Think twice before stuffing that suitcase with prosciutto (Southeast Missourian) On a typical day last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized nearly 4,300 prohibited plant or animal items [News Source]

Beef recall spotlights real cost of cheap school lunches (USA Today) When was the last time you spent 50 cents and got lunch? For millions of children who eat public school fare these days, it's just about every day. [News Source]

When food meets border customs (Berkshire Eagle) Jamie Mitchell offered to eat the illicit ham on the spot, but the border official was having none of it. [News Source]

New insights into cause of diabetes emerge from U-M research (PhysOrg) University of Michigan researchers have new clues to what goes awry at the cellular level in type 2 diabetes. [News Source]

Bovine Intervention (Baseline) The nationwide rollout of the USDA’s animal identification system is slow to gain acceptance, even though the RFID technology it is based on is being used to track millions of manufacturing parts and billions of dollars in retail inventory. [News Source]

Step forward in predicting disease hotspots. Many of the most deadly infectious diseases affecting humans are caused by disease agents that originate among wild animals and then cross species. [News Source]

USDA isn’t on board with beef industry’s downer cow ban. A week after the meat industry called for a ban on downer cows in the nation's food supply, the USDA has not agreed to change a policy that allows some sick or injured cows to end up on dinner tables. [News Source]

Defining Dementia (Westerly Sun) Karen Hawthorn of Westerly Adult Day Services reviews this group of brain disorders affecting so many over age 65. [News Source]

Award honors his global vet service (Philly.com) Back in the mid-1970s, when a young French veterinarian named Bernard Vallat used modern medicine to cure livestock in Chad and other rural areas of Africa, the villagers he lived among thought he had supernatural powers. [News Source]

Award honors his global vet service (The Philadelphia Inquirer) Back in the mid-1970s, when a young French veterinarian named Bernard Vallat used modern medicine to cure livestock in Chad and other rural areas of Africa, the villagers he lived among thought he had supernatural powers. [News Source]