Page 572 of articles about news in Swine news

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) indicates that it has found H1N1 flu virus in a swine herd in Alberta. The safety of the food supply is not affected and Canadian pork continues to be safe to eat. While further testing is needed to more fully characterize the virus, the CFIA is taking a precautionary approach. The herd has been placed under quarantine, and the Agency is working with public health colleagues to determine the most appropriate next steps to ensure that public and animal health remain protected. The chance that these pigs could transfer virus to a person is remote.

The figures from the livestock survey of December 2008 show an increase in the swine population in Spain of 5.6% in the last 8 months, with an increase of nearly 3% in the last 4 months. (Original in Spanish. Read Google translation here).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today released the results of a comprehensive benefit-cost analysis on the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will hold a series of listening sessions on the National Animal Identification System. The meetings will take place this month in Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington state.

In markets that remain open, educating consumers and maintaining confidence in the safety of pork is a major challenge. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are just a few examples of markets in which U.S. pork continues to be readily available to consumers, and where health officials have emphasized the safety of pork.

A regulation on the introduction into the European Union of small quantities of animal products intended for personal consumption – a measure that will help reduce the risks of importing serious animal diseases into the EU – enters into force tomorrow May 1, 2009. The regulation brings together in one legal text, the different weight limits for the quantities of products of animal origin that can be introduced into the EU by travellers or sent through the post.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced that it is accepting applications for 2010 funding for five export market development programs administered by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service: the Market Access Program (MAP), the Foreign Market Development Cooperator Program (FMD), the Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops (TASC) Program, the Quality Samples Program (QSP), and the Emerging Markets Program (EMP). All the programs are designed to help expand commercial export markets for U.S. agricultural products.

Canadian farmers who are finding it difficult to obtain loans due to the tightening of global credit markets can count on the Government of Canada to provide expanded access to credit, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced today. The Harper Government will bring forward new legislation to guarantee an estimated $1 billion in loans over the next five years to Canadian farm families and cooperatives, most of which will go to farmers and cooperatives that were previously ineligible.

On Tuesday, the Egyptian parliament voted to slaughter the country’s entire pig livestock of around 250,000 animals in a precautionary measure.

New and expanding swine production facilities in North Carolina are required to use manure management systems that meet the strictest environmental performance standards in the nation.

Scientific collaboration between the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) and Teagasc has been formally recognised with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two organisation.

The Board of the Food Standards Agency approved changes to the charging system for official controls, known as inspections and audits, in UK meat businesses such as abattoirs and cutting plants.

The FAO-OIE Crisis Management Centre – Animal Health is mobilizing a team of experts to assist government efforts to protect the pig sector from the novel H1N1 virus by confirming there is no direct link to pigs, increasing animal disease surveillance and maintaining response readiness should the new virus become introduced into the pig population.

The H1N1 virus that has triggered fears of a global human flu pandemic has not been found in U.S. swine and so far has not "been shown to affect swine," U.S. Department of Agriculture chief veterinarian Dr. John Clifford testified yesterday during a Senate hearing. Naming the virus "swine flu" -- a name, Clifford allowed, that was apt to stick -- has caused unnecessary alarm with U.S. trade partners and dismay in the animal agriculture industry.

The latest data from MARAN 2007 (Monitoring of Antimicrobial Resistance and Antibiotic Usage in Animals in the Netherlands) show an important increase in the use of antibiotics for farm animals at the same time as an increase in the resistance to these antibiotics. (Original in Dutch. Read Google translation here).

Sales of pork products in Mexico have fallen 80 percent since last week because of the swine flu outbreak, the CPM group representing hog farmers told Efe on Wednesday.