County fairs and livestock shows are ramping up this summer as several cattle illness threats are starting to emerge in Nebraska and other states. Livestock experts aren’t raising alarm about increased spread, but they are encouraging livestock owners to pay more attention this year to biosecurity efforts and the movement of their animals.

Two threats have emerged over the last several months: the rise in a tick-born disease called Theileria and the return of a flesh-eating parasite called the New World Screwworm.

At least 10 feedlots and three breeding herds have reported cases of imported cattle having Theileria. The disease is caused by the Asian longhorn tick, most commonly found on the East Coast. The tick itself hasn’t been found in Nebraska, but the disease can be spread further by reusing needles with an infected animal or through other blood-sucking organisms such as lice. The symptoms include anemia, jaundice, loss of appetite, exercise intolerance and weakness. In some cases, the disease can be fatal.

Cattle owners have been closely watching the spread of the New World Screwworm. It wreaked havoc on U.S. herds decades ago, but it was eradicated from the country in the 1960s. Cases started appearing in Texas in early June, and cattle owners in neighboring states have assumed that the parasite will eventually spread north. The screwworms lay eggs in the flesh of live animals, which can cause infections, disease and death if left untreated.

Nebraska Extension said early detection of the parasite is “critical for successful control efforts.” Possible early signs of New World Screwworm infections include non-healing wounds, depression or restlessness, foul-smelling lesions, presence of maggots in living tissue and animals showing pain or discomfort. They could show this behavior through shaking their heads or showing pain or irritation around wounds.

Several county fairs and shows have already started this summer. The Nebraska State Fair will kick off at the end of August in Grand Island. But several other large-scale shows, including the Burwell Rodeo that brings together animals from outside Nebraska, will culminate over the next few weeks.

Vaughn Sievers, the agriculture director for the Nebraska State Fair, said fair officials work closely with an official State Fair veterinarian to evaluate the health of animals before they are allowed onto fairgrounds.

“To date, the fair has not experienced a disease outbreak,” Sievers said. “However, we coordinate closely with our security and veterinary teams to maintain response plans and designated quarantine areas in the event one were to occur.”

Officials with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture said livestock owners should start biosecurity measures even before they set out to travel to shows. The state agency is recommending livestock owners ensure all their equipment is clean and disinfected, and they should monitor their animal’s health leading up to traveling for shows.

While livestock are at fairs, the department said exhibitors shouldn’t share tools with others, and when using a community hose, they should not allow their animals to drink directly from the hose or dip the community hose in their bucket.

After the shows or fairs are over and animals are heading back to farms, livestock owners should isolate all the show animals for at least two to three weeks, just in case illnesses develop several days after returning home. Experts recommend keeping animals away from nose-to-nose contact, if they’re able.

The Nebraska State Fair has a protocol for handling biosecurity measures and subsequent contingency plans.

Nebraska Extension has provided checklists for ag producers who are taking their animals outside state lines. Lindsay Waechter-Mead, a beef educator with Nebraska Extension, recommended certain regulations with traveling cattle that can take multiple days to complete. Even domestic pets, such as cats and dogs, also require a Certified Veterinary Inspection to cross state lines.

San Francisco voters will decide whether the city should have a public bank after city supervisors this week approved such a proposal to appear on the November ballot.

The city would be the first in the nation to have a municipal government-owned bank. Only the state of North Dakota runs a major public bank in the nation.

But the city’s proposal gives no answer as to where the estimated $325 million in start-up costs will come from as the city faces a $643 million budget deficit.

“In a moment like this, asking voters to commit San Francisco to potentially running a financial institution is asking for trust the city has not yet earned,” said Supervisor Alan Wong, one of the two votes against placing the measure on the ballot.

“Our city’s track record shows that meeting those demands is harder than it sounds, even for institutions designed with the right intentions,” he added.

Socialist Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who just returned from a months-long mental health leave, indicated that future legislation would figure out a revenue steam. Supporters of a bank wanted to get ahead of a 2028 expiration date for a state law that gives cities the power to create their own public banks.

“It feels like an incredible tool to add to the city’s tool kit,” Misha Steier, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Public Bank Coalition, told the San Francisco Chronicle. The coalition was founded by Fielder.

“This is the culmination of years and years of movement effort,” Steier said.

A city bank, supporters say, would unlock financing for thousands of housing units that lack funding to address the housing crisis. It could finance climate goals or lend to small businesses in the area.

“This ensures we have an institution run by real bankers that is accountable, nevertheless, to public priorities and public policy priorities,” Fielder said.

“We can build a public bank that prioritizes reinvesting back into what we all need to sustain our local communities,” added Supervisor Chyanne Chen, who brought forth the measure. “Let us use every tool at our disposal to keep the city affordable and to drive an economic recovery that leaves no one behind.”

The bank would be run by qualified bankers appointed by an oversight committee whose members would be selected by local officials. While it does not establish a revenue stream, the ballot measure would at least enshrine the bank’s rules, structure and mission in the city’s charter — including a provision that it would never lend to fossil fuel corporations or weapons manufacturers.

How startup costs will be funded seems to be difficult to answer. Fielder in February attempted another ballot measure that would impose a higher tax on lending companies to help fund such a bank, though that effort was paused to focus on this new ballot proposal.

Any new taxes may be difficult in the current political environment; this past June, voters in the progressive city even voted down a tax hike on highly paid CEOs.

North Dakota’s bank sees deposits mostly from the state’s collections of taxes and fees and corporate accounts. A very small portion comes from residents as “it is the Bank’s policy not to compete with the private sector for retail deposits,” it said on its website.

The bank has mostly seen success and has turned a profit for many years, which can be returned to the state government’s general fund or used for economic development initiatives. A lot of the success can be traced to the the state’s fracking boom, according to research by University of Illinois Chicago professor Robert S. Chirinko.

But unlike commercial banks, deposits into the public bank are not insured by the federal government, which means North Dakota takes on all the risk. California’s law requires federal insurance, which will give the city more regulatory hurdles as no public bank has sought that approval before.

Chirinko said any success replicating North Dakota’s model will heavily depend on funding. San Francisco’s proposed focus on investing in climate-friendly technology or housing may also not pay off immediately.

“There could be a role there for government, but you have to recognize that you’re not going to get your money back,” he said.

Such banks also can face accusations of unfair political influence. In 2016, North Dakota’s bank financed local law enforcement’s militarized response to controversial protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, sparking liberal backlash.

Already, critics in San Francisco are saying the same political favoritism could happen for how loans and other financial products would get issued.

“What do they want? An SF Public Bank staffed by cronies of absentee SF Supervisor Jackie Fielder,” claimed tech figure and Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan. “It’ll be a tremendous grift mill robbing the city blind.”

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