Over the past decade, out-of-state drug companies shipped 20.8 million prescription painkillers to two pharmacies four blocks apart in a Southern West Virginia town with 2,900 people, according to a congressional committee investigating the opioid crisis. [node:read-more:link]

A new Trans-Pacific Partnership deal would put U.S. wheat farmers at a $200 million disadvantage each year, according to the U.S. Wheat Associates and National Association of Wheat Growers, in a joint statement.Japan imports an average of 3.1 million metric tons of U.S. wheat every year, according to U.S. Wheat and the National Association of Wheat Growers. That was about 49 percent of Japan’s food wheat imports in 2016, according to the USDA. [node:read-more:link]

This study uses FoodAPS data to investigate whether patronizing farmers markets, roadside stands, and other direct-to-consumer (DTC) outlets increases a household’s spending for fruits and vegetables, including purchases at both DTC and nondirect food retailers. Among 4,826 FoodAPS households that reported their food acquisitions over a 1-week period, 231 bought food from a farmers market or other DTC outlet. Fruits and vegetables were the most frequently purchased type of food at such places. Among the 231 households that bought food at a DTC outlet, 170 bought fruits and vegetables. [node:read-more:link]

Sixty percent of macaques that ate venison infected with the prion that causes chronic wasting disease developed CWD, prompting a warning from the Canadian government last year that eating meat from infected deer, elk or other cervids could cause the disease in people. The macaques consumed the human equivalent of one 7-ounce steak each month for three years, and Mark Zabel, associate director of Colorado State University's Prion Research Center, said that neither freezing nor cooking destroys the prion. [node:read-more:link]

When veterinarians diagnosed MRSA infection in hospitalized Thoroughbred racehorses at two veterinary hospitals in Japan not long ago, they wondered about the source of the infection. Such cases are tough to manage and lead to lost training days, all while posing a risk to human health.These finding show that no MRSA colonization exists within the healthy racehorses at JRA, but a high rate of colonization exists in the JRA veterinary community, said Kuroda. Therefore, MRSA is likely being transferred between the JRA veterinarians and horses. [node:read-more:link]

Nationwide, premiums for average-priced policies — according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis — offered on and off the health insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act rose by more than a third compared with 2017. The biggest statewide hikes were in Iowa (88 percent), Utah (78 percent), New Hampshire (78 percent), Wyoming (72 percent), and Virginia (66 percent). [node:read-more:link]

Tax proceeds from Nevada’s marijuana sales exceeded expectations in November, adding to already better-than-average figures from the four previous months of legal recreational pot sales, according to information released. The industry brought in more than $5.5 million in November, which includes a 15 percent wholesale tax for both medical and recreational pot, and a 10 percent excise tax on recreational weed sales, the Nevada Department of Taxation said. [node:read-more:link]

Oregon State University (OSU) has received what it calls a “transformative” donation that will change its college of veterinary medicine’s ability to provide life-saving care, education for future veterinarians, and critical animal and human health research. The record $50 million gift is a record-breaker for OSU, and the university will name its college of veterinary medicine in recognition of the donor: Gary Carlson, MD, a 1974 alumnus who is a partner at Dermatology Associates of Westlake Village, Calif. [node:read-more:link]

More types of health-care providers—not just doctors—will now be able to apply to prescribe an effective but potentially addictive medicine for treating opioid addiction, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced Tuesday. The rule change was intended to help more Americans, particularly those living in rural areas that lack doctors, get treated for opioid use disorders. "This action provides more treatment options for addicts in rural parts of the country," the DEA said in a press release. [node:read-more:link]