Farm & Ranch

AgriLife Today goes daily with news from Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Research

Published

9 years ago

October 6, 2015

NTFR

By: Kathleen Phillips

Contact: Kathleen Phillips, 979-845-2872, [email protected]

COLLEGE STATION — AgriLife Today, the news outlet for Texas A&M AgriLife, has become a daily distribution to better serve the public with news about the state agencies it covers.

The news organization previously distributed information about the AgriLife entities throughout Texas each weekday. Because of AgriLife’s far-reaching involvement in all 254 Texas counties, information is generated at a level that necessitates daily coverage, according to Kathleen Phillips, AgriLife Today news manager, College Station.

“With news specialists located in Amarillo, San Angelo, San Antonio, Weslaco, Overton and College Station, we stay on top of events and information for Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service,” she said. “Our goal is to keep the public informed about the scientific facts and educational information available from these agencies.”

News has been provided by these agencies for decades as a public service and was originally targeted for newspapers, radio and television. While general and specialty media still are the primary targets for news generated by AgriLife Today, the service has been recognized as an independent, unbiased news provider by individuals as well as major search engines, Phillips said.

“Our news content and distribution has doubled over the years from about 500 stories a year to almost 1,000,” she said. “We also provide news via social outlets such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. This, in turn, has gained recognition for the news team’s ability to cover events and issues on a daily basis, so we determined that weekend news also is important to provide.”

AgriLife Today started providing news via the Web in August 1993 and has produced almost 11,800 news articles on the site since then, many of which now are shared to the AgriLife Today Facebook site. The news team began offering news videos in 2001 and opened an AgriLife Today YouTube channel in 2010, which now has more than 500 videos currently available. Additionally, more than 5,100 high resolution stock photographs by the news team are accessible on the AgriLife Today Flickr page.

Media outlets and individuals are allowed to subscribe at http://today.agrilife.org/ to receive email updates or follow any of these sites free of charge for a steady flow of all the news reported from around the state, Phillips said. Media outlets are allowed to use the news stories, videos and photos free of charge — in full or in part as background for developing local stories.

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Find more stories, photos, videos and audio at http://today.agrilife.org

Farm & Ranch

Hazards of Backyard Poultry

Published

5 days ago

April 21, 2024

NTFR

By Barry Whitworth, DVM

Having backyard poultry is a popular agriculture enterprise. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 0.8 percent of all households in the United States have chickens. People keep chickens for a variety of reasons with table eggs being one of the more common reasons.

Unfortunately, some of these poultry producers are not aware of the hazards that come with keeping poultry because many times they carry pathogens but appear healthy.
Chickens are carriers of several zoonotic diseases. These are diseases that can be passed from animals to humans. According to a recent survey in Pennsylvania, a majority of backyard poultry producers were aware of the dangers of avian influenza. However, this study also revealed that far fewer producers were aware of the risk of possible exposure to Salmonella and Campylobacter.

The lack of knowledge about the hazards of raising poultry likely contributes to the continued issues of Salmonella outbreaks associated with backyard poultry. In 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,072 illnesses of Salmonella linked to backyard poultry, and 272 of those patients required hospitalization. Oklahoma reported 43 individuals with the disease.

To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.