Day: October 24, 2007

Lyme disease on the rise

ARATOGA SPRINGS – There have been 140 confirmed cases of tick-borne Lyme disease in Saratoga County residents this year, up from 81 confirmed cases in all of 2006, according to Saratoga County Public Health nursing. Terry Stortz, prevention team supervisor, said the increase is expected. “We’ve had mild winters,” she said. That means a higher population of ticks and a higher population of the mammals who carry the blood-sucking parasites. If someone finds a tick, Stortz said the best course of action is to remove it with a pair of tweezers. Saratoga County Public Health can send

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October 24, 2007 No Comments

Effort to rescue horses strains sanctuaries

Habitat for Horses caters to guests of varied temperament: sweet horses, mean horses, mellow horses. The Hitchcock organization that takes in — and dotes on — horses considered useless by their former owners is part of a loose network of 100 or more rescue groups across the country determined to provide a haven for every imperiled horse. Those sanctuaries face a new urgency: saving American horses from being slaughtered across the border in Mexico and Canada. For more info click here 

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October 24, 2007 No Comments

Are Microchip Tags Safe?

You may not know what RFID stands for, but you’re probably using the technology on a daily basis. RFID (that is, radio frequency identification) is in passports, in electronic toll-collection tags, in credit cards, metrocards, library books and car keys. Like conventional bar codes, RFID chips store and relay information, and allow for the identification of commercial products — and, now, of house pets and people too. Human “tagging” was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2004 to facilitate retrieval of private medical records, but the procedure has had few takers. It’s still purely voluntary

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October 24, 2007 No Comments