VCA Animal Hospitals logo (PRNewsfoto/VCA Animal Hospitals) Summary: LOS ANGELES , Dec. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- VCA Animal Hospitals , a leader in comprehensive veterinary services and Antech , a leader in veterinary diagnostics, today published its Six-Step Framework for Companion Animal Public Health Collaboration, detailing how One Health organizations can integrate pets into a nationwide health response. This innovative framework outlines the necessary considerations and steps to quickly activate this response lever as part of public safety efforts. It emphasizes the importance of collaboration between veterinary professionals, public health officials, and diagnostic experts to create a seamless and effective response system. Prior to the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, approaches to understand the impacts of infectious disease outbreaks such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, on pets were limited and fragmented. A recent VCA study published in Viruses highlights the effectiveness of this new six-step framework in action with VCA and Antech working together to implement rapid-response monitoring and disease detection protocols. This collaboration enabled swift identification and management of COVID-19 cases, demonstrating the potential of the framework to address a critical knowledge gap bridging human and pet health during an emerging public health pandemic. "Traditionally, pets have largely been ignored in public health surveillance, but we want to change that," said Anne Kimmerlein DVM, MPVM, DACVPM, Veterinary Epidemiologist for VCA Animal Hospitals. "Thanks to the participation of our Associates and their pets, we were able to show the impact that the private veterinary sector can have when we come together to address an emerging public health threat. Based on that initial work, we've created a framework for continued and expanded One Health collaboration." The study involved a nationwide approach, focusing on households with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections in humans. Pets in these households were monitored for clinical signs consistent with SARS-CoV-2, and samples were collected for PCR and serological testing. The study included 747 dogs and 253 cats. The study highlighted the significance of being watchful of close human-animal contact and preventive measures to reduce transmission risks. The results indicated that pets can contract SARS-CoV-2, primarily through close contact with infected humans. While most pets showed mild or no symptoms, the study nonetheless underscored the recommendation for preventive measures such as good hand hygiene around pets to minimize transmission risks. The findings also demonstrated the potential for pets to seroconvert and develop antibodies, indicating exposure to the virus. "The results of this study show a significant step in advancing our understanding of how closely human and animal health are intertwined – and it was only possible through close collaboration between VCA and our team at Antech," said Christian Leutenegger , Dr. Med. Vet., Ph.D., FHV, Vice President of R&D, Assay Development at Antech Diagnostics . "The research provides a blueprint for continued ongoing collaboration to examine other types of infectious diseases that could impact our pets." VCA and Antech's six-step framework for One Health collaboration sets a new standard for integrating pets into nationwide health responses. By fostering collaboration and leveraging advanced diagnostic tools, this approach helps deliver a swift and effective response to public health crises. The success of the COVID-19 study serves as a testament to the potential of this innovative strategy. "Our commitment to One Health principles has never been stronger," said Marie Kerl , DVM, MPH, MBA, DACVIM, DACVECC and Chief Medical Officer for VCA Animal Hospitals. "By integrating pets into our nationwide health response, we can ensure a more comprehensive approach to public safety and health." To learn more about this groundbreaking framework, visit " Six-Step Framework for Companion Animal Public Health Collaboration ." About VCA Animal Hospitals A leader in veterinary care, VCA Animal Hospitals is committed to caring for the future of veterinary medicine. We are a family of hometown animal hospitals determined to positively impact pets, people, and our communities. From general practice to emergency and specialty care, VCA delivers world-class medicine to more than four million pets each year. Our national network of hospitals invests in cutting-edge tools, training and technology that enables our Associates to lead the industry today and into tomorrow. Among our talented 35,000 Associates are nearly 7,000 veterinarians – including 430 who are board-certified specialists – nearly 4,000 credentialed veterinary technicians and more than 10,000 veterinary assistants – all dedicated to giving pets the very best in medical care. As part of the Mars Petcare family of businesses, VCA is committed to its Purpose: A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS. To learn more about VCA, visit vca.com . About Mars Veterinary Health Mars Veterinary Health is a global division of Mars Petcare dedicated to delivering high-quality pet healthcare to further its collective Purpose: A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS. Mars Veterinary Health's 70,000 Associates across 3,000 global veterinary clinics put pets, people, and the planet first. The Mars Veterinary Health family includes Associates at AniCura, Banfield, BluePearl, Creature Comforts, Gentle Oak, Hillside, Linnaeus, Mount Pleasant, Tai Wai , VCA, VES, and VSH who demonstrate compassion and expertise while enabling 35 million pet visits each year. Learn more at marsveterinaryhealth.com . About Antech Antech is a leader in veterinary diagnostics, driven by our passion for innovation that delivers better animal health outcomes. Our products and services span 90+ reference laboratories around the globe; in-house diagnostic laboratory instruments and consumables, including rapid assay diagnostic products and digital cytology services; local and cloud-based data services; practice information management software and related software and support; veterinary imaging and technology; veterinary professional education and training; and board-certified specialist support services. As part of the Mars Petcare family of businesses, Antech is committed to its Purpose: A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS. Learn more at AntechDiagnostics.com . View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vca-animal-hospitals-and-antech-advocate-for-more-comprehensive-pet-data-in-public-health-reporting-recommend-six-step-framework-for-one-health-collaboration-302326701.html SOURCE VCA Animal Hospitals
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presenter encountered "the worst thing I've ever smelt on this show" during Saturday, 23 November's episode. Whilst overseeing the latest Bushtucker Trial, which saw the junkyard camp's and sit down for a stomach-churning teddybear's picnic, McPartlin's colleague Dec Donnelly presented the latter with blended surströmming. Stood just behind the two celebrities, McPartlin couldn't contain his disgust. Having revealed that the grub was in fact fermented Baltic Sea herring - traditional in Swedish culture - Donnelly asked Coles: "Uhh... if you could just polish off that whole cup?" Coles gamely replied: "More tea vicar, right?" The rest of this year's cast, including , Barry McGuigan, Alan Halsall, and Oti Mabuse, were all sat tableside for the Bushtucker Trial, and could be heard shouting over statements such as: "I've never smelt anything that bad in my life", "that's disgusting" and "that's gross". Once the 62-year-old had swallowed the horrific concoction, McPartlin told him: "Reverend, if hell has a smell it's that!" "Absolutely!" agreed the trialist, as the presenter added: "That is the worst thing I've ever smelt on this show!" Elsewhere in the Bushtucker Trial, breakout star Higgins impressed I'm a Celebrity viewers with her breezy handling of the various edibles. "Has to be said; fair play to Maura. Did not expect her to put in such a graft for this trial," . : "Maura doing well, surprised me. Very funny." Love the way Maura is just going for it and absolutely smashing it 😍I actually thought Maura wouldn’t cope with this trial but she’s doing amazing so is Richard 😍😍 — Rachel Wood💗😽 (@itspastelrach) Never seen a harder eating trial being bossed so much! Well done Maura & Richard - amazing! — Amanda (@gingermumstyle)
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Delhi Police Crime Branch nabs 114 hardened criminals in 2024This election cycle has resoundingly stated the character of the nation. We gravitated to the divisive rhetoric, disrespecting verbiage describing immigrants, fear mongering and disinformation. This is us, raw, uncouth, and motivated to serve only self-interest. We disregard the potential trauma it may cause others. Mass deportations, draconian cuts to critical programs and services paves the road with stones of austerity and assures hard times ahead for retirees and the working poor. Are the working poor prepared for stringent cuts to their social safety net: health care, housing, and supplemental assistance for food and childcare. Are immigrants — Hispanic, Haitians, and others caught in the broad deportation net, prepared to process the trauma of family separation, and friends and neighbors caught in the sweep and deported. These are realities that will be considered once the emotional hype of the campaign dissipates. It’s tantamount to the January credit card statement that attests to the irrational spending for the holidays. The mood of the country, social and political, are iterations of an era when society and the political landscape were toxic. The atrocious acts are exhibits in museums, eschewed in school curricula, but accessible to the curious. I made a visit to Montgomery, Ala., on Saturday. It was a weekend of poignant reflections. I strode through The National Memorial for Pease and Justice, The Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, and The Legacy Museum. We made a day of it. I saw exhibits and read details of atrocities committed during a dark and troubled time in America. I watched video clips that captured beatings of African Americans by white citizens and police to deny them access to government institutions and services. These elder men and women, these working men and women paid taxes that supported government operations, and the salaries of the police and fire departments. These First Responders were used to oppress citizens of melanin-rich skin; government authority stood impotent and complicit. Tax dollars working selectively. Most exhibits, if not all, strained the facility of rational thought. You were forced to question how humans could feel justified in committing these harmful acts upon another human created in the mage of God. These were God-fearing people captured in the exhibits. There is an ominous parallel between the God-centered rhetoric of today and the God-fearing good people whose atrocities are chronicled in museums and prohibited from retelling in school curricula today. History has a lot to teach us. But we can only learn if truth and accuracy is the standard of sharing the American experience. Museums are developed with the understanding that there will be the need to capture events and heroes of a new era. If the current ideations play out as in past generations, museums will add many new exhibits, some champions of good, others dark and tragic endeavors of flawed humanity. We can do better. Truth is a powerful salve for healing.
Real reason Chris Rock 'stormed off' stage at billionaire's holiday partyLa firma calificadora Fitch Ratings ratificó la calificación triple A (AAA) para las finanzas públicas de Cali, la más alta que otorga. Su pronunciamiento llega tan solo días después de que el Concejo aprobara un cupo de deuda por 3.5 billones de pesos a la Alcaldía de Alejandro Eder. Asegura que por ese empréstito, Cali superará sus límites regulatorios de deuda entre el 2025 y 2032, lo que refleja un “apetito de riesgo mayor”, pero que esto no afectará el “rango medio” de su calificación financiera. “La agencia pondera positivamente que el distrito opera en un mercado financiero en desarrollo y no se observan riesgos de refinanciación elevados ni que la exposición cambiaría significativamente en el período analizado”, señala. La ratificación completa: Ratificación Fitch Ratings ... by La Silla Vacía Eder celebra. “ Esta calificación respalda nuestro plan Invertir Para Crecer, asegurando que las inversiones en infraestructura y programas sociales no comprometen el futuro fiscal de la ciudad”, dijo el alcalde. ¿Por qué importa? Ese es el empréstito más grande que ha pedido una administración para la ciudad en su historia. Con él, Eder busca financiar 32 proyectos de desarrollo en Cali. Están agrupados en tres ejes: integración social, territorio y fortalecimiento institucional, e incluyen intervenciones en vías como la Vuelta a Occidente y la Avenida Circunvalar. Antes de aprobado el cupo, Fitch Ratings ya le había otorgado la calificación AAA a las finanzas de Cali. Aunque obtuvo mayorías en el Concejo, los concejales que se opusieron cuestionaron que solo el 27% de los proyectos estén destinados a la inversión social y pedían bajar el monto. Sobre la repercusión de este empréstito y cómo están las finanzas públicas de Cali, les dejo esta historia.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat stood on the Senate floor almost five years ago as a House impeachment manager and made a that Donald Trump should be removed from office for abusing the power of the presidency. “If right doesn’t matter, we’re lost,” he told the senators, his voice cracking at one point. The Republican-led Senate wasn’t convinced, and senators Trump on the Democratic-led impeachment charges over his dealings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump would survive a a year later after his supporters stormed the Capitol and tried to overturn his defeat. Now Trump is to the White House, politically stronger than ever and with a firm hold over what will be a Republican Congress. And Schiff, one of Trump’s biggest foils, was sworn into the Senate on Monday as part of a Democratic caucus that is headed into the minority and has been so far restrained in opposing the returning president, taking more of a wait-and-see approach in the weeks before he is sworn into office. As California’s , Schiff says he’s not going to shy away from familiar territory — opposing Trump when he feels it necessary. But he’s also hoping to be known for bipartisanship, as well, after campaigning in Republican areas of his state and working to learn more about rural issues that weren’t in his portfolio in his urban Los Angeles House district. “I think being there and letting folks get to know me, kick the tires a bit, helps overcome some of the sort of Fox News stereotypes,” Schiff said of the conservative news channel’s focus on him as he challenged Trump in his first term. He says he also sees that outreach as a way to gain insight into Democrats’ way forward after losses in the November elections. Schiff was sworn in weeks before the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3 because he is filling the seat of longtime Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died . He is entering the Senate alongside Democratic House colleague of New Jersey, who is filling the term of former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez after he was on federal bribery charges and . Bipartisanship was important to Feinstein, who often worked across the aisle and developed close relationships with other senators. But her work with Republicans also drew frequent criticism from California’s liberal voters. Feinstein “was able to do a couple things simultaneously, which I’m going to need to try to do as well, and that is work with others to deliver for the state, work across party lines to get things done, and at the same time, stand up and defend people’s rights and their freedom and their values when those things are threatened,” Schiff told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of his swearing-in. He says those priorities will frequently be at odds in the era of Trump, “and so I’ll have to try to do both.” Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who has spent time with Schiff as he prepares to enter the Senate, says he thinks Schiff has the “right approach” in asking questions of other senators and refraining from “opining at every opportunity.” “Everybody understands his capabilities, but he also understands that he’s a freshman,” Schatz says, and it’s appreciated when “someone of his stature understands that he’s joining a team here.” Still, Schiff, who was by House Republicans last year for his involvement in investigations into Trump’s ties to Russia, won’t be able immediately to shake his longtime role as a chief Trump antagonist. The former House Intelligence Committee chairman is more well-known than most of his fellow incoming freshmen, and he has been calling Trump out on social media in recent weeks and criticizing some of his Cabinet nominees as many of his fellow Democrats have chosen to remain quiet. Schiff posted on X last week that FBI director nominee , a former GOP staffer on the House intelligence panel, is “more suited as internet troll than FBI Director” and the “Senate must reject him.” He could become part of the story as well as Trump has vowed revenge on people he views as his political enemies. President Joe Biden has preemptive pardons for aides and allies like Schiff who tried to hold Trump accountable for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump once suggested Schiff should be arrested for treason and has called him an “enemy from within.” Schiff, though, says he doesn’t think that’s necessary. He said Biden shouldn’t use his remaining days in office to defend him or any others who are in Trump’s crosshairs. And the former prosecutor has long experience in defending himself from Republican attacks. After the House censure, which happened when fellow California Rep. Kevin McCarthy was speaker and Schiff was already running for Feinstein’s Senate seat, Schiff traveled to McCarthy’s district and met with local leaders. When a conservative news outlet there asked him what he thought of McCarthy calling him a liar, “I responded something along the lines of, well, coming from Kevin, I’m sure he means that as some form of a compliment,” Schiff said. Schiff is unlikely similarly to go after his colleagues in the Senate, which he says “is a very different place culturally than the House.” He’s already tried to make inroads with Republicans, including incoming Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana, whom he has talked to about working together on wildfire legislation important to both of their states. And he could possibly win some grudging respect from more veteran Senate Republicans, some of whom praised him during the 2020 impeachment trial even as they vehemently disagreed with his premise and voted not to convict Trump. After the first day of arguments, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham shook his hand and told him he was doing a good job. South Dakota Sen. John Thune, who Senate majority leader next year, said at the time that Schiff “was passionate and his case has been well articulated.” Schiff said he got the sense that some Republican senators “were a bit surprised that I wasn’t this caricature,” and also that the Senate is a more collegial place than the House. “I don’t think it was a hurtful introduction,” he said. ___ Mary Clare Jalonick, The Associated Press