Researchers for the Bovine (Cow) Genome Sequencing Project, including a team of veterinary and animal scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, announced that the first full genome of a female Hereford cow named L1 Dominette has been sequenced. Dominette's genome is the first ever livestock animal to be sequenced. Other mammal genomes mapped to date belong to humans or laboratory animals.

The University of California, Davis, has launched a new "One Health" program to conserve the world's remaining 740 mountain gorillas by caring for not only the gorillas but also the people and the other animals that share their home in the forests of central Africa. With $750,000 in funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, UC Davis will establish the Mountain Gorilla One Health Program in the School of Veterinary Medicine's Wildlife Health Center.

World Veterinary Day (WVD) takes place annually on the last Saturday of April and this year veterinary professionals from around the world join together on April 25 to celebrate their diverse and occasionally overlooked roles in the communities in which they serve. The theme of this year's celebration is 'veterinarians and livestock farmers: a winning partnership' and sets to highlight the pivotal role veterinarians play between livestock and society in general.

The total number of confirmed cases in recent months of swine flu in the US now comes to 7, with the addition earlier this month of two infected children living in adjacent counties in southern California. None of the infected people had been in contact with pigs, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Eklin Medical Systems, a leading supplier of digital radiography (DR), ultrasound, PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications Systems) and practice management software (VIA(R)), will showcase its new line up of ultrasound systems, VIA and RapidStudy(TM) DR imaging solutions at the annual Central Veterinary Conference East being held in Baltimore April 25-27, 2009. This includes the CCD-based, RapidStudy CDx Express, Elite and Enterprise product line.

World Veterinary Day (WVD) takes place annually on the last Saturday of April and this year veterinary professionals from around the world join together on April 25 to celebrate their diverse and occasionally overlooked roles in the communities in which they serve. The theme of this year's celebration is 'veterinarians and livestock farmers: a winning partnership' and sets to highlight the pivotal role veterinarians play between livestock and society in general.