Page 597 of articles about news in Swine news

The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture has sent a delegation to Russia to hold bilateral negotiations with respect to the trade of animal and vegetable products such as the importation of wheat or the extension of Brazilian exports of pig meat to Russia. (Original in Portuguese. Read Google translation here).

U.S. packers and swine finishers imported fewer Canadian swine last year largely because of unfavorable exchange rates early in the year, ongoing herd reductions in Canada, and uncertainty created by country-of-origin-labeling (COOL) toward the end of 2008. Total imports last year were 9.348 million head, almost 7 percent below a year earlier.

The number of cattle, hogs and sheep on Canadian farms all declined in 2008 and the number of cattle farms also fell, Statistics Canada said Tuesday. Hog inventories were down 10.2 percent to 12.4 million, continuing a 3-year downward trend. Because of falling prices, the Canadian government implemented the Cull Breeding Swine Program in 2008 to pay hog producers to reduce the size of their herds, the report said.

The Pig Meat Supply Chain Task Force will focus on helping the whole supply chain to thrive in a way that is sustainable in the long term. It will bring together key representatives, from all sectors in the pig meat supply chain to increase collaboration between Government and the various sectors in the industry.

Among the guidance suggestions, plants may elect to have a written protocol on handling fatigued or slow hogs. The protocol should explain measures that ensure all pigs are handled humanely and include procedures for tracing fatigued pigs through the process. The protocol should ensure that the requirements are met so that all pigs receive ante-mortem inspection.

The Philippines has imposed a temporary ban on the importation of animals from China that are susceptible to the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), following the outbreak of FMD in two provinces there.

In recent weeks, Russia has implemented a series of sanitary-phytosanitary restrictions that have slowed or halted U.S. pork sales. Russia has de-listed 33 U.S. pork slaughter, processing and cold storage facilities so they cannot export product to Russia. This represents 45 percent to 50 percent of U.S. pork production capacity.

This means Shanghai is one of the first Chinese mainland cities to put in place a system to deal with infectious diseases that's completely managed by information technology. Working with the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the new center is able to provide advanced warning about 78 diseases such as bird flu and hand, foot and mouth disease.

The $790 billion stimulus package pending in Congress includes some agricultural funding. The package's conference report passed the House on Friday afternoon by a 246-183 vote. It contains about $300 billion in tax cuts and an additional $311 billion in discretionary spending.

The UK pig industry is now down to 50 per cent of what it was a decade ago, but imports of pork last year declined by 50,000 tonnes to 358,000 tonnes. However, imports of bacon and ham increased by 8,000 tonnes to 263,831 tonnes. Exports of UK pig meat were a bright feature of last year with the total up by over 14,000 tonnes to 103,462 tonnes.

A parliamentary committee will investigate last summer's deadly listeria outbreak in what critics say is an open show of distrust towards the government's own probe. A subcommittee of the federal agriculture committee will examine details of the outbreak – traced to a North York Maple Leaf plant last August – and look more broadly at the country's food safety net in order to understand how deadly errors happen and make recommendations for improvements.

A fishing trawler from Hirtshals will be the first boat to be equipped with an installation to process and store fish guts instead of throwing them overboard. According to fishing technologist Poul Ole Nielsen of the North Sea Research Center at Hirtshals guts can bring in 15 Eurocent/kg to the fishermen if sold for feed for e.g. pigs.

Ukrainian meat processors are facing rising pork prices.

This week in the Illinois General Assembly Senate Assistant Majority Leader Sen. James A. DeLeo introduced a bill that would amend the state's Humane Care for Animals Act. As written it would prohibit a person from tethering or confining any covered animal, on a farm, for all or the majority of any day, in a manner that prevents the animal from lying down, standing up and fully extending his or her limbs or turning around freely.

Vaccine for 165,000 pigs had arrived by Monday in Hongdong County, where the epidemic broke out, along with 430 exposure suits, 4.1 tons of disinfectant and 610 syringes for injections. Local officials quarantined 10 villages where infected pigs were found. As of Tuesday morning, 936 pigs had been culled and work was continuing.

Dr. Temple Grandin recently announced the launch of a "one-of-a kind" certification program that combines evaluating both sustainable and humane practices., Alameda, Calif.-based Niman Ranch plans to be one of the first companies to be audited and carry the certification seal for its humanely- and sustainably-raised natural beef, pork, lamb and chicken.