AnimalNet Dec. 3/03
Checking
nutrient flow: Researchers track manure nutrient path through fields
High-tech
livestock tracing in works
Aquaculture
moratorium extended
Are drugs in
animal feed making humans sick?
Japan to
alter domestic beef labeling system
More deer
shot than before disease: Hunters top 300,000 during gun season
FMD
Contingency Plans: British government announces progress on developing emergency
vaccination as an additional control strategy for foot and mouth disease
Greenhouse
gas mitigation project demonstrates value of swine manure fertilizer
Perspective
by Editor of Meat Processing North American Edition, Steve Bjerklie: Steve
Bjerklie looks at the changing forces in the US turkey trade
Chicken
welfare in court: Judge rules in favour of the British government over
implementation of chicken welfare regulations
Memorandum
of understanding between the Food and Drug Administration and Agricultural
Marketing Service, United States Department of Agriculture
how to subscribe
Checking
nutrient flow: Researchers track manure nutrient path through fields
December 2003
Pork News
Clare Illingworth
http://www.ontariopork.on.ca/Publications/2003/porknews0312.htm#research
Agricultural field runoff is difficult to track, but University of Guelph
researchers are looking for new ways to determine how these nutrients travel
with water from the field.
With the recent implementation of the Ontario Nutrient Management Act - which
provides standards for all nutrients being applied to fields - Prof. John Lauzon
of the Department of Land Resource Science is testing several manure application
methods to see how nutrients and bacteria are carried through soil.
"Keeping excess nutrients from surface and groundwater is the primary focus
of new legislation to reduce nutrient losses," says Lauzon. "Now we
must further develop our current management systems to minimize these
losses."
To find out how water behaves and moves through soil under different management
systems, Lauzon and his research team have fitted 20 plots with tile drain
monitors, wells and water collection pans at the Elora Research Station. They
will regularly collect water from three main sources: the water table, surface
runoff and just below the root zone.
By comparing late spring application - which is thought to be superior for
reducing nutrient leaching - to variations on fall application with and without
tillage over the next year, they hope to help develop protocols for better
manure management.
Water that leaves the plant's root zone can take nitrogen, phosphorous and
microorganisms - including E. coli bacteria from manure - with it. Researchers
say water descending quickly through soil uses larger gaps called bypass flow,
and is more likely to contain phosphorous and bacteria than water percolating
through the denser soil matrix.
Soil moisture also plays a part in movement of nutrients by controlling how much
rainwater will penetrate the soil surface, says Lauzon. They will test the
soil's water content twice daily at various depths to see how nutrients
collected in soil traveled - by matrix or bypass flow.
By better understanding the way nutrients and bacteria travel through soil and
soil management's influence on transport, Lauzon hopes to develop management
practices to help farmers reduce their nutrient losses.
Other members of the research team include Profs. Michael Goss, Richard Heck and
Gary Parkin, research associates Dave Fallow and Krista Barfoot Kinsie, and
graduate students Stephen Crittenden and Andrew Olinski, all from the Department
of Land Resource Science. Also involved is Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and
Food soil fertility specialist Keith Reid.
This research is being sponsored by Canadian Water Network, the Canada
Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Cattlemen's Association, Ontario Pork and the
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
For more information, contact Jean Howden, Ontario Pork research coordinator, at
1-877-668-7675 or jean.howden@ontariopork.on.ca.
Clare Illingworth is a student writer with the University of Guelph's SPARK
writing program.
High-tech
livestock tracing in works
December 3, 2003
The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
D1 / Front
Kevin Hursh
Within the next year or two, all Canadian cattle will, according to this story,
be wearing radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, and the pork industry
will be using DNA testing which will trace a piece of bacon or pork chop all the
way back to the farm on which it originated.
These days, the only criticism of the cattle ear-tag ID program is that we
should have had it in place years earlier so that it could have been more help
when the single case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE),
appeared this spring in Alberta.
The RFID, tag is an external button which sits tight on the animal's ear. The
animal is much less likely to lose this button than the current tags which
dangle.
The big advantage is that RFID tags can be read as cattle move down a chute in
single file. The current bar code tags have to be scanned individually at close
range. In fact, at packing plants, someone usually has to clean them off and
then scan them.
Like other technology, the cost of RFID has dropped dramatically. A few years
ago, tags were $8 to $10 each. That would have caused a furore among producers.
According to the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency, price quotes for large
volumes of RFID tags now range from $2 to $4 each and that price is expected to
continue dropping.
Aquaculture
moratorium extended
December 1, 2003
Press Release by New Zealand Government
Minister of Fisheries Pete Hodgson has confirmed the need for an extension of
the current moratorium on processing new marine farm resource consent
applications.
The 28-month moratorium, designed to allow time for aquaculture law reform and
related local government planning, was due to expire in 25 March 2004. It will
now be extended by nine months, until 31 December 2004.
Mr Hodgson said the foreshore and seabed issue had delayed the development of
the aquaculture reform legislation, which also dealt with the use of coastal
space.
"I alerted the marine farming industry earlier this year that an extension
to the moratorium could be necessary, given the unexpected complications of the
foreshore and seabed issue," Mr Hodgson said.
"Issues raised in the Waitangi Tribunal's Ahu Moana report on aquaculture,
released earlier this year, must also be given proper consideration.
"We have made strenuous efforts to meet the original goal of having
aquaculture reform legislation introduced and passed by March 2004, but it has
not proved possible. An extension of the moratorium is now unavoidable."
The moratorium has ensured that councils have not been flooded with marine farm
applications in a 'race for space' prior to the new legislation coming into
effect.
"The current legislative framework for aquaculture is outdated,
over-complicated and dysfunctional," Mr Hodgson said.
"The new legislation will allow for the expansion of marine farming while
ensuring that it is managed sustainably, allowing for recreational,
environmental, customary and commercial interests.
"While the delay in the reform process is unfortunate, it will ensure we
get the legislation right and that will provide more certainty in the long run.
The aquaculture industry would naturally prefer a quicker fix, but they have
told me that the correct fix is more important and if that means delay, they are
prepared to live with it. I appreciate their understanding."
During the moratorium regional councils will continue to develop aquaculture
management areas (AMAs), a key element of the proposed reforms. These are
defined areas where future marine farming projects can be located.
A Bill to extend the aquaculture moratorium will be introduced to Parliament
before Christmas. Legislation implementing the proposed aquaculture reforms is
now expected to be introduced early next year.
"Meanwhile the more immediate hold-up to aquaculture is beginning to clear,
namely the huge number of outstanding marine farm applications that created the
need for the moratorium in the first place.
"These applications have been stalled because there were so many, and few
met the standard of the environmental impact assessment that must accompany
them.
"However the backlog is now beginning to move, as more resources have been
deployed to address it and because the industry is making huge progress in the
quality of its science reports to the Ministry of Fisheries."
Are
drugs in animal feed making humans sick?
December 2, 2003
Yomiuri Shimbun
Yujiro Ogawa
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20031202wo33.htm
The Japanese Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry will, according to
this story, ask the Cabinet Office's Food Safety Commission to shed light on the
possible causal relationship between antibiotics fed to livestock and an
increase in drug-resistant bacteria in human bodies.
The story says that a total of 1,690 tons of antibiotics--more than three times
the amount used for human medical treatment--is used to treat diseases in
livestock, cultured fish and farm produce, to enhance their growth and as
pesticides.
Junichi Kowaka, head of the Japan Offspring Fund was quoted as saying,
"With such a huge amount of antibiotics being used, how can dairy farmers
say flatly that the substances have nothing to do with the increase of
drug-resistant bacteria in human bodies?"
The story says that the fund, a nonprofit organization that was the first in
Japan to spotlight the problem, published a book titled "Tabemono kara
Hirogaru Taiseikin" (The spread of drug-resistant bacteria from food).
Each year, as many as 1,060 tons of animal medical products are used to treat
livestock diseases, and 230 tons are employed to enhance growth. Several grams
of a growth-enhancing agent are put into each ton of feed for livestock.
Japan
to alter domestic beef labeling system
December 3, 2003
Meatingplace.com
Eric Hanson
http://www.meatingplace.com/DailyNews/init.asp?clickthrough=true&ID=11556
Japanese beef looks like it will be getting its own version of country of origin
labeling.
Brand name beef associated with certain areas in Japan is a big selling point
among consumers, and new regulations being created by the Ministry of
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries are expected to require labels on beef to
state where an animal spent most of its life if that location differs from the
region the brand name refers to, the Asahi Shimbun reported.
The rule is expected to go into effect in the summer.
For example, the brand "Omi beef" could only be applied to meat from
an animal that was born and raised for most of its life in the Shiga Prefecture,
which is the region associated with that brand. If an animal spent most of its
life elsewhere and was moved to the prefecture for slaughter or shipping, the
label would have to state where the animal spent most of its time.
The regulations are designed to crack down on misleading labels and try to
revive flagging consumer confidence in beef, the newspaper said.
The ministry also plans to remove a rule that allowed imported cattle to be
labeled as domestic beef if the animals were fattened in Japan for three months,
the newspaper reported.
More
deer shot than before disease: Hunters top 300,000 during gun season
December 2, 2003
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Meg Jones
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/dec03/189716.asp
Authorities were cited as saying Tuesday that despite a wet opening weekend,
hunters took more than 300,000 deer during the gun-deer season - more than were
shot two years ago before chronic wasting disease was found in Wisconsin.
Hunters registered 304,538 deer during the firearms season that ended Sunday,
according to the state Department of Natural Resources. While it's no surprise
that the total was more than last year - 277,755 - when fears of the fatal deer
disease induced some hunters to stay out of the woods, it's even more than in
2001, when 298,266 deer were taken.
DNR spokesman Bob Manwell was quoted as saying, "I would sense it's maybe,
in part, a return to a sense of optimism by hunters after a pretty tough year
last year."
Except for one case in Walworth County, extensive testing last year did not turn
up any cases of chronic wasting disease in wild white-tailed deer outside the
outbreak zone near Mount Horeb.
That appeared to calm hunters - at least 644,818 of them. The number of gun deer
licenses increased 4% compared with last year's sales, said Marilyn Davis,
director of the DNR customer service and licensing bureau.
FMD
Contingency Plans: British government announces progress on developing emergency
vaccination as an additional control strategy for foot and mouth disease
December 2, 2003
Meat News
http://www.meatnews.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Article&artNum=6571
The British government is well on the way to developing stocks for emergency
vaccination to be used as a prime control strategy in addition to culling of
infected animals and dangerous contacts in the event of an outbreak of Foot and
Mouth Disease.
The potential deployment of emergency vaccination would be assessed from the
early stages of any future outbreak.
The moves follow recommendations in a report earlier this year from the Royal
Society.
Animal Health Minister, Ben Bradshaw said: "Good progress has been made on
a variety of important issues concerning the use of emergency vaccination. I
particularly welcome the new EU Directive on Foot and Mouth Disease control,
which meets the recommendations of the various inquiries and takes into account
the changes in the OIE code since 2001."
Progress includes:
* Negotiation of a new EU Directive on Foot and Mouth Disease control, moving
vaccination to the forefront of disease control strategy.
* Engaging with stakeholders to gain the necessary support from the farming and
food industries to make emergency vaccination a workable option in the event of
a future outbreak.
* Procurement of independent supplies of Foot and Mouth Disease vaccine for the
UK, which is suitable for use in a "vaccinate-to-live" strategy in the
event of a future outbreak.
* Ongoing work on the development of vaccination scenarios including a Cost
Benefit Analysis to help decision making on future disease control strategy.
* Continuing to fund research into tests that would demonstrate the absence of
infection in animals post-vaccination.
* Putting in place operational arrangements with an external contractor that
would enable an emergency vaccination programme to be implemented five days
after confirmation of the disease, subject to veterinary and epidemiological
advice.
The latest version of the Government's Foot and Mouth Disease Contingency Plan
has been put out to consultation before laying it before Parliament in Spring
2004.
This revision reflects changes and developments over the last year and builds on
input from key operational partners. Defra is planning a series of exercises
over the next seven months to check and validate the Foot and Mouth Disease
Contingency Plan. The programme will culminate in a live exercise on 29 and 30
June 2004.
Greenhouse
gas mitigation project demonstrates value of swine manure fertilizer
December 3, 2003
Farmscape (Episode 1397)
A demonstration project in Saskatchewan shows swine manure fertilizer provides
yields equal to commercial fertilizer under zero till when applied at
equivalent rates. The demonstration was conducted by the Prairie Agricultural
Machinery Institute in partnership with the Canadian Pork Council under the
Greenhouse Gas Mitigation program during the 2003 growing season. Its main goal
was to draw attention to best management practices for applying swine manure for
annual crop production and generate additional research data. PAMI Soils and
crops Manager Gordon Hultgreen says initial visual observances indicate swine
manure and commercial fertilizer produce similar results.
Clip-Gordon Hultgreen-Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute We inject this
manure with a liquid manure application truck where we use disc openers under
zero till to apply manure to the soil with very little soil disturbance. We do
these experiments at seven locations around the province which are widely spaced
so we get good demonstration value in every corner of the province. The results
aren't quite complete for the year but generally, when we apply swine manure
prior to seeding an annual crop like wheat or barley, we see a crop response
very similar to if you use an ordinary commercial fertilizer and we basically
saw that in all the sites. The commercial fertilizer base line we used for the
annual crops was 70 pounds of actual nitrogen and then we applied a number of
rates of swine manure at equivalent rates. The one rate was 70 then we doubled
and tripled those rates to see the crop response. What we observed, and it's
backed up by research that we've done over the years, we're getting essentially
equivalent response from swine manure that we'd get from regular commercial
fertilizers when they're applied at the same rates.
Hultgreen says crop samples from the demonstration are being analyzed now and
the full results from this year's work should be available by February. For
Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.
*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council
Perspective
by Editor of Meat Processing North American Edition, Steve Bjerklie: Steve
Bjerklie looks at the changing forces in the US turkey trade
December 2, 2003
Meat News
http://www.meatnews.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Article&artNum=6575
Approximately a quarter of all the turkey consumed in the United States is eaten
during the period Americans call “the holidays,” the stretch from US
Thanksgiving, which was celebrated last week (in Canada, the day is honoured in
October), through New Year’s Day. Far more than any other time of year, the
holidays bring together families and friends, and they often gather at a big
table groaning under the weight and quantity of seasonal foods, including roast
turkey. And more on Thanksgiving Day than on any other day of the year,
Americans of all kinds centre their social bond on food, recreating a scene
icon-ized by the sentimental painter Norman Rockwell, whose portrait of a
traditional Thanksgiving table features Mom setting a huge roast turkey in front
of her wide-eyed and hungry family. Approximately 45 million turkeys were sold
in the US this year for the Thanksgiving meal alone.
But Thanksgiving has been both boon and bane to the US turkey industry. While
the association of turkey with the event spikes sales, usually spectacularly,
margins often drop because consumers are wary of being gouged and tend to
price-shop for holiday foods. The drag of Thanksgiving on the turkey business
distorts the industry in other ways, too. The effort to process non-seasonal
products such as luncheon meats, cooked sausage, and ground meat from turkey is
entirely driven by the poultry industry’s desire to even out demand for turkey
across the year, to give value to dark meat, and to stabilise profits. So far,
that effort has produced mixed results. All-turkey sausage isn’t very good –
it’s rubbery and it lacks pork sausage’s pleasing flavour - but in the hands
of the right processor turkey mixed with other meats can reduce calorie and fat
content without sacrificing product quality. Meantime, turkey breeders have
created birds with huge, unnatural, outsized breasts, since white breast meat is
where the money is both in the Thanksgiving bird and in the further-processed
turkey-meat market. In fact, the turkey of choice in the US poultry market is,
overwhelmingly, the bird called the Broad Breasted White (BBW). Its relation to
the wild American turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, in both behaviour and taste is
thin and tenuous.
But a new trend in turkey consumption is gaining momentum in the US, and in time
it may push the American turkey industry in a new and unexpected direction.
American consumers, following a trend begun a few years ago in Italy, are
showing a growing interest in a new kind of turkey, in what might be called a
“real” turkey.
First in Italy and now across Europe, a movement called “slow food” seeks to
save and promote traditional and regional foods, and the slow-food programme
often includes restoring a market for disappearing livestock breeds that are
appropriate for particular meat products. In the US, slow-food enthusiasts have
scored early success by bringing back so-called “heritage” turkey breeds,
including the Bourbon Red, Narragansett, and Jersey Buff, which have been pushed
to extinction by the BBW juggernaut.
This year, the turkey farmers who raised birds for the heritage-turkey market
reported sell-outs across the country - shoppers had to place orders months
ahead of Thanksgiving or risk not getting a bird. Granted, that market is still
microscopically tiny compared to the mainstream turkey market, and heritage
birds for the table are about triple the cost of a high-quality fresh turkey,
but the idea seems to have caught fire.
A long editorial in the 24 November edition of the New York Times by Patrick
Martins, who heads Slow Food USA, a non-profit organisation, extolled the
virtues of heritage birds that, according to Martins, taste “like a turkey.”
It’s not likely heritage birds will displace the BBW any time soon as the
market bird of choice. For one thing, heritage breeds carry much more dark meat
than BBWs do, and more dark meat is the last thing the turkey market needs right
now. For another, heritage birds require traditional farming techniques; they
grow poorly under the high-production conditions of the typical BBW operation.
(A heritage turkey needs about 24 weeks to reach slaughter weight; a commercial
BBW needs 12-14 weeks.) The turkey industry isn’t likely to transform itself
in the near future from commodity producer to processor of boutique speciality
foods.
But the emergence of a heritage-turkey market in the United States demonstrates
that consumers still want meat and poultry with flavour and quality, and that
they’re willing to seek it out and pay for it. Moreover, they want that
quality and flavour to grace their table on the most special food occasions of
the year. To the extent that meat and poultry processors continue to assume
price is the only driver of food-purchasing decisions, they’re very, very
mistaken. And they probably haven’t tasted a turkey that tastes like a real
turkey in a long, long time.
Chicken
welfare in court: Judge rules in favour of the British government over
implementation of chicken welfare regulations
December 2, 2003
Meat News
http://www.meatnews.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Article&artNum=6581
A Judicial Review of broiler breeding methods in the UK has thrown out
criticisms over welfare from the animal rights group, Compassion in World
Farming.
The judge backed the British Government's Department of Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs (Defra) over the two complaints from CIWF and he ordered CIWF to
pay two thirds of the government costs.
The Judge threw out CIWF allegations on the welfare of breeder chickens, ruling
that controlled feeding of breeding chickens is in proper compliance with EU and
UK animal welfare rules.
The judgement in favour of Defra was welcomed by the British Poultry Council,
which represents chicken breeders, farmers and processors.
The Judge ruled that broiler breeders are fed a diet which “is wholesome and
appropriate to their age and species and sufficient to maintain good health and
satisfy nutritional needs.”
He concluded that there is no evidence that broiler breeders are sufficiently
hungry to compromise their wellbeing.
“This is a total vindication of the high standards maintained in all aspects
of modern chicken breeding and rearing systems in the UK,” said Peter Bradnock
Chief Executive of the BPC.
“The case has succeeded in generating publicity for CIWF but nothing else. It
should never have been brought in our view” said Mr Bradnock.
“CIWF has pointlessly and irresponsibly diverted Defra's time and resources
from work on extending the UK welfare standards for chicken into EU-wide rules
currently being drafted in Brussels.”
CIWF had claimed that Defra was not properly implementing the EU farm animal
welfare Directive. The CIWF case rested in two grounds – that the Directive
had not been correctly transposed into UK Regulation, and that, in CIWF’s
view, restricted feeding of broiler breeding chickens did not meet certain
requirements of the Directive and therefore Defra was failing to properly
implement the Directive. A third ground, alleging welfare problems in broiler
chickens themselves, was withdrawn by CIWF’s Counsel in the Court hearing.
Memorandum
of understanding between the Food and Drug Administration and Agricultural
Marketing Service, United States Department of Agriculture
December 3, 2003
Federal Register: (Volume 68, Number 232)
[Page 67679-67685]
[DOCID:fr03de03-65]
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
[FDA 225-03-7000]
AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS.
ACTION: Notice.
SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is providing notice of a
memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Food and Drug Administration and
Agricultural Marketing Service, United States Department of Agriculture. The
purpose of the MOU is to ensure that sponsors of new antimicrobial animal drugs
have access to an effective means for evaluating the effects of their drugs on
current Food Safety and Inspection Service detection tests.
DATES: The agreement became effective January 23, 2003. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT: Valerie Reeves, Center for Veterinary Medicine (HFV-151), Food and Drug
Administration, 7500 Standish Pl., Rockville, MD 20855, 301-827-6973.
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