AnimalNet Dec. 4/03
Researchers
achieve key step toward new growth promoter for beef cattle
Anti-PETA
television ads reveal group's darker side: animal rights group has financed
arson and other violence
Prairie
Swine Centre recommends various width gestation stalls
Elk breeders
reject blame for CWD
Pig
researchers duped investors
'Alarmist'
article riles pork official
Cattle
industry opposes dumping manure on ice: Producers working to improve water
quality
Fluorescent
fish
how to subscribe
Researchers
achieve key step toward new growth promoter for beef cattle
December 5, 2003
Canada Alberta Beef Industry Development Fund, Alberta Beef Producers
Calgary, Alberta: A team of Alberta researchers has cloned the DNA sequence
encoding bovine epidermal growth factor (EGF), in a major first step toward the
development of a feed additive that would benefit cattle producers.
"Bovine EGF is a naturally-occurring protein with excellent potential to
improve feed efficiency and reduce intestinal infection in cattle," says
lead researcher Dr. Sylvie Bilodeau-Goeseels of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada's Lethbridge Research Centre. "By cloning its DNA sequence, we have
laid the groundwork for developing this protein as a feed additive for the beef
industry."
The achievement was accomplished in a three-year study funded in part by the
Canada Alberta Beef Industry Development Fund (CABIDF).
EGF is a peptide or small protein, composed of 53 amino acids. It is a potent
stimulant of proliferation for a variety of cell types including intestinal
epithelial cells. Experiments in rodents also suggest a role for EGF in the
regulation of nutrient uptake by intestinal cells. For example, EGF has been
shown to increase the transport of electrolytes, glucose and proline across
intestinal membranes.
Epidermal growth factor also has some potential as a prevention/treatment agent
for intestinal infections. Oral EGF administration reduced the rate of
intestinal infections in rabbits and prevented the reduction in weight gain
caused by infection.
In Alberta cow/calf operations, approximately 0.4 percent of animals are lost
each year to intestinal disease. That roughly translates to an annual economic
loss of more than $500,000. During major outbreaks, the percentage can rise to a
high of two percent.
"Reducing the rate of infection - and the resulting deaths - would be a
significant savings for producers," says Bilodeau-Goeseels. "Because
of the positive effects of EGF on intestinal function, we think it has great
potential as a feed additive. But, use of EGF as a feed additive will depend on
the ability to produce large quantities and the cost of production."
While the cloning of the DNA sequence encoding bovine EGF is a significant
scientific achievement on its own, further research will be needed to determine
the biological activity of bovine EGF; for example, its ability to stimulate the
proliferation of intestinal cells and increase nutrient absorption by these
cells in vitro. Following that, its effects on average daily gain, feed intake,
nitrogen uptake and feed efficiency in cattle will be determined.
In recent years, an increasingly competitive marketplace has led to a
groundswell of research with the sole purpose of developing technologies that
improve the efficiency of livestock and dairy production.
"EGF is an excellent candidate to be one such technology because of its
demonstrated ability to increase the efficiency with which food is absorbed by
the intestine," says Bilodeau-Goeseels.
The first step of the three-year study was to isolate and clone the bovine EGF
genomic DNA sequences, which proved to be more difficult than researchers
anticipated.
"We found that the sequence encoding the mature bovine EGF protein is
significantly different from the corresponding sequences of other species, which
is likely why the bovine EGF coding sequence was so difficult to clone,"
says Bilodeau-Goeseels.
Following the cloning, researchers successfully inserted the bovine EGF
sequences into vectors for expression in both E. coli and P. pastoris with the
aim of producing large amount of protein for further studies.
CABIDF is a joint $16.4 million fund of Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural
Development and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The Fund is administered by
Alberta Beef Producers and has supported more than 50 projects in five major
categories identified to benefit the Alberta beef industry.
Anti-PETA
television ads reveal group's darker side: animal rights group has financed
arson and other violence
December 4, 2003
From a press release
WASHINGTON -- A controversial new television ad campaign launched this week by
the Center for Consumer Freedom is certain to give the publicity hounds at
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) the sort of attention they
don't actually want. The two spots feature a darker side of PETA that will
likely shock many of the group's supporters.
The first of two 30-second commercials features a young woman who talks about
teaching her children to love and respect animals. But she denounces PETA's
support of arson and other animal-rights violence as too extreme and
unacceptable.
The second spot highlights PETA's opposition to all medical research using
animals, including efforts to find cures for leukemia, multiple sclerosis, and
AIDS. PETA even donated $70,000 from its tax-exempt contributions to Rodney
Coronado, a convicted criminal who burned down a Michigan State University
research lab. PETA president Ingrid Newkirk recently referred to Coronado as a
"fine young man." The ad shows Coronado, videotaped less than a year
after his parole expired, demonstrating to student activists how to build a
firebomb.
The Center for Consumer Freedom's ads will begin airing nationally this week on
the Fox News Channel.
Prairie
Swine Centre recommends various width gestation stalls
December 4, 2003
Farmscape (Episode 1398)
A researcher with the Prairie Swine Centre says hog producers can improve the
longevity of breeding sows by varying the width of the stalls in which they're
housed. The Saskatoon based Prairie Swine Centre is in the midst of two programs
looking at housing, one examining group housing using electronic sow feeders and
the other examining stalls. Dr. Harold Gonyou says, in an effort to maximize the
economic efficiency of hog production facilities, industry has been driven
toward narrower and narrower gestation stalls. He says, while reducing stall
size has been cost effective, industry is recognizing those stalls are too
narrow for the larger sows and that's taking its toll on longevity.
Clip-Dr. Harold Gonyou-Prairie Swine Centre
In looking at the size of the gestations stall, we're finding that a gilt, the
first pregnancy, a 22 inch wide stall seems to accommodate her fairly well. By
the time she gets into her second and third pregnancy it would seem that you
would need to be into a 24 inch stall. To achieve the same degree of freedom of
movement in an animal in the third, fourth and fifth pregnancy you need to be up
to 26 inches and you may have to go even to 28 inch wide stalls to achieve the
same kind of freedom of movement as a gilt does in 22 inch. I would advocate
that a farm should have a variety of stall widths, not a single width throughout
the entire system and that you put sows into stalls based on their size. When
they come from farrowing and go into the breeding gestation unit, you move all
of your small animals in first into the small stalls and then your next parity
group into slightly bigger stalls, etceteras so that your biggest sows have
access to the biggest stalls.
Dr. Gonyou says, as producers go to wider stalls, one consideration is to move
to a more cost effective group housing system. He says there are several
management options within group housing but the centre is focusing its attention
on systems which utilize electronic feeding. For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce
Cochrane.
-Dr. Gonyou was on hand yesterday to address Manitoba Hog Days 2003 in
Brandon, Manitoba
*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council
Elk
breeders reject blame for CWD
December 3, 2003
The Leader-Post (Regina)
B4
Mark Taylor
SASKATOON -- The announcement of a 16th case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in
the province has, according to this story, Saskatchewan elk and deer breeders
concerned blame has unfairly been put on them.
The story explains that a story in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix last week suggested
a mule deer confirmed to have the disease was shot in an area northeast of
Lloydminster where infected CWD game animals may have once escaped into.
Luke Perkins, president of the Saskatchewan Elk Breeders Association (SEBA) was
cited as saying the origin and rise of CWD is no fault of the roughly 270
licensed elk breeders in his association, adding, "When people ask what do
we (elk breeders) know about CWD and where did it come from, well, we didn't
invent it...It's always been there."
Stan Hall, president of the Saskatchewan White Tail and Mule Deer Producers
Association was cited as saying CWD is a naturally occurring disease, adding,
"If you look for it you will find it."
Pig
researchers duped investors
December 3, 2003
Guelph Mercury
A4
Source: The Record
Three officials of a company started in Guelph to develop disease-free pigs
will, according to this story, be sentenced on Feb. 3 for duping investors.
A statement of facts presented in a Kitchener, Ontario court Tuesday was cited
as saying that company officials at Struthers Research Inc. duped 2,700
investors across Canada and the United States by diverting $1.2 million of
company funds.
Ronald Wayne Struthers of Cambridge, the company's president and CEO, pleaded
guilty to fraud over $5,000 and theft over $5,000.
His son, Jason Struthers of Cambridge, director of international business
development, pleaded guilty to the same charges, as did Paul Allcock of Guelph,
the company's director of corporate affairs.
Struthers Research Inc. was started in September 1994 in Guelph, primarily
involved with research and development in the swine industry. Its object was to
develop a leaner, disease-free pig through embryo transplants.
Its main source of revenue was investment by private individuals all over Canada
and the United States. In 1997, the company was renamed Struthers International
Research Corp. and registered in the United States.
Crown prosecutor Greg Tweney was cited as saying that between December 1995 and
December 1998, all three men misappropriated more than $1.2 million from the
company to finance other ventures unrelated to the company business. It was also
used for the personal benefit of the three men and falsely recorded in the
company books as company expenses, he said.
Struthers Research received funding from the National Research Council and
Business Credit Services. It was backed by the University of Guelph, where
researchers were doing contract work for Struthers.
'Alarmist'
article riles pork official
December 4, 2003
The London Free Press
A12
Larry Skinner, Chairperson, Ontario Pork Listowel, writes regarding, Vox Pop,
Pig farms pose major threat to human health (Nov. 26), to say his opinion piece
is so full of even less than half-truths it collectively couldn't add up to one
whole truth. Half-truths are always hard to swallow, but it was the manipulation
of information that would actually scare people that compelled me to respond.
Let's be clear on two things: The Walkerton tragedy had nothing to do with
"factory farms" and it had nothing to do with pigs. Alarmist claims
that "epidemics of lethal E. coli infections are waiting to occur" are
just plain wrong.
The recent Lake Huron cottage owners' lab report referred to in the article
concluded the DNA-ribotyping procedure used couldn't differentiate between
animal species.
Extrapolating that lone study's results to "factory livestock farming,
particularly pig farms." is extremely irresponsible and self-serving. We
are not waiting for or opposing environmental legislation. Ontario's farmers
have been asking for uniform legislation and standards for years.
Large farms are already under the new Nutrient Management Act, and all farmers
follow a whole host of environmental laws. Skinner says he is proud that
Ontario's 4,000 hog farmers have invested more than $2 million of our own money
to fund environmental research. If there are any problems, we want to know about
it; it's our land and our children that are directly affected.
Our research results are used to look ahead, find solutions and continually
improve our farm practices. That's something to be proud of
Cattle
industry opposes dumping manure on ice: Producers working to improve water
quality
December 4, 2003
The Edmonton Journal
A19
Marvin Conrad of St. Paul writes regarding, New strategy to protect water
resources," Nov. 27, to say that dumping manure on river ice has never been
a practice condoned by the cattle industry.
The cattle industry has been pro-active in the protection of water quality. In
partnership with other interested groups it has developed, The Cows and Fish
program. This program, developed many years ago, is ongoing today because of
support, financial and otherwise, of the cattle industry.
Cattle producers have been actively working with and in support of the North
Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance. The industry has developed and distributed a
booklet explaining and recommending best practices for producers with riparian
areas.
If The Journal was aware of an actual case of dumping manure on river ice why
didn't it use one of the three avenues now available to prosecute it; Alberta
Environment, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, or Alberta Fish and Wildlife? It would
have had the support of cattle producers across the province.
Instead you have offended and alienated a group who could be the greatest ally
in the protection of rivers and riparian areas.
There are many factors impacting water quality in Alberta rivers and lakes. Much
progress has been made but much work remains. It will best be accomplished when
we all realize we have an impact and begin to work individually and in concert
to minimize our negative impact on water quality.
Fluorescent
fish
December 3, 2003
Associated Press
Don Thompson
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Citing ethical concerns, state regulators were cited as
refusing Wednesday to allow sales of the first bio-engineered household pet, a
zebra fish that glows fluorescent. GloFish are expected to go on sale everywhere
else next month.
The story says that California is the only state with a ban on genetically
engineered species, and the Fish and Game Commission said it would not exempt
the zebra fish from the law even if escaped fish would not pose a threat to the
state's waterways.
Commissioner Sam Schuchat was quoted as sasying, "For me it's a question of
values, it's not a question of science. I think selling genetically modified
fish as pets is wrong."
The 3-1 vote came moments after commissioners approved the state's 14th license
for research into genetically modified fish. But commissioners drew the line on
permitting widespread sales of a biotech fish for pure visual pleasure.
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