Dave Boxler, Nebraska Extension Educator Horses are very susceptible to blister beetle poisoning. Photo credit Troy Walz. Blister beetles, from the family Meloidae, are sometimes referred to as oil beetles and found in all parts of the Unites States and Canada. Adult blister beetles vary in size and color but are recognized by the elongated, narrow, cylindrical, and soft bodies. In Nebraska, the three-striped, grey, and black blister beetles (Fig. 1) are the…
Temple Grandin, the world-renowned professor in Colorado State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences and autism advocate, didn’t have an easy road in life. Far from it. “High school was a disaster for me,” she said. “I was always getting picked on.” She recalled the day she reached her breaking point when a student called her a derogatory term. “I chucked a book at her,” Grandin said. ‘Horses saved my life’ That incident got…
The Kansas Department of Agriculture has announced that vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) was confirmed in horses in Sherman County on October 23, 2019. Kansas becomes the eighth state in the U.S. to have confirmed cases of VSV this year. The infected horses all reside on the same premises, which is a private residence, and no animal movement has occurred on or off that premises for more than three weeks. KDA has quarantined the…