Page 890 of articles about news

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is set to widen its monitoring and surveillance of hog farms in Bulacan and Pangasinan after a joint investigation team confirmed ongoing transmission of the Ebola Reston Virus (ERV) among 6,000 hogs in a farm in Pandi, Bulacan.

The Russian authorities have reopened their market for imports from four Danish slaughterhouses from the turn of the year. They are the Danish Crown factories at Ringsted, Herning and Skærbæk, and Tican at Thisted.

The purpose of these reviews is to determine whether a State has developed and is maintaining a meat or poultry inspection program that imposes requirements “at least equal to” those imposed by FSIS under specified provisions of the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA) or the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA).

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California has issued a preliminary injunction barring California officials from enforcing a new state law that requires all non-ambulatory animals to be diverted from the food supply and immediately euthanized.

The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday pledged to seek negotiations with Singapore on the resumption of pork exports, which have been suspended in the wake of the latest foot-and-mouth outbreak in Taiwan.

Representatives of the Ohio Pork Producers Council, along with representatives from other Ohio livestock and poultry industry groups met with representatives of the Humane Society of the United States this week in Columbus. HSUS asked the groups to have dialogue on the elimination of gestation stalls for sows, veal crates and cages for layers through legislation in an effort to avoid a ballot initiative in Ohio.

An estimated one million litres of pig slurry from the 10 pig farms hit by the dioxin contamination crisis in December, will be spread on tillage land and not land used for grazing animals. Following consultations with all the parties, agreement was reached that the slurry was safe and represented no threat to public health when disposed of in the manner specified.

Farming Minister Jane Kennedy, speaking at the annual conference of the National Farmers Union in Birmingham yesterday, announced a new joint initiative with the public and private sector to make greater use of anaerobic digestion – the technology which produces energy from organic material like food waste and manure.

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Brendan Smith TD, today said that the Government had decided that the farm waste management scheme grants will be paid on a phased basis with 40 per cent being paid this year, as claims are approved, a further 40 per cent being paid in early January 2010 and the remaining 20 per cent in January 2011. The Minister said that the decision had been taken in the context of addressing the public finances and identifying significant savings in public spending this year.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the final rule for the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) program will go into effect as scheduled on March 16th. He also released a letter inviting stakeholders to follow additional voluntary labeling practices. The rule, published in the Federal Register on Jan.15, 2009, has been under regulatory review by USDA pursuant to a Jan. 20, 2009, memorandum from the President's Chief of Staff.

Pork exports have shown a dramatic rise over the last year according to new figures from BPEX. Exports of fresh and frozen pork have risen by 20 percent over the year, up nearly 20,000 tonnes to 118,300. Bacon exports also showed a big jump, going from 12,000 tones to more than 33,000 tonnes.

The National Farming Health Service (Servicio Nacional de Sanidad Agraria - Senasa) plans to implement the Swine Health Programme during the second half of 2009, the aim is to increase the level of Peruvian pig meat exports to foreign markets. (Original in Spanish. Read Google translation here).

The National Monetary Council this week passed new measures which will allow the updating of the credit limit for the swine and poultry sectors. (Original in Portuguese. Read Google translation here).

In January 2009, Russia increased meat and meat product manufacturing by 2.3%, as Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation (Rosstat) reported on Thursday.