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From New Zealand to India and North America, wet weather has brought misery to tens of thousands of people

After wet winter weather across New Zealand, the South Island has suffered from a deluge of flooding in the past week. Severe storms caused widespread flash flooding and landslides, which led to a state of emergency being declared across the affected areas; including Canterbury and the island’s largest city, Christchurch.

In the worst affected locations, about 200mm of rain fell in only 24 hours, inundating multiple roads and buildings, with members of the armed forces being rallied to help rescue people trapped in their homes.

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Feral pigs are found in every state and territory in Australia. Shutterstock

A disease called swine brucellosis is emerging in New South Wales, carried by feral pigs. Endemic to feral pigs in Queensland, and sometimes infecting the dogs used to hunt them, it can be transmitted to humans through blood contact with infected pigs. A number of people have already been infected in NSW.

Recreational pig hunting in rural Australia is a widespread control method for the roughly 24 million feral pigs who call Australia home.

The ethics of this undertaking is open to debate – many authorities consider poisoning more efficient and more ethical than hunting. But regardless of this controversy, the emergence of swine brucellosis illustrates the risk that comes with hunting.

Read more: How dog saliva spreads potentially deadly bacteria to people

How swine brucellosis spreads

Hunting and killing feral pigs is risky to all participants. Adult pigs are large, powerful animals, and their tusks can inflict serious injuries to both human and canine combatants. Despite the leather armour given to pig-hunting dogs, they commonly receive penetrating injuries. These can cause substantial wounds, peritonitis (inflammation of the lining of the abdominal cavity) and even death.

Despite the armour worn by pig-hunting dogs, they are at risk of cuts and infection from pigs. Babes & Boars/Facebook

These risks are of course well understood by the people that hunt pigs. But regrettably, many tend to their dogs’ injuries without veterinary assistance. Most feral pigs show little outward signs of the disease, so the danger to man and dog can be hidden even to an experienced “pigger”.

People and dogs can be infected if they have a break in their skin (such as a minor wound or abrasion) that becomes contaminated with the blood or tissue of a pig or dog carrying the pathogen. This can occur during capture, or when the pig carcass is “dressed” in the field. Veterinarians in Australia have also been infected with Brucella suis following surgery on infected dogs.

In people, brucellosis is a systemic disease which can result in undulant fever, lassitude, sore joints and back pain. More serious cases involve orchitis and epididymitis (swollen testicles), miscarriage as well as kidney, liver or cardiovascular disease. As TIME magazine famously reported in 1943, “the disease rarely kills anybody but it often makes a patient wish he were dead.”

Feral pigs are found in every state and territory in Australia, but their highest concentration is in Queensland. National Land and Water Resources Audit

Brucellosis (caused by bacterium Brucella suis) can usually be rapidly diagnosed through blood tests and other clinical investigations, as long as the history of pig hunting is disclosed to the medical team. Although there is usually a connection to pig hunting, humans can also be infected by accidental contact with the organism in diagnostic laboratories.

Swine brucellosis is seen only in feral pigs in Australia, and there is currently no risk to humans from pigs kept in modern intensive piggeries. The disease is considered endemic in Queensland, but it appears to be emerging in NSW. We see it more and more commonly in canine patients in the northern parts of the state, as the disease extends its biological range.

There’s been a dramatic increase in swine brucellosis cases in NSW. Data from the Department of Primary Industries

This might be a natural process, although some people suspect the deliberate (and illegal) capture and relocation of young feral pigs from Queensland to NSW plays a key role in the spread of infection.

Location of swine brucellosis cases in dogs. Data from the Department of Primary Industries How to protect yourself and your animals

There are some simple recommendations which will reduce the risk of infections in people who hunt pigs, and their families:

• when handling pig carcasses, always cover any skin cuts with waterproof dressings, and if possible, use disposable gloves

• minimise exposure to blood, fluids and organs and always wash hands and arms with soap and water afterwards

• mesh protective gloves should be worn when dressing pigs in the field

Our focus has been the disease that occurs in “pig dogs”, who are at risk of infection from hunting injuries and the practice of feeding raw feral pig meat or offal to dogs after they are dressed in the field. Non-hunting “house dogs” of pig hunters can also be infected if they are fed feral pig flesh.

Pig dogs often live alongside ‘house dogs’, who can also be at risk of infection. Facebook

This can make the diagnosis harder, as the relationship with pig hunting is not apparent. To make matters even more complex the disease can have a long incubation period, so dogs from the country can be infected while young, make their way into pounds and be rescued by people from urban areas where pig hunting is alien, and not often considered by city veterinarians. In one case, a female dog in Sydney had two years of extensive investigation into her lameness and back pain before diagnosis.

Dogs with swine brucellosis can develop various signs including swollen testicles, back pain, joint involvement, abortion as well as the less specific signs of fever and lassitude. The NSW Department of Primary Industries currently provides free testing through the Elizabeth Macarthur Agriculture Institute in New South Wales.

It’s not all bad news. While euthanasia may be recommended to protect public health, preliminary evidence suggests the disease can be treated in dogs using combination therapy with two antibiotics (rifampicin and doxycycline) which are relatively inexpensive. Ideally, this is combined with castration or removal of the ovaries and uterus, to remove any residual infected gonadal tissue. It’s too early to tell whether dogs are cured for good but the results are looking promising.

Read more: Protect your puppies: vaccinate them against a new strain of parvo

Prevention is always better than cure, so one obvious solution would be to use poisoning of feral pigs as a method of population control rather than hunting. If hunting cannot be prevented, it is strongly recommended that feral pig meat is thoroughly cooked before feeding it to dogs or people – this also kills the parasite that cause sparganosis and the bacteria which cause Q fever. Do not let pig-hunting dogs lick humans, and always wash your hands after contact with feral pigs or dogs.

More information about brucellosis and feral pig hunting and brucellosis in dogs can be found on government websites.

Siobhan Mor has received funding from the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Hunter New England Population Health in support of her research on canine brucellosis.

Richard Malik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

Household vehicle charging will be the equivalent of running an electric shower for hours on end, argues Colin Read

There seems to be little understanding of the simple fact that electric vehicles (EV) are, in the main, pollution shifters – from tailpipe to power generation facility (Ban from 2040 on diesel and petrol car sales, 26 July). The electricity generation and transmission system is already tested to its limits during a harsh winter. Only if objections disappeared to the mass building of thousands of the largest wind turbines, plus similar numbers of hectares of photovoltaic solar generation, could the pollution shifters’ argument be refuted. Even then, there would still be need for conventional or nuclear generation for when the sun doesn’t shine and wind doesn’t blow – doubling the capital requirement.

Then there is the transmission system. Its capacity is based on “averaging”. It assumes that not everyone will be using the full load available to their house at the same time. Each EV charging station takes minimum 3.3kW for around 12 hours – or 7.2kW for fast charging. It would be the equivalent of every house having an electric shower in service for many hours, all at the same time. The distribution system is simply not designed to cope with these simultaneous loads. If the government is serious about no new hydrocarbon-fuelled cars after 2040, we would need to start a programme of upgrades or replacement to the entire electricity distribution system.

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As the capital’s annual cycling marathon enters its fifth year, it is smaller and safer but still predominantly male

This year’s RideLondon was the fifth time the event that now bills itself as the world’s biggest weekend of cycling has taken place.

And as has become a tradition, here are my first thoughts – typed in the press centre, still in my bike gear – about the 100-mile event. As ever, feel free to disagree/add your own observations below.

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All the key dates and contact info for the Observer Ethical Awards 2017
• Read more about this year’s categories

Launch
30 July 2017

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Britain has joined France and India in trying to ban the sale of diesel and petrol cars, but some say Australia’s size makes the transition too difficult

It is only a matter of time until every Australian car is all-electric. But while other countries are speeding up the transition, with plans to ban petrol cars within a couple of decades, Australia is stuck debating even modest cuts to vehicle emissions, let alone policies to encourage zero-emissions cars.

But as the UK, France, India and other countries move quickly towards getting all petrol cars off the roads, could Australia’s fleet be caught up in the winds of change?

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The cruise line industry is booming. The bigger the boats, the larger the profits. But what, if any, are the engineering and environmental limits?

The ethical experts judging your nominations
• Read about this year’s categories

Lucy founded the Observer Ethical Awards in 2005. She writes the Observer Magazine’s Ethical Living column specialising in ethical fashion. She is author of To Die For (Harper Collins, 2011) and executive producer of the Netflix documentary The True Cost (available on Netflix).

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Details of this year’s Observer Ethical Awards categories
• The ethical experts judging your nominations

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Ethical living columnist and awards founder Lucy Siegle on the 11th Observer Ethical Awards

In the 10 years since An Inconvenient Truth, the Observer Ethical Awards have highlighted that change is not only desirable but possible too. Now in our 11th year, we want you to help unearth the new crop of talent working to make a better world.

Activists like to say that the real job is to prepare the world for huge change, but we’re celebrating some of the positive shifts: away from a fossil fuel economy to one powered by renewables; away from irresponsible design, like single-use plastics, to products that stand the test of time.

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The uptake of renewables and gas is slowly reducing electricity CO2 emissions — but transport emissions are on the rise, and negating some of those improvements.

Faith in the plan eroded by this week's Four Corners investigation

With mining of cobalt and other elements politically and ethically charged, the hunt for alternatives is on

Britain last week joined France in pledging to ban sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2040 in an attempt to cut toxic vehicle emissions. The move to battery-powered vehicles has been a long time coming. Environmental campaigners claim that charging cars and vans from the grid, like a laptop, is sure to be cleaner than petrol or diesel power. The government agrees and says it will invest more than £800m in driverless and clean technology, and a further £246m in battery technology research.

BMW plans to build a fully electric version of the Mini at Cowley in Oxford from 2019. Volvo announced earlier this month that from the same year, all its new models will have an electric motor.

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Oxford economist Dieter Helm said that the agriculture industry enjoys benefits ‘nobody else in the economy gets’

Tax breaks for farmers have caused a “subsidy addiction” and are used to avoid inheritance tax, a government adviser has claimed.

Economist Dieter Helm, chair of the Natural Capital Committee, which advises the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), called for a review of the current taxation rules for farmers and said the agricultural sector received a disproportionate level of government support.

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Tesla delivers first of its mass-market electric vehicles, the Model 3. The top range car will have a range of 500kms, while the standard version will have a range of 350kms. Australia will have to wait until 2019.

Windermere, Lake District There’s a bullfinch aboard the steamer, and intriguing creatures in the water

The moment my hands catch the bird so I can free it from the ship’s capacious saloon, I become dizzy. As the Windermere steamer Swan reverses out from the pier at Bowness and manoeuvres around it feels to me as though it’s the lake dotted with sailing craft and leafy islands that is pirouetting, not the boat itself.

The moment passes. My diminutive charge’s heart pumps in sync with the beat of the engines reverberating below decks. The steamer heads down England’s longest lake towards Lakeside near its southern end.

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VINYL LIFE?: A compound that may form cell wall-like structures has been detected in the dense atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan.

Murray Littlejohn first recorded the Moaning Frogs of WA on a device made from a gramophone mechanism in the early 1950s.

How field crickets are being brought back from the brink of extinction by a unique conservation project.

Why is London is trying to become an urban forest? And scandi cool breathes new life into fine wool.