New and Emerging Research in Agricultural, Forestry, and Fishing Safety and Health - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 175

Specialty Agriculture
Production agriculture has rapidly shifted to accommodate the demands fos-
tered by the globalization of the nation's food economy. Demand has increased for
organic products (USDA, 2007) and for exotic plants and animals (Blisard et al.,
2002). Vast stretches of cereal grain and row-crop production are now interspersed
by acreage devoted to raising ornamentals, shrubs, and other nursery products;
vegetables (including indoor hydroponic vegetables) and fruits; and specialty live-
stock (such as free range hens, milking goats, and North American bison). Those
enterprises may entail activities and management practices noticeably different
from the more conventional forms of American agriculture and may organize and
pursue work tasks differently from other sectors and lead to different exposures of
workers (David Runsten, Community Alliance with Family Farms, presentation to
committee, March 28, 2007). NIOSH is encouraged to monitor, through USDA's
National Agricultural Statistics Service surveillance, the emergence and develop-
ment of those forms of production agriculture.
Integration of Human and Animal Health
Emerging and re-emerging pathogens include parasites and zoonotic agents
that in recent decades have been associated with changes in the demographics of the
workforce, in herd health practices, and in the practice of medicine and veterinary
medicine in connection with the use of the same antimicrobial agents in humans
and animals or the use in animals of antimicrobial agents that could be harmful
to humans. For example, the accidental injection of Micotil (tilmicosin), a bovine
antibiotic approved for use to prevent shipping fever in cattle), can cause death
in humans when injected into the bloodstream. That is one example of human
error causing an unforeseeable consequence to health. There needs to be a forum
in which animal scientists, veterinarians, food safety experts, and social scientists
come together to examine the complexity and hazard of animal handling and
herd health issues in humans. The panel's expertise needs to include bioethics so
that the humane treatment of animals and concurrent protection of human life
are addressed. Another example of the need for an integrative approach to animal
husbandry, production, and human health is the rising prevalence of neurocysti-
cercosis, which was originally eradicated in the United States in the early 1900s.
Neurocysticercosis is a parasitic infection that affects humans and pigs and was
endemic only in Latin America, Asia, and Africa until the 1980s. The current in-
crease in its incidence is related to the recent migration of hired labor from Latin
American countries (Wallin and Kurtzke, 2004; DeGiorgio et al., 2005). Many
neurocysticercosis patients may harbor the adult tapeworm Taenia solium in the
intestines and could infect other humans and pigs. The complexity of the disease