December 27, 2003

Knight-Ridder Tribune

Jon Ortiz, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Talk of a national cattle branding system gained momentum Friday, according to this story, as federal investigators acknowledged they may never find the origin of the Holstein diagnosed with "mad cow" disease in Washington state.John Maas, a veterinarian with the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, was cited as saying that a high-tech plan that could have helped investigators has been bogged down for years in a maze of bureaucracy and industry finger-pointing, leaving the nation's beef supply nearly impossible to track, adding, "Everybody agrees it's a good idea. It's good for consumers, the producers and the animals. But there have been some real sticking points to getting it done."The story adds that the technology for adopting a national branding standard has been around for years, but the political will has lagged behind, as beef industry officials, bureaucrats and veterinarians haggled over the details, big and small.Ron DeHaven, chief USDA veterinarian, was quoted as saying during a news conference call on Friday that, "We have been working for a number of years on a tracing system or an animal identification system. We are well on the road toward developing such a system."The story explains that the U.S. Animal Health Association -- a consortium of government, veterinary, livestock and seafood industry representatives charged with setting animal identification standards -- agreed last September on national standards for the type of information that needed collection.Questions remain about who will pay for the program, maintain the database and ensure its security, however. And despite DeHaven's optimistic forecast, no one knows when, or if, cattle tracking will go high-tech.Maas was quoted as saying, "One question is who's going to pay for it. In France, cattle producers pay per head per year to the government, and the government picks up the rest of the cost. But nobody -- not the industry or the government -- has come forward with their checkbook."Until then, the crucial task of discovering where the Washington cow was born involve interviewing and scanning reams of documents.

Sow productivity under group housing rivals that of stalls
December 29, 2003
Farmscape (Episode 1413)
A scientist at the Prairie Swine Centre suggests producers looking to offer more freedom of movement to gestating sows might find group housing to be a more economically viable option. The Prairie Swine Centre maintains two research programs, one looking at stalls and the other at group housing using electronic sow feeding. Research has shown a 22 inch wide stall will accommodate a gilt entering her first gestation but larger sows in their third, fourth and fifth pregnancy will require as much as 28 inches to maintain the same freedom of movement. Dr. Harold Gonyou says, as you go to wider and wider stalls, it might be as cost effective to go to a group housing system.
Clip-Dr. Harold Gonyou-Prairie Swine Centre
We are doing a major study on group housing in electronic sow feeding systems. We selected one group housing system and we're focusing all of our research on that. There are other groups within Canada and the United States that are looking at other group housing systems right now. We chose one that we felt allowed us to have the best nutritional management of the sows. Electronic sow feeding provides us an opportunity to use the nutritional knowledge that we've developed through research over the last 20 years. It's the system that best allows us to do that. In the other group housing systems, to accomplish the same thing, you would have to sort the animals into very small groups or you would have to do what we call hand feeding, going through and feeding individual animals, to achieve the same level of nutrient control.
Dr. Gonyou says, within the group housing project scientists are evaluating four different management systems, one of which out performs the stall system, one that performs as well and two that do not work as well. He says that suggests management style will also impact an animals productivity within the system. For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.
*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council

PETA sends cannibal veggie burgers
December 26, 2003
Meatingplace.com
Brendan O'Neill
http://web.meatingplace.com/news/init.asp?s=13d3602003_11640
Animal activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a box of vegetarian burgers to the German man on trial for murder and cannibalism.
After hearing the story of Armin Meiwes, the German cannibal who admitted to slaughtering, butchering and eating a man he met over the Internet, PETA sent Meiwes a vegetarian cookbook and a hamper full of veggie burgers in the hope of converting him to vegetarianism.
"What this man did to a German computer expert is done to other creatures every day," a PETA spokesperson said. "The cruel scenario of slaughtering, cutting up, portioning, freezing and eating of body parts is the grim reality for more than 450 million sentient individuals [animals] that are killed [in Germany] every year."

Bovine tuberculosis
December 25, 2003
AP
John Flesher
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- A three-year campaign to test every cow in
Michigan for bovine tuberculosis is, according to this story, winding down, a milestone in the fight against the disease that has bedeviled the state's cattle industry since the late 1990s.
The story adds that farmers and state officials hope the testing will move Michigan a step closer to regaining the federal TB-free designation it lost in 2000, which crippled the export of Michigan cattle outside the state.
But the recent discovery of an infected deer in Roscommon County, where
the deadly lung ailment previously had not been detected, offered a reminder
that ridding Michigan of TB won't happen overnight.

Major Japanese meat packer admits use of illegal pig vaccine
December 24, 2003
Agence France Presse English
TOKYO - A major Japanese meat processor, Nippon Meat Packers Inc., was cited as admitting Wednesday that one of its subsidiaries had used an unauthorized vaccine to prevent a disease in baby pigs.
The company said that its wholly owned pig farming unit, Nippon Bio Labo,
had used a special vaccine for treating a respiratory and reproductive
disease in pigs for four years until February 2002.
The vaccine is not approved by Japanese authorities but it is authorized in
the United States, Canada and other countries.
Nippon Meat Packers said the vaccine had no impact on human health.

Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Illinois)
December 28, 2003
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail, a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org
Source: Daily Chronicle [DeKalb County, Illinois; edited]
http://www.daily-chronicle.com/articles/2003/12/27/news/news02.txt
Deer with chronic wasting disease found near Kirkland
The first case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in DeKalb County has been confirmed in a deer killed by a hunter near Kirkland this fall.
The deer was 1 of 9 that came up positive for the disease in recent testing by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The others were from Winnebago and Boone counties. The Kirkland deer is the southernmost known case of the disease in Illinois to date.
Of the approximately 104 000 deer killed during firearm hunting season from 21-23 Nov and 4-7 Dec 2003, only 4000 were tested from 36 counties as part of the state's voluntary, random testing program.
Hunters are required to take their kills to state checking stations to help officials get an accurate count of the number of deer killed during hunting season. While there, hunters also can submit samples of the animals for chronic wasting disease testing. One of those stations was set up at Shabbona Lake State Park.
IDNR spokesman Tim Schweizer acknowledged there may have been more cases of the disease in Illinois that the state isn't aware of, but even if there are, there's no sign yet that the disease is having a significant impact on the deer population. "It's a very small area," he said. "It's affected only 30 deer that we've gotten positive tests on."
The 1st of those 30 cases was confirmed in November of 2002. The state's deer population now stands at about 750 000, Schweizer said.
CWD can be passed among deer and elk, although there's no evidence it can infect humans who come in contact with sick animals or eat their meat. "It's not contagious to people," Schweizer said. "It's not contagious to livestock."
CWD was first diagnosed in deer in Colorado more than 30 years ago according to the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance, a consortium of animal conservation groups. It was first detected in the Midwest in Wisconsin in 2002. The disease attacks an animal's brain and causes the animal to become emaciated, act abnormally, and eventually die.
[Byline: Chris Rickert]






Cloned half-asses from Idaho hold promise for livestock industry
December 24, 2003
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Tom Paulson
Last spring, researchers in the Northwest U.S., according to this story, won an international scientific race to be the first to clone an equine.
The story says that today, the world's first cloned animals in the horse family, three half-asses from Idaho, are doing much better than many of the clones of other species.
Dirk Vanderwall, professor of veterinary and animal science at the University of Idaho, was quoted as saying, "They're developing normally and all quite healthy. We're not seeing any of the health problems seen in the clones of other species like cattle or sheep."
Between May and June, the team of researchers in Idaho and from Utah State University in Logan witnessed the birth of three genetically identical mules.
Idaho Gem, Idaho Star and Utah Pioneer are all identical clones created using genes from the same fetal skin cell obtained from a family of champion racing mules, Vanderwall said.
Mules are the sterile hybrid offspring of a mare and a jackass, a male donkey. . They were born to different mothers May 4 (Gem), June 9 (Pioneer) and July 27 (Star).
Vanderwall was further cited as saying that unlike what happened to Dolly, the famous cloned sheep that rapidly deteriorated and died, the Idaho-Utah team's cloned mules show no sign of any problems or abnormalities, and they are developing well, with different personalities, adding, "Idaho Gem, the oldest, is sort of a prima donna and demands to be the center of attention."
Youngest Star also strives for attention but more as befits the baby of the herd, he said, while Pioneer is reserved and aloof.
Vanderwall said animal cloning could expand dramatically as a common practice of the food industry. For that reason, the Idaho-Utah team has traveled extensively with the cloned mules to present the facts at public events and answer questions.

Effluent limitations guidelines and new source performance standardsfor the concentrated aquatic animal production point source category;notice of data availability; proposed rule
December 29, 2003
Federal Register: Volume 68, Number 248
[Page 75067-75105]
[DOCID:fr29de03-27]
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of data availability.
SUMMARY: In 2002, EPA proposed technology-based effluent limitations
and new source performance standards for the concentrated aquatic
animal production (CAAP) point source category. The proposal applied to
new and existing CAAP facilities that discharge pollutants directly to
waters of the United States.
This notice summarizes the data received since proposal and
describes how the Agency may use the data to address comments and
develop the final rule. The notice also discusses refinements EPA may
make to its methods for estimating costs, load reductions and financial
impacts. It also presents revised results for these analyses reflecting
the refinements and incorporating new data.
DATES: Submit comments on or before February 12, 2004.
ADDRESSES: Public comments regarding this document should be mailed to
Water Docket, Environmental Protection Agency, Mailcode 4101T, 1200
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460, Attention Docket ID No.
OW-2002-0026 (formerly W-02-01), or submitted electronically at http://www.epa.gov/edocket <http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leavingFR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.epa.gov/edocket>.
For additional information on how to submit
comments, see section B in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For technical information concerning
today's proposed rule, contact Ms. Marta Jordan at (202) 566-1049. For
economic information, contact Mr. Christopher Miller at (202) 566-0395.