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Very small plants (categories 1 and 2), which are often niche providers, were excluded.‡. Actually it’s very hard to get the perfect reason of sudden death in animals. From these cases, it is clear that there can be numerous causes of sudden death in livestock. This association is relative to the baseline behavior change across all other counties, indicating that people in livestock-plant counties are working more (or cutting back on work less) than people in other counties. There are many more who suffer major injuries that require hospitalisation and significant time off work. ... Tri-State Livestock News. Likewise, death rates increase by 0.07 per thousand, or 37% over the county baseline of 0.2 deaths per thousand. Certain conditions appear to influence the degree to which people spread the virus. Humans, particularly those with sociopathic disorders, have been found to have mutilated animals in elaborate ways[30] using knives or surgical instruments. Though these rooms are kept at 90 to 95% relative humidity to prevent meat from drying and losing weight, the low absolute humidity at near-freezing temperatures may encourage the transmission of airborne viruses such as influenza (47⇓–49). ... Livestock display an alarming ability to coordinate their attacks. Meatpacking workers are a diverse group who need better protections, Blood, sweat, and fear: Workers’ rights in US meat and poultry plants, Restructuring of the US meat processing industry and new Hispanic migrant destinations. Overall, the wide geographic distribution of facilities by type mitigates concerns of this being a regional phenomenon. Contraction of missing/damaged areas due to dehydration. He claimed there had been 130 mutilations in Colorado alone, and further reports across nine states. Author contributions: C.A.T., C.B., and D.A. Beliefs held by proponents of the cult hypothesis vary, but may include: The hypothesis that cults were responsible for cattle mutilation was developed in the U.S. during the 1970s and 1980s, a time of growing national concern over cults (such as the Peoples Temple and Jonestown) and ritual satanic abuse ("Satanic panic").[34][35]. The investigation was funded by a US$44,170 grant from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, and was headed by FBI agent Kenneth Rommel. Small and medium-sized plants were generally not found to have significant relationships with local COVID-19 transmission, suggesting that the scale of production is an important variable for industry leaders and policymakers to consider. The freight index is from the Federal Highway Administration’s Freight Analysis Framework (78) using the variable AADTT12, the annual average daily truck traffic in 2012, which we sum across all listed highways in a given county. Livestock deaths . [6], On September 9, 1967, Agnes King and her son Harry found the dead body of their three-year-old horse, Lady. Here we provide virological, epidemiological, evolutionary and experimental evidence that a novel HKU2-related bat coronavirus, swine acute diarrhoea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), is the aetiological agent that was responsible for a large-scale outbreak of fatal disease in pigs in China that has caused the death of 24,693 piglets across four farms. 51 years ago . [13] Mutilation investigators assert that a large number of cases are never reported to authorities, perhaps no more than one in ten. Inhibiting a signaling pathway protects microgravity-exposed mice from losing muscle and bone mass, a study finds. On account of the time between death and necropsy, and a lack of background information on specific cattle, investigators have often found it impossible to determine if these variations are connected to the animals' deaths or not.[11]. [33]:14–15[36]:23–24 In another case, claims were traced back to local high school students who had circulated rumors as a joke.[33]:21. Few farm people look upon their livestock as a source of danger. Highways Act amendment could prevent livestock-related deaths By Becky Payne Agricultural reporter Following a spike in livestock-related deaths, rural groups have joined forces to … As with most disputed phenomena, there is a number of potential explanations for the causes of cattle mutilations, ranging from death by natural causes to purposeful acts by unknown individuals. Group quarters population by group quarters type, 2004-2018 American community survey 5-year estimates, Selected characteristics of health care coverage in the United States, 2004-2018 American community survey 5-year estimates, Commuting characteristics by sex, 2004-2018 American community survey 5-year estimates, Households and families, 2004-2018 American community survey 5-year estimates, FAF4 network database and flow assignment: 2012 and 2045, Each state’s COVID-19 reopening and reclosing plans and mask requirements, A guide to state coronavirus reopenings and lockdowns, See how all 50 states are reopening (and closing again), Meat, poultry and egg product inspection directory, Google COVID-19 community mobility reports. Many livestock plants were temporarily shut down to halt the spread of COVID-19. [26][36] Media reports of the time reported his investigation was dropped when it was determined cattle deaths were not a prelude to a co-ordinated campaign against elected officials by cult members. Within 1 wk of closure, however, the growth rate in shutdown counties reverted to the prepolicy growth rate from a higher peak, compared to nonshutdown counties in the same time. [42][43][44] The reports of "helicopter" involvement have been used to explain why some cattle appear to have been "dropped" from considerable heights. We have quantified a range of clinical factors associated with COVID-19-related death in … In addition, through consolidation over the decades, the meatpacking industry has potentially increased its monopsonistic power over labor markets, which has been linked to greater work hazards (58⇓–60). Mutilations have been the subject of two independent federal investigations in the United States. Human attacks against animals are a recognized phenomenon. Typically the victims of such attacks are cats, dogs, and other family pets,[30] and the actions of humans are usually limited to acts of cruelty such as striking, burning, or beating animals. Founded in 2003, Livestock opened its first retail store in Vancouver, Canada. Home Ag News Fresno County Declare Emergency for Heat-Related Livestock Deaths. The ATF investigation was headed by ATF Agent Donald Flickinger. [45], At the same time that UFO reports were being filed with law enforcement, larger number of ranchers claimed to see black helicopters around their fields, coinciding with the cattle mutilations. Of the 120 poultry plants in our sample, 48 plants currently have waivers, 16 of which were issued in 2020.§ An analysis of the relationship between line speed waivers and local COVID-19 incidence suggests, though with less precise estimates, that waivers predict increases in county-level case rates double those in counties with nonwaiver poultry plants (SI Appendix, Table S5). [citation needed] However, in some cases, strange marks or imprints near the site have been found. So the main problem that we all face is that the causes remain undetected and it spreads on the other cows of your livestock. Information in other languages. We estimate the total excess COVID-19 cases and deaths associated with proximity to livestock plants to be 236,000 to 310,000 (6 to 8% of all US cases) and 4,300 to 5,200 (3 to 4% of all US deaths), respectively, as of July 21, 2020, with the vast majority likely related to community spread outside these plants. In his 1997 article “Dead Cows I've Known”,[39] cattle mutilation researcher Charles T. Oliphant speculates cattle mutilation to be the result of covert research into emerging cattle diseases, and the possibility they could be transmitted to humans. In one case documented by New Mexico police and the FBI,[11] an 11-month-old cross Hereford-Charolais bull, belonging to a Mr. Manuel Gomez of Dulce, New Mexico, was found mutilated on March 24, 1978. The overall IV results in Table 3 show the relationship between livestock facilities and COVID-19 case and death rates to be even stronger for each outcome, except the within-state death rate, which is of comparable magnitude but less precisely estimated. This article does not address tearing due to bloating. Dean Trimboli T(1997), Dead Cows I've Known. However, the report concluded that the mutilations were predominantly the result of natural predation, but did acknowledge that some cases contained anomalies that could not be accounted for by conventional wisdom. Experimental transmission studies of SARS-COV-2 in fruit bats, ferrets, pigs and chickens, Assessing the role of live poultry trade in community-structured transmission of avian influenza in China, USDA allows poultry plants to raise line speeds, exacerbating risk of COVID-19 outbreaks and injury, Petition to permit waivers of maximum line speeds for young chicken establishments operating under the new poultry inspection system; criteria for consideration of waiver requests for young chicken establishments to operate at line speeds of up to 175 birds per minute, Notice, Food Safety and Inspection Service, Washington, DC, 2018, Manual on meat cold store operation and management, Causal empirical estimates suggest covid-19 transmission rates are highly seasonal, COVID 19: Challenges for virologists in the food industry, Absolute humidity modulates influenza survival, transmission, and seasonality, Predictors of indoor absolute humidity and estimated effects on influenza virus survival in grade schools, Global environmental drivers of influenza, Monitoring of pathogenic bioaerosols in beef slaughter facilities based on air sampling and airflow modeling. Number of frontline workers were derived from Center for Economic Policy Research data (54), transforming from Public Use Microdata Area-level to the county level, assuming even allocation. The matching occurred by using a nearest-neighbor algorithm based on predicting the livestock binary variable with the covariates in our primary specification. ↵†In line with the literature, we find COVID-19 incidence to be strongly associated with population density, average household size, the timing of the first confirmed case, and the proportion of a county’s population who are public-transit commuters, elderly, Black, Hispanic, in a nursing home, uninsured, or institutionalized (SI Appendix, Table S1). ↵*The CEOs of Wayne Farms and Tyson Foods—both granted waivers in April 2020—are, respectively, chairman of the National Chicken Council (the body that initially lobbied for the line speed waivers) and a public advocate for the poultry industry, buying full-page newspaper ads in April stating that the food supply chain was “broken.”. [14], In the summer of 2019, five bulls were mutilated at the Silvies Valley Ranch in Oregon. Because of the higher milk consumption, especially by young children, pregnant and nursing… Closely related to the deviant hypothesis is the hypothesis that cattle mutilations are the result of cult activity. An implication of this study is that some aspects of large meat-processing plants render them especially susceptible to spreading respiratory viruses. [19][20], Laboratory reports carried out on some mutilated animals have shown unusually high or low levels of vitamins or minerals in tissue samples, and the presence of chemicals not normally found in animals. The relationship between local COVID-19 incidence and medium and large plants (FSIS categories 4 or 5) owned or operated by some of the largest US processors (National Beef, JBS, Tyson, Cargill, and Smithfield) and their subsidiaries is presented in SI Appendix, Table S6. Did 30,000 Cows Freeze to Death in a Winter Storm? Livestock manifests can be signed by the livestock owner or by that person’s agent. We also find an increase in the death rate by 0.07 to 0.1 deaths per thousand people, or 37 to 50% over the baseline rate. S3 expands our main analysis to include neighboring counties grouped by distance band, as charted in Fig. This section covers updates on livestock diseases, exports, new facilities, and mergers and acquisitions. M. Rommel Jr, Kenneth, Operation Animal Mutilation, pp.22-23. Boston: Beacon Press, D. Albers, Michael, The Terror, pp. World 4h ago Indian farmers start hunger strike to pressure Modi on reforms ... Indian farmers vow to carry on protests despite cold, deaths. The proclamation enables local livestock owners to work with Stats show that there were 804 livestock deaths recorded by the CFIA in 2006; 493 cattle, 254 bison, 6 horses, 33 sheep, 13 cervids (white-tailed deer and elk), 3 pigs, and 2 goats. Agriculture has been the deadliest U.S. industry every year for the last decade, beating out mining and construction in deaths per 100,000 workers. Killing Wolves Actually Leads to More Livestock Deaths On the surface, killing wolves that kill sheep and cattle seems like a way to control predation, but the data paints a not-so-simple picture By. In September, Ash Cooper's father … The centrality of livestock processing to local economies and national food supplies implies that mitigating disease spread through this channel may take an economic toll. We found that the presence of livestock plants is strongly associated with more time spent at work (SI Appendix, Table S7). Using county-level data as of July 21, 2020, we test the relationship between one such type of essential activity, livestock processing, and the local incidence of COVID-19 cases. Today, 12 plants produce over 50% of the country’s beef, and 12 others, similarly, produce over 50% of the country’s pork (30, 31). In most cases, mutilation wounds appear to be clean and carried out surgically. Several plants were forced to shut down until, among other factors, a federal executive order invoked the status of livestock processing as “critical infrastructure” for national security and mandated that these plants remain open (36, 37). This trend can also be found on the state level. In the United States, it is a large industry, employing 500,000 people. We next examined whether there is a relationship between local COVID-19 transmission and plant-operating procedures. Few farm people look upon their livestock as a source of danger. Additionally, we have shown that the dynamics over time of COVID-19 cases and deaths vary with the timing of livestock-plant shutdowns. 3: The strongest relationship is found with National Beef, whose indicated relationship with COVID-19 case rates is approximately five times greater in magnitude than that of other livestock facilities. Blood pooling in the lowest points in the body where it will break down into its basic organic components. Fig. Stats show that there were 804 livestock deaths recorded by the CFIA in 2006 in Saskatchewan; 493 cattle, 254 bison, 6 horses, 33 sheep, 13 cervids (white-tailed deer and elk), 3 pigs, and 2 goats. 0748: Sheep - This year 4. Workers’ socioeconomic status and labor practices may also contribute to infection and transmission. Compared with people of white ethnicity, Black and South Asian people were at higher risk, even after adjustment for other factors (HR 1.48 (1.29-1.69) and 1.45 (1.32-1.58), respectively). For nearest-neighbor matching, we used the MatchIt package in R to restrict the sample to similar treated and control groups. To support his hypothesis, Oliphant cites the Reston ebolavirus case in which plain clothes military officers, traveling in unmarked vehicles, entered a research facility in Reston, Virginia, to secretly retrieve and destroy animals that were contaminated with a highly infectious disease. Data on state-level social-distancing policy come from a dataset synthesizing news articles tracking these policy measures (79⇓–81). related deaths on other types of operations. For the Sales Price you would enter 0 (zero). By week 2, growth rates between the two categories, highly divergent in week 1, were roughly equal. We controlled for the same demographic and location-based covariates as in other models. Hibbs testified that mutilation fell into three categories, one of which was animals mutilated by humans[11] (page 25). In addition, we find evidence that plant closures attenuated county-wide cases and that plants that received permission from the US Department of Agriculture to increase their production-line speeds saw more county-wide cases. Some cases of cult hysteria were traced back to fabrication by individuals unrelated to the incident. It is estimated that each 2,000 pound bull was worth US$6,000. None of the laboratories were able to report any firm conclusions on the cause of the blood or tissue damage. NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. It is possible that a certain type of work similar to livestock processing—but not livestock processing itself—is driving the spread of COVID-19. The animal's heart as well as bone and muscle samples were sent to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory for microscopic and bacteriological studies, while samples from the animal's liver were sent to two separate private laboratories. Dairy producers in New Mexico and Texas take a huge hit after Winter Storm Goliath wiped out more than 30,000 dairy cows. [11], Samples from the animal's liver were found to be completely devoid of copper and to contain 4 times the normal level of zinc, potassium and phosphorus. By weeks 3 to 4, average growth rates in shutdown counties were, in fact, lower than even counties without plants. Los Alamos detected the presence of naturally occurring Clostridium bacteria in the heart, but was unable to reach any conclusions because of the possibility that the bacteria represented postmortem contamination. Now if you are in a great confusion about the sudden deaths in your livestock, this article is the right place from where you will be getting a right idea about the whole matter. designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper. 1 does not account for county-level differences in terms of density and demographics. 20711-01041-0749-99-31-00 for horse purchases. We found the resulting 774 county subsample to be well balanced (SI Appendix, Table S14). Rep., US Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC, 2020), COVID-19 among workers in meat and poultry processing facilities—19 states, April 2020, The transformation of US livestock agriculture scale, efficiency, and risks, Power, food and agriculture: Implications for farmers, consumers and communities, Competition in the US meatpacking industry, A review of causes for and consequences of economic concentration in the U.S. meatpacking industry, European Federation of Food Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions, “Putting meat on the bones: A report on the structure and dynamics of the European meat industry” (Tech. Waivers were first issued to 20 poultry plants in 2012 as part of a pilot study to test self-monitoring of safety. The first stage in the IV analysis, presented in SI Appendix, Table S12, shows that the instrument is highly relevant with the F-statistic far above Stock and Yogo’s (63) 10% maximal bias threshold. This helps argue against purely static confounders, such as highway connectedness or fraction of the population that is Hispanic. Given that the average closing period was only 9 d, it is unclear whether the plant closures themselves reduced COVID-19 transmission rates, or whether closures resulted in plants taking more COVID-19 precautions (e.g., implementing enhanced safety protocols). Our estimates imply that excess COVID-19 infections and deaths related to livestock plants are 236,000 to 310,000 (6 to 8% of all US cases) and 4,300 to 5,200 (3 to 4% of all US deaths), respectively, with the vast majority occurring among people not working at livestock plants. This attack followed a rash of alleged mutilations in the area and across the nearby border in Nebraska. In some countries, farming accounts for twice as many deaths as all other industries. While lethal predator control does little to help the fat cats of agribusiness, it ensures that the USDA-Wildlife Services stays in business. That unborn calves have been harvested from mutilated cattle. Advertisement. A second approach used a binary measure for whether a county has one or more livestock plants and multiplied this coefficient by the county-level mean population and number of counties with livestock plants. [citation needed], Another proponent of the cult hypothesis is Montana author Roberta Donovan. Error bars reflect a 95% CI. One claimed he saw an object which “looked as if it had a little bluish-green light on each side with a glow surrounding it.” The sightings were hailed by UFO researchers as the first physical evidence of extraterrestrial life. While there is no obvious relationship with number of manufacturing establishments, the coefficient for manufacturing share of income is positive and statistically significant, implying that manufacturing may be associated with higher COVID-19 incidence. ↵∥It is possible that additional time spent working, and thus out of the house, may explain some of the additional time spent on retail activities (e.g., gas stations or workday meals). We investigate the relationship between transmission and one such activity, livestock processing. Oliphant posits the NIH, CDC, or other federally funded bodies, may be involved, and they are supported by the US military. Mean county-level COVID-19 cases per thousand (A) and deaths per thousand (B) over time based on proximity to a livestock facility. There were 16 incidents of livestock worrying by dogs recorded in Kerry last year. Similar incidents were reported in the area in 1978. Error bars represent 95% CIs. We find a strong relationship between proximity of livestock plants and the incidence of COVID-19 over time. In the second stage, we regressed COVID-19 incidence on this predicted value of livestock plants as well as the other covariates in the primary specification. We first looked at the relationship between reported cases and the type of animal slaughtered or processed. These results motivate investigation into supply chains, operating procedures, and labor relations within the meatpacking industry. National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program. The mean closure time was 9 d. Some closed for a day or two for cleaning and disinfection, while others closed for longer periods while revising their operating procedures and monitoring staff. He also stated that "I would like to see Rommel write off our confirmed cases as due to predators". How will country-based mitigation measures influence the course of the COVID-19 epidemic? Dog owner Amelia Borelli was attacked near her home at Fritham after accidentally coming between a cow and her calf, which was hidden by bushes. 4 B and D). Farm-related deaths in Australia The number of people who are unintentionally killed on Australian farms accounts for 21 per cent of worker fatalities across all Australian industries. In the experiment, the body of a recently deceased cow was left in a field and observed for 48 hours. Fig. D. Albers, Michael, The Terror, pp.13-15. The action of carrion feeding insects such as. Livestock deaths . [11], Blood samples taken at the scene were reported to be "light pink in color" and “Did not clot after several days” while the animal's hide was found to be unusually brittle for a fresh death (the animal was estimated to have been dead for 5 hours) and the flesh underneath was found to be discolored.[11]. Included in counts are both confirmed and probable deaths, as categorized by states. Most Read . The magnitude of the livestock coefficients are of a similar magnitude to those in the baseline model in Table 1. To validate and contextualize our findings, we first estimated the total excess cases and deaths related to livestock plants implied by our results. Rep., European Federation of Food Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions, Brussels, Belgium, 2011), Resilience in a concentrated and consolidated food system, Meat shortages reopen costly path to smaller U.S. plants, Estimated daily US slaughter, capacity by plant (head per day), Nine meat plants in southern Brazil face COVID-19 outbreaks, Coronavirus spread accelerates again in Germany, An Australian meatworks is at the center of a virus outbreak, U.S. could be weeks from meat shortages with shutdowns spreading, Trump orders U.S. meat-processing plants to stay open despite coronavirus fears, White House, “Executive order on delegating authority under the DPA with respect to food supply chain resources during the national emergency caused by the outbreak of COVID-19” (Executive Order, White House, Washington, DC, 28 April 2020), Global trends in infectious diseases of swine. 51 years ago . In Western countries the category encompasses primarily cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, horses, donkeys, and mules; other animals, such as buffalo, oxen, llamas, or camels, may predominate in the agriculture of other areas. Increased urbanization puts livestock farms closer than ever to high-ways and population centers, heightening the risk of accidents and resulting liabilities. In 1974, a few months after the first spate of alleged mutilations in the US, multiple farmers in Nebraska claimed to witness UFOs on the nights their cattle were harmed. The witnesses asserted that after this heated encounter, cattle mutilations in the region ceased for about five years. Globally, economic losses from diseased livestock are estimated at $4 billion, while infectious diseases are responsible for about 30 per cent of animal deaths. Cattle mutilation (also known as bovine excision and unexplained livestock death) is the killing and mutilation of cattle under unusual, usually bloodless, and anomalous circumstances. However, a number of serious injuries and deaths occur every year as a result of animal-related accidents. [12], Many cases of mutilation have been reported worldwide since the 1967 Snippy incident, chiefly in the Americas and Australia. Determining the cause of death is often difficult, but poisoning from plants is a possible cause. Related News. Whole slaughters of sheep have been made, in some places to number 100, in others less, where nothing is taken from the sheep but their tallow and some inward parts, the whole carcasses, and fleece remaining still behind. For a question of this importance, we believe there is no “harder” method available (66). In the 16,600-person county where Smith lives, at least five people have died in ag-related accidents since 2010. Data on plant closures and opening dates came from a dataset assembled from various local news reports, building on a dataset from the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting (86, 87). Beef and pork livestock plants were filtered to include plants with volume of all processed products greater than 1 million pounds per month (categories 4 and 5), which account for the vast majority of US production. Although the figure we are estimating in our study (6 to 8% of all US cases out of a national livestock workforce of 0.15%, or a multiplier of 40 to 53×) is larger, we believe that this finding is plausible, considering follow-on community spread; Kansas’ official tally, though evidently aided by some degree of contract tracing, was reportedly hampered by lags in hiring staff and legislative actions that have inhibited tracing efforts (69). The pandemic and recent immigration restrictions have exacerbated the ongoing plight of life science trainees in the United States. The eruption triggered the sudden release of about 100,000–300,000 tons (1.6 million tons, according to some sources) of carbon dioxide (CO 2). COVID-19 testing, livestock facilities, and COVID-19 incidence. More broadly, the finding that meatpacking plants may contribute to high levels of community spread underscores the potential negative public health externalities generated by the industry, which may be attributable to industrial concentration, operating practices, and labor conditions. It’s not a totally unfounded hatred; certainly wolves do prey on livestock, but the statistics have never really indicated that wolves were a significant problem for ranchers. The average number of counties in each band increases with distance. Such counties are associated with six additional cases per thousand, or a 75% increase over the baseline, as well as 0.1 additional deaths per thousand, or 50% over the baseline county death rate.† In addition, COVID-19 appears to arrive earlier in counties with livestock plants (SI Appendix, Table S2). Readers may disagree on whether our array of analyses has isolated a causal effect. We also illustrate potential contributions of plant size, industrial concentration, plant shutdowns, and policy actions to this phenomenon. Historical livestock-production data are from the 1959 USDA census of agriculture, accessed via the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (88). ↵§Among counties with poultry plants, those with and without waivers appear similar in their average characteristics, reducing waiver-selection concerns. We next investigated whether there are differential relationships with COVID-19 transmission based on the size of processing facilities. [45], Local folklore has attributed the mutilations to chupacabras or similar creatures. Control measures should be followed to reduce the chances of these diseases affecting livestock, because some of them can have a negative economic impact on the country, cause serious diseases in humans and even death … We constructed a baseline measure of average time-use change before and after March 13, 2020, the date the United States declared a national disaster in relation to COVID-19 and shortly after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Counties with plants have higher population density, a lower proportion of elderly people, higher proportions of Black and Hispanic people, and larger household sizes. Of the horse-related deaths, 46% were due to head trauma. The association is found primarily among large processing facilities and large meatpacking companies. [31] In another incident a herd of cows was reported to have been slaughtered after launching an attack that put a dog walker in hospital and killed one of his pets. Salmonella initiative program participants table, (Tech. Several cattle were found mutilated in the area the following day. The CDC includes the following among potential risk factors: long work shifts in close proximity to coworkers, difficulty in maintaining proper face covering due to physical demands, and shared transportation among workers (22). The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings, 1994, Doubleday, NYC, NY. In a second step, we used this predicted probability (i.e., the propensity score) as a control in a regression of COVID-19 incidence on livestock plants. Biochemist Colm Kelleher,[41] who has investigated several purported mutilations first-hand, argues that the mutilations are most likely a clandestine U.S. government effort to track the spread of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("mad cow disease") and related diseases, such as scrapie. Subsection 70 (2) requires the legal representative of such a deceased farmer to include the value of livestock at death in the deceased farmer's income tax return for the year of death or elect to file a separate return to include the value of all the decedent's rights or things (including livestock) and pay tax thereon for the taxation year in which the farmer died as if the farmer were another person. Complicating this matter from an economic standpoint is the supply-chain choke point created by large plants disrupted by COVID-19, causing food shortages, driving up prices, and incurring substantial upstream and downstream economic losses. Of 144 deaths obtained using the US Department of Labor (US DOL) Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), there were 22 transportation fatalities involving animals. As seen in the map in Fig. Some contexts and social behaviors are believed to lead to superspreading events that disproportionately affect local populations (6, 7). Places with more testing tend to have more confirmed COVID-19 cases than places with less testing (mechanically). There have been many recorded cases around the world, and many convictions. In one case it was concluded that claims had been falsified by a convict seeking favorable terms on his sentence in exchange for information. Image credit: Joyce Gross (University of California, Berkeley). SI Appendix, Fig. The idea is that the propensity score helps account for bias in the location of livestock plants. The bulk of mutilations are the result of predation and other natural processes, and those with anomalies that cannot be explained in this way are the work of humans who derive pleasure or sexual stimulation from mutilating animals. As policymakers and industry leaders seek to preserve vital food-supply chains while mitigating the pandemic’s spread, evidence on the potential scope of the issue is particularly valuable, as well as assessment of the relationship between temporary plant shutdowns and subsequent COVID-19 growth dynamics. In the United States, reports of COVID-19 spreading within the livestock-processing industry led to increased attention and updated safety guidance by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (22). Farm-related deaths in Australia The number of people who are unintentionally killed on Australian farms accounts for 21 per cent of worker fatalities across all Australian industries. In particular, the evidence that shutting down plants temporarily may be related to decreases in COVID-19 case growth presents a potentially powerful transmission mitigant. For both propensity-score matching and nearest-neighbor matching, we constructed comparable subsamples of our dataset with and without livestock facilities to estimate an effect of having these livestock facilities among otherwise similar counties on COVID-19 cases and deaths. Income levels, by contrast, are similar. Graphs match COVID-19 pretrends of control group (green lines) to counties with plant shutdowns (red lines) based on percent growth in cases (weekly log difference) in the 2 wk prior to shutdown. Among livestock plants in our sample, we have the dates of closures that occurred in 26 counties, or 10% of counties with plants. We also use an alternate specification with a binary measure of whether a county has one or more livestock plants. C and D are daily line charts of the mean values of each group in terms of percent case growth and change in case rate, respectively. Covariate data include county-level race, ethnicity, and age structure data from the US Census and mean county-level income data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (72, 73). One reason cited is that the animals were healthy and showed no sign of disease prior to death, and were large and strong enough not to be a likely target for a predator. However, understanding the associated tax rules and the related planning opportunities can help soften the blow. The phenomenon remained largely unknown outside cattle-raising communities until 1967, when the Pueblo Chieftain in Pueblo, Colorado, published a story about a horse named Lady near Alamosa, Colorado, that was mysteriously killed and mutilated. But within this radius, several small holes were found seemingly "punched" in the ground and two bushes were absolutely flattened. Tears in the skin created when it is stretched by postmortem bloat and/or as dehydration causes the animal's hide to shrink and split, often in linear cuts. TUESDAY, Nov. 24, 2020 -- Between March and May 2020, there was a significant increase in non-COVID-19-related deaths over previous years, according to a study published in the December issue of Public Health. At the time, it was suggested that a burst of radiation may have been used to kill the animal, blowing apart its red blood cells in the process. 51 years ago . The police witnesses claim to have encountered several men in an unmarked U.S. Army helicopter in 1976 at a small community airport in Cache County. Livestock deaths from foot-and-mouth disease rise to 2,013. In other words, for every worker infected at a livestock plant, between seven and eight local nonworkers were ultimately infected by the end of the sample period, underscoring the high potential for community spread. All stock purchases are charged to the Centre/Project funding the purchase and to the appropriate asset account. - Articles from The Weather Channel | weather.com 0752: Reptiles - This year E.g. Previous studies have explored links between the incidence of COVID-19 cases and a range of demographic and environmental factors, such as age, occupation, income, race, intergenerational mixing, temperature, and humidity (8⇓⇓⇓⇓–13). We further find the temporary closure of high-risk plants to be followed by lower rates of COVID-19 case growth. However, not all mutilated animals display these anomalies, and those that do have slightly different anomalies from one another. Bureau of Economic Analysis Interactive Data Application. [21], In most cases, mutilations were either ruled due to natural causes, or the cattle were too far decayed for any useful conclusions to be drawn. Purchased Livestock used for Draft, Breeding, or Dairy Purposes: If you account for your draft, breeding, or dairy livestock as inventory see the response above. Data on line-speed waivers came from the USDA FSIS (85). This ses-sion will look at the exposures relating to loose livestock, the own- During the 48 hours, postmortem bloating was reported to have caused incision-like tears in the cow's skin that matched the "surgical" cuts reported on mutilated cows, while the action of blowflies and maggots reportedly matched the soft tissue damage observed on mutilated cows. 1 plots average COVID-19 case and death rates over time by whether there is a large livestock facility in a given county relative to rates in counties at varying distances from a plant. Previous research has proposed occupational exposure to livestock animals as a driver of viral spread, although an experimental study did not find pigs or chickens to be susceptible to the SARS-CoV-2 virus associated with COVID-19 (38⇓⇓–41). Estimates are relative to the baseline trend across all counties. If it is shown that the mutilation phenomenon is not a law enforcement problem, to recommend that no further law enforcement investigations be funded. On April 20, 1979, C Hibbs of the New Mexico State Veterinary diagnostics Laboratory spoke before a hearing chaired by Senator Harrison Schmitt. In both cases, we see an increasing divergence in outcomes beginning in early April based on livestock-plant proximity. Although our estimate that 6 to 8% of COVID-19 cases are associated with livestock plants may appear high, it is important to recall that high levels of geographic heterogeneity in COVID-19 incidence can be explained by some combination of individual behavior, government policy, social-distancing compliance, and economic activity: The United States, for example, has 4% of the world’s population, but approximately a quarter of all cases and deaths as of July 2020. Handling livestock is a dangerous activity. Lady's head and neck had been skinned and defleshed, and the body displayed cuts that, to King, looked very precise. We used the CDC’s state-level aggregate count of livestock workers testing positive for COVID-19 as of May 31 across 26 states (64). However, all of the large companies appear to have larger coefficients than the baseline. On October 9, 1975, a motorist on U.S Highway 95 in northern Idaho, in an area of frequent cattle mutilation, reported to police that some 15 masked individuals formed a roadblock with linked arms, forcing him to turn around. Snippy was Lady's sire and belonged to Nellie's husband, Berle Lewis. RCMP advise animal producers in the area to check on their livestock regularly to ensure they are accounted for, and immediately report any suspicious livestock deaths. A faster production line can result in both workers locating in greater proximity to one another and increased difficulty in maintaining personal protective equipment and thus could contribute to conditions that increase the likelihood of viral transmission. During 2003--2007, deaths occurring in the production of crops and animals in the United States totaled 2,334; of these, 108 (5%) involved cattle as either the primary or secondary cause ( 1 ). COVID-19 transmission likely extends beyond the county containing the livestock plant. A larger space that employees must navigate in reaching their workstations may also increase the number of workplace interactions. The results are robust both nationally and when only considering variation within states after including state fixed effects. Horses can also be infected. Online ISSN 1091-6490. Bromley David G. and Anson Shupe (1981), Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare. It was then expanded in September 2018 to allow all poultry plants the opportunity to apply for these waivers. Livestock facility data were gathered from the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). A number of livestock deaths are reported each year from unknown causes. Our analysis used a county-level dataset of COVID-19 cases and deaths from the New York Times, based on reports from state and local health agencies (71). We limited the analysis to the continental United States. Competing interest statement: C.A.T., D.A., and editor Geoffrey M. Heal are affiliated with Columbia University. The indentations were in a tripod form, 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter, 28 inches (70 cm) apart, and disappeared 500 feet (150 m) from the dead cow. Are swine workers in the United States at increased risk of infection with zoonotic influenza virus? 2 years ago . In Table 1, we estimate the relationship between livestock plants and COVID-19 incidence as of July 21, 2020, using regression models that control for potential confounding variables, including county-level measures of income; population density and its square; the timing of the first case; the proportions of elderly people, uninsured people, frontline workers, and people using public transportation; racial and ethnic characteristics; average household size; local freight traffic; and populations of nursing homes and prisons. Non-COVID-19-Related Deaths Up, Too. [22] The investigation was dubbed "Operation Animal Mutilation". If livestock facilities are driving higher COVID-19 incidence, and if livestock processing is an essential industry, we would expect people in livestock-plant counties to work more compared to those in nonlivestock counties in response to COVID-related lockdowns. [37], Public interest in the cult hypothesis waned during the 1980s, but interest was maintained by proponents such as the Colorado based television evangelist Bob Larson, who campaigned to raise public awareness of perceived links between cattle mutilations and cult activity through his ministry and radio shows. Some ranchers have disputed the scientific "natural causes hypothesis" on the grounds that the mutilated animals often fall outside of the normal categories of natural deaths by predation or disease. Covid-19 and community mitigation strategies in a pandemic, Scientific and ethical basis for social-distancing interventions against COVID-19, Projecting hospital utilization during the COVID-19 outbreaks in the United States, The effect of human mobility and control measures on the COVID-19 epidemic in China, Impact of international travel and border control measures on the global spread of the novel 2019 coronavirus outbreak, Advisory memorandum on identification of essential critical infrastructure workers during COVID-19 response, (Tech. This investigation reported finding evidence that some mutilated animals had been tranquilized and treated with an anti-coagulant prior to their mutilation. This suggests that the propensity score is, indeed, balancing the multidimensional covariates. Pinterest. WhatsApp. Rommel (a former FBI bank robbery expert) was disgusted by dead necrotic cows and chose to let others do the actual investigations while he waited upwind in the car. Livestock What you need to do ... HSE aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. There are many more who suffer major injuries that require hospitalisation and significant time off work. Livestock and wild animals are important to their owners and the country. Among plants issued a waiver in 2020, the relationship is even greater in magnitude. A and B plot coefficients from a panel regression, where counties are interacted with the weekly event index in terms of percent growth in cases (A) and change in case rates per 1,000 (B). Gathered from 31 state health agencies ( 84 ) attributed the mutilations to chupacabras or similar.... With distance of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms USDA FSIS ( 85 ) 1975 due public! 1 for reference ( 85 ) might contribute to the Department of Rural and Community Development, which responsible... The robustness of multivariate regression results to various confounders—demographic, geographic, and behavioral—and sample-selection criteria the to... Bone and muscle mass during spaceflight pandemic is a big lie imposed on the American economic Survey 68. Producers in New Mexico and Texas take a huge hit after Winter Storm from... Nyos in northwestern Cameroon killed 1,746 livestock related deaths and 3,500 livestock the Freedom of information Act following day, Fig the! Explain these anomalies is Montana author Roberta Donovan occurred since 2002, when around 400 cases reported. The late 19th and early 20th centuries dead animals must be disposed of an. Safety and Inspection Service ( FSIS ) Table for the entire sample shown. Over the county itself relates the eyewitness testimony of two Cache county, Idaho, seeing! Algorithm to match two nonplant livestock related deaths to every one county with a livestock plant this avoidance and caution in! 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