Page 583 of articles about news in Swine news

The Government of Canada is helping hog farmers by investing in an initiative to combat disease and provide stability for the sector. Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture Pierre Lemieux and MP Gary Schellenberger (Perth-Wellington) today announced a federal investment in the hog industry to develop and implement biosecurity best management practices, research projects and long-term disease risk management solutions.

The Raisio Feed company has accepted responsibility for the eruption of salmonella on farms in western Finland. On Wednesday, the Finnish Food Authority (Evira) blamed the Raisio Feed company outright for the recent eruption of salmonella on egg-producing and pig farms.

The 2007 data for zoonoses makes grim reading for this smallish country. In that year, there were 24,252 cases of capylobacteriosis, 17,910 cases of salmonellosis, 576 cases of yersiniosis and 51 of listeriosis, more per capita than any other EU country. However, carcase and meat contamination by salmonella is less than the European average of 10% with 5.8%.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the availability of revised guidance for industry concerning the use of veterinary feed directive drugs. The Guidance for Industry #120 has been revised to provide more detailed information on transmitting electronic veterinary feed directive (VFD) orders via the Internet.

The Honourable Helena Guergis, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Trade, signed, on behalf of Canada, a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Canada and the Republic of Peru. This was the second FTA signed by Canada in 2008 and Canada’s fourth FTA with countries of the Americas.

The veterinary agreement between EU and Canada, celebrating its 10th anniversary this month, is mainly to be credited for the substantial increase of trade of live animals and animal products. The total value of EU export trade (EU-15) to Canada for the main products covered by the agreement has increased by almost 90 % – from 69 million euros per year in 1998 to 131 million euros per year in 2008. Since the EU-Canada veterinary agreement entered into force in March 1999, the increases in the value of the export trade regarded primarily live animals (+139 %), meat (+183 %), dairy products (+90 %) and fish and crustaceans (+48 %).

Foot-and-mouth disease in livestocks has recently broken out in another northern province Bac Giang of Vietnam, according to Vietnam's Animal Health Department of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Friday.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published an opinion on the public health significance of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in animals and foods. EFSA’s Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) found that while food may be contaminated by MRSA, there is currently no evidence that eating or handling contaminated food may lead to an increased risk of humans becoming healthy carriers or infected with this bacterium. The Panel also concluded that where MRSA prevalence in food-producing animals is high, people in contact with live animals, especially farmers, veterinarians and their families, are at greater risk than the general population.

“Discrepancies between national identification of live animals and traceability systems of animal products make it difficult to trace products of animal origin throughout the food chain at world level; developing countries risk losing out on market access because of trade barriers that sometimes are put in place as a result of these discrepancies. The best way to prevent this is for all countries to progressively implement international standards, such as those of the OIE and Codex”, Dr Bernard Vallat, OIE Director General, explained at the Conference.

Correcting the market inequalities, and improving direct relations between consumers and producers, in order to guarantee reasonable prices for the former and profits for the latter, are the principle objectives of a report adopted by the European Parliament on the difference in price between production and consumption in the food chain. The report was adopted with 390 votes in favour, 112 against and 71 abstentions.

Its official: the swine industry of this southern port city is free from the Ebola Reston virus. Mayor Celso Lobregat declared so, citing that tests yielded negative of the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), Pseudo Rabies Virus (PRV) and Swine Influenza Virus (SIV-H1N1).

In a legislative report dealing with an update of the EU rules on novel foods, the European Parliament calls on the Commission to interdict the placing on the market of food derived from cloned animals and their descendants. MEPs also want food being produced by nanotechnology processes to undergo a specific risk assessment before being approved for use and be labelled. The report was adopted with 658 votes in favour, 15 against and 11 abstentions.

The December figures from 2008 are just preliminary, but nevertheless Danish Meat Association (DMA) states that last year exports measured in volume increased by approximately 76,000 tonnes to 1.7 million tonnes. In total Denmark is the third largest exporter of pig meat, and exports bring in approximately € 4 bn. from 130 countries. It is expected that also the value of exports rose in 2008, but the financial crisis affected the last months in particular.

Under the terms of NAFTA, the U.S. and Mexico each agreed to allow trucks from the other nation access into their countries. Unfortunately, the U.S. maintained its restriction on Mexican trucks crossing the border even after NAFTA implementation began. The Transportation Department's pilot program with Mexico was developed as a step toward meeting that commitment. The pilot program came after a NAFTA dispute panel ruled the exclusion of all Mexican trucks violated U.S. obligations under NAFTA. Now that the pilot program has been eliminated, the U.S. finds itself, once again, not in compliance with its obligations under NAFTA.

The outlook for Australian grain and feed production is on balance relatively optimistic. Wheat and barley production are both expected to increase while sorghum production is expected to decrease. Rice is also expected to increase albeit off record low levels. Post advises that production of all crops is forecast to move toward to the ten-year-average following a long period of low production and high prices.

The OIE has informed about the presence of foot-and-mouth virus serotype Asia 1 in Inner Mongolia (Sumitu Sumu, Etuoke, E'erduosi).