and some have had relapses of symptoms caused by the parasite.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says for the ninth year in a row, RAGBRAI enthusiasts can Learn about the Land during the 2013 Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa July 21st through the 27th. The joint project between the DNR, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Iowa Limestone Producers Association highlights the land, history, parks and other natural wonders that cyclists encounter on their late July quest across the state.

This year’s route crosses several of Iowa’s major landform regions. The bulk of the ride is over the rolling hills of the Southern Iowa Drift Plain, so riders should be prepared for some serious climbing in and out of valleys. Maps and cross sections are designed to help participants locate nearby parks, cities and landmarks each day of the ride. Look for Springbrook State Park on Day 2, Historic Valley Junction on Day 3, Red Rock Reservoir on Days 4 and 5, and Lacey-Keosauqua State Park on Day 7.

The seven-day set of RAGBRAI brochures produced by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is available online at www.igsb.uiowa.edu or http://ia.water.usgs.gov. Or, find the brochures July 21st at the Human and Natural History Partners booth at Expo in Council Bluffs where staff from the Office of the State Archaeologist, U.S. Geological Survey and the DNR will be available to answer questions. The brochure can be found each day along the route at the Iowa Conservation Team’s booths.

You’ve heard of flash flooding. Now, there’s the flash drought. Parts of Iowa are seeing the driest July in decades and Jim Lee, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, says the term “flash drought” applies, as the heat wave came on very quickly following Iowa’s wettest-ever spring. “A drought can be characterized by a lack of rainfall, low levels of ground water and soil moisture, affects on plants and so forth and sometimes droughts occur over long time scales of several years, sometimes the occur over a period of a few months,” Lee says. “So for the shorter events, sometimes we refer to them as flash droughts.”

Lawns that aren’t being watered are becoming brown and crunchy, especially in parts of central Iowa, where it’s the driest July, so far, since 1976. Des Moines has only gotten six-hundredths of an inch of rain this month. Lee notes, the turnaround from earlier this year is unusual.

“We did have the wettest spring on record in Iowa in terms of the average statewide rainfall from March through May,” Lee says. “We’re not necessarily in a drought yet, in fact, very little of Iowa is in drought conditions right now, however, if we continue to see the dry pattern that we’ve seen established over the last couple of weeks persist through the rest of July, then we could enter that territory.”

Much of the state and a large portion of the region were hit with a drought that lasted the majority of last year, however, the rainy spring gave promise to a change for Iowa. Lee says it’s still not known whether this flash drought will become another full-fledged drought. Lee says, “The fortunate thing about events like this is that because we had that wet spring, we were able to replenish our soil moisture, subsoil moisture, river levels, reservoirs and so forth, so that we’re better able to take a drier second half of summer.”

(Radio Iowa)

The forecast calls for a few scattered showers but no significant rainfall until perhaps the weekend.