The hazards associated with breeding livestock were well documented in some of the earliest annals of literature. With the exception of horses, bulls have probably caused more livestock- related deaths and injuries to human beings throughout recorded history than any other domesticated animal. A review of the literature might suggest that attacks by bulls were more of a problem in the past than today. However, a bull-related injury surveillance project conducted by the authors documented that bulls continue to contribute to an unacceptable number of serious injuries and deaths. In 2006, following an increase in the number of bull-attack cases identified during ongoing surveillance of agricultural work-related injuries, a search of agricultural injury data was initiated to gain a better perspective of the bull-incidence problem. Approximately 3 years of data, gathered from daily reviews of online sources plus a review of more than 12,000 prior injury reports, were combined, coded, and summarized. A total of 287 cases primarily from the United States were documented and analyzed. Where reported, contributing factors were identified, including age of victim, type of bull, type and condition of handling facility, experience of handler, and time of year. Analysis of the literature and data indicates that (1) the risk of injury associated with hours of exposure to bulls is higher than that of working around cows; (2) the risk of a bull-related fatality, based upon the hours of exposure, appears to be higher than other known hazards, such as tractor operation; (3) victims generally appeared to have had considerable experience with handling bulls; (4) bulls raised from calves on-site appeared more aggressive; and (5) most of the incidents involved the victim being inside the bull holding area. Recommendations are presented for reducing the potential of bull attacks on humans.

Entrapment in flowable agricultural material continues to be a relevant problem facing both farmers and employees of commercial grain storage and handling operations. While considerable work has been done previously on the causes of entrapment in grain and possible preventative measures, there is little research on the efficacy of current first response or extrication techniques. With the recent introduction of new grain rescue equipment and training programs, it was determined that the need exists to document and summarize prior grain rescue strategies with a view to develop evidence-based recommendations that would enhance the efficacy of the techniques used and reduce the risks to both victims and first responders. Utilizing the Purdue University Agricultural Entrapment Database, all data were queried for information related to extrication of victims from grain entrapments documented over the period 1964-2006. Also analyzed were data from other sources, including public records related to entrapments and information from onsite investigations. Significant findings of this study include the following: (1) between 1964 and 2006, the number of entrapments averaged 16 per year, with the frequency increasing over the last decade; (2) of all cases documented, about 45% resulted in fatality; (3) no less than 44% of entrapments occurred in shelled corn; (4) fatality was the result in 82% of cases where victims were submerged beneath the grain surface, while fatality occurred in 10% of cases where victims were only partially engulfed; (5) the majority of rescues were reported to have been conducted by untrained personnel who were at the scene at the time of entrapment; and (6) in those cases where the rescue strategies were known, 56% involved cutting or punching holes in the side walls of the storage structure, 19% involved utilizing onsite fabricated grain retaining walls to extricate partially entrapped victims, and the use of grain vacuum machines as a rescue strategy was on the increase. Among the recommendations growing out of the study are these: (1) conduct further tests on the efficacy of grain rescue strategies, including the use of recently introduced grain rescue tubes and grain vacuum machines; (2) incorporate the findings into future first responder training programs; and (3) enhance the first response skills of personnel working at grain storage facilities, both on-farm and at commercial operations.

Farmers and their families are at high risk for work-related stressors and incidents that may result in physically disabling conditions. Coping with the acute and chronic results of disability has been documented to contribute to mental and behavioral health issues. Improvements in the ability to cope with the impact of stressors and adjustment to living with a severe disability can enhance quality of life and well-being and decrease long-term emotional complications. Due to the unique characteristics of many rural or agricultural communities (including isolation, low population density, and lack of transportation services), residents with disabilities are at significant risk for mental/behavioral health issues complicated by the lack of mental/behavioral health services and resources. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) AgrAbility Program was authorized by Congress as part of the 1990 Farm Bill to assist farmers, ranchers, their workers, and families who are impacted by disability. Initially AgrAbility services targeted physical disabilities; but as the need has become more apparent, efforts are being made to expand mental/behavioral health-related services, including referrals to appropriate sources of treatment. A survey was conducted in 2009 by the National AgrAbility Project (NAP) to identify the types of mental/behavioral health services and resources that the 21 USDA-funded State and Regional AgrAbility Projects (SRAPs) provide for their clients. Resources were also identified from three other experts in the rural mental/behavioral health field who are associated with the AgrAbility Program. The purpose of this article is to report a summary of those services and resources that are currently available through the AgrAbility network. Recommendations for the NAP concerning mental/behavioral health initiatives and implementation strategies for the SRAPs are also presented.

Since 1978 Purdue University has maintained a national database of agriculture-related engulfment cases that have occurred in loose agricultural material in both commercial and on-farm facilities. The database presently contains 502 documented cases of fatal and non-fatal engulfments from the U.S. and Canada. A review of the more recent on-farm fatal and non-fatal engulfment cases, those occurring in 1980 through 2001, was conducted in order to characterize engulfments and identify contributing factors that would be relevant to future intervention strategy development including the implementation of design standards for on-farm structures. From 1980 through 2001, 197 cases were identified that occurred in on-farm grain bins, 156 of which were fatal and 41 were non-fatal. A rate of approximately seven fatal and two non-fatal cases per year were identified from 1980 through 2001. The magnitude of the engulfment problem is continuing, based on six and seven fatal cases reported in the years 2000 and 2001, respectively. Sixteen percent of fatal and six percent of non-fatal victims were children and adolescents under the age of 16. Fifty percent of the survivors were 60 years of age or older. Engulfments were generally reported more often in the top corn-producing states and involved corn in 76% of the fatal cases when product was known. Seventy-seven percent of the fatal victims were unloading the bin at the time of engulfment in cases where activity at the time of engulfment was known. Forty-one percent of the fatality cases involved corn that was out-of-condition where the condition of the grain was known. In survival cases where information about the presence of co-workers at the time of engulfment was known, it was found that a co-worker was present at the time of engulfment in 86% of the cases. In four cases, a survivor was rescued from a bin after being completely engulfed in grain. In all four cases, a co-worker was present at the time of engulfment and out-of-condition grain was involved. Findings are being used to design new injury prevention strategies, including educational materials and recommendations for engineering controls that focus on primary causative factors.

A review of literature was conducted on farm and ranch population estimates, the prevalence of disability in that group, and the effect of disease and injury on that disability rate. Methods used by various entities (primarily governmental) to estimate the population and disability prevalence among farmers, ranchers, family members, and other agricultural workers are summarized. A systematic methodology was developed to combine results from the most recent surveys and censuses and was used to make best estimates of the agricultural population impacted by disability. The findings show that estimates of the disability population in the farm, ranch, and agricultural labor sector, ranges from 1.04 million to 2.23 million individuals depending upon which surveys and censuses are used. Primary reasons identified for the inability to provide a more precise population size include lack of consistent survey methodologies and definitions. A strong argument can be made for additional efforts to determine a more accurate value for the number of individuals in the farm and ranch population who would benefit from disability services, as well as a more accurate estimate of the total population directly involved in agricultural production. Without such data, calculation of more reliable exposure levels to injury and disability is not possible.

Agricultural driveline-related incidents have been identified as an important cause of farm-related injury resulting in death and permanently disabling conditions to children and adolescents. A database of driveline-related injuries, including both PTO drivelines and secondary shafts and drivelines on agricultural equipment, developed at Purdue University was mined to identify all cases involving children and adolescents under age 18 who had been involved in a driveline-related incident from 1970 through 2004. Although these incidents did not account for a high percentage of all childhood farm-related injuries, this age group was found to make up nearly one in four documented agricultural driveline incidents. Of the 685 cases in the database with known ages, 151 were identified as youth under age 18. Findings indicated that these incidents often resulted in catastrophic injuries including amputation, spinal cord injuries, and compound bone fractures. Over the period studied, the trend in documented cases is declining, with recent years reporting below the yearly average and 2004 reporting no fatalities. Youth, primarily males, age 13 had the highest frequency of incidents, and over 50% of all cases occurred to youth ages 12 to 17. Fall was identified as the season with the most reported incidents. Amputations were documented in nearly 50% of all cases, and augers, elevators, and conveyors were the machines most frequently identified as being involved in the incident. Recommendations and strategies that specifically target the childhood injury problem related to agricultural drivelines are provided.

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