Page 852 of articles about news

Feeding high levels of distiller's dried grains with solubles (DDGS) is not only proving to reduce feed costs for Canadian swine producers, but is also lending to "excellent" growth performance, according to Eduardo Beltranena, research scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.

Legislators in New York introduced a new bill that would prohibit the confinement of breeding pigs, veal calves and egg-laying hens by 2015. New York State Assembly member Linda Rosenthal, D-Manhattan, introduced the bill.

The Italian Ministry of Agriculture was developing plans to assist Italy’s ailing pig breeding sector, which is being squeezed by continued high input prices and sharply reduced output prices. As a result, the Ministry has proposed significant government assistance for the pig breeders, which it calls “the pillars of Italian food industry.”

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has ordered the Bureau of Animal Industry to establish livestock disease-free zones in Mindanao to revive hopes of exporting pork to Singapore .

Scientists at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's (CFIA) National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease (NCFAD) have mapped the full genetic sequence of the virus found in swine from Alberta-a development that will help scientists around the world better understand the virus and its affects on animals.

The latest figures from the Ministry of Agriculture show an increase of 26% in meat consumption in the last 10 years, reaching 81.3 kg/person per year. The report indicates that every year the Chileans consume an average of 33.3 kilos of poultry, 25 kilos of pig meat, 22.1 kilos of beef and 900 grams of ovine, equine and caprine meat, which adds up to a total of 81.3 kilos. (Original in Spanish. Read Google translation here).

Ukraine has banned hog and pork product imports from regions of Southern Federal District of Russia. Pursuant to the Head of State Committee on Veterinary Medicine of Ukraine, Pyotr Verbitsky, the ban is linked with the registered case of African swine fever in Rostov region, which is almost 200 kilometers away from the border with the republic.

The national consortium for agriculture, alimentation, animal welfare and environment will be made up of two research organizations, CIRAD y INRA, and four schools of higher education, Montpellier SupAgro, the National Veterinary School of Toulouse, AgroCampus Ouest and AgroParisTech. (Original in French. Read Google translation here).

Russia has reported an outbreak of African swine fever at a private farm in the Stavropol region. A total of 79 out of 168 pigs have been found dead.

The Statistics Office of the European Union (Eurostat) has just published figures referring to the slaughter of animals during 2008.

As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), compared with the first quarter of 2008, pork production was up 4.7%. The increase was in particular based on a climbing number of slaughtered pigs of foreign origin.

Russian Agriculture Ministry’ press-service reports that as of April 1, 2009, pork production output in farms of all grades grew by 8.2% to 606 thousand tons, if compared with the same period last year. Poultry production was up 12.4% to 776 thousand tons.

EFSA’s BIOHAZ Panel (Biological Hazards) concluded that some bacteriophages, under specific conditions, have been demonstrated to be very effective in the targeted elimination of specific pathogens from meat, milk and products thereof. The Panel, however, could not conclude whether bacteriophages can protect against bacteria in case the food becomes re-contaminated.

The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has evaluated whether methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in livestock may constitute a health risk for humans. "It is unlikely, based on the knowledge currently available, that MRSA can be transmitted to humans from livestock via food like raw meat or raw milk", said Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel, "as we estimate that the amount of germs in and on food is low".