Page 605 of articles about news in Swine news

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.

Researchers in Welfare Quality® have found this aggressive behaviour, which arises when unfamiliar animals are mixed together, could be reduced by selective breeding to improve overall welfare.

U.S. commodity markets retreated Monday in part on fears related to the outbreak of swine flu, potential reduced pork consumption and the banning of pork imports from the United States by Russia, China and other countries, although there have been no reports of the virus in U.S. swine.

The livestock, poultry and gamefowl industries of Negros Occidental are facing a collapse with the provincial ban on genetically modified products, Provincial Veterinarian Renante Decena warned yesterday.

Because the current A/H1N1 related human health event has been described as swine influenza, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) wishes to further clarify the facts from the animal health perspective, particularly in relation to international trade of pigs and of products of pig origin. The OIE also points out that it will continue to respond to new, incoming information as the situation evolves.

Per capita meat consumption grew 7% to 63 kilograms in the Russian Federation in 2008.

Can humans catch swine flu? How common is swine flu infection in humans? Can people catch swine flu from eating pork?...

U.S. and Canadian inventory of all hogs and pigs for March 2009 was 77.3 million head. This was down 4 percent from March 2008 but up 1 percent from March 2007. The breeding inventory, at 7.39 million head, was down 4 percent from a year ago and down 1 percent from last quarter.

Global efforts to promote alternatives to testing on animals receive a significant boost today through the signing of a cooperation agreement by international bodies, including the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), tasked with the validation of alternative test methods.

To contribute to a cleaner environment and help cushion the adverse effects of global warming, owners of piggery and poultry farms are being urged by the Department of Science and Technology to make use of a technology that easily converts gas-fed generators into biogas generators.

The Russian government has suspended imports of all meat from Mexico as well as Texas, California and Kansas shipped after April 21 on fears of the spread of swine flu. In addition, China has banned pork imports from Mexico and the U.S. states of Texas, Kansas and California.

The Emergency Committee, established in compliance with the International Health Regulations (2005), held its second meeting on 27 April 2009. The WHO Director-General has raised the level of influenza pandemic alert from the current phase 3 to phase 4.

The Council took note of the request tabled by the Belgian delegation, supported by the Irish, Greek, French, Hungarian, Polish, and Austrian delegations for the introduction of temporary export refunds for fresh and frozen pig meat, as well as of the interventions made by other delegations. The Commission representative noting the recent market developments maintained the Commission position that no market support is required.