AnimalNet April 16/04
Spain has
reported its 33rd case of BSE
Beef
industry too reliant on live exports: report
Ranchers
outraged; livestock starvation case baffling for producers
Avian flu
hits another B.C. farm
Chicken flu
latest in long line of factory farming ills
Horse herd
quarantined near Waverly Hall, Ga., to contain strangles disease
Vietnam says
trafficking in wild animals at alarming proportions
Animal-rights
extremism: Playing terrorists
County's
proposed bio-solids bylaw takes a pounding
Help ban
foie gras in California!
Standing
Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health Section: Animal Nutrition
TRACES:
Commission adopts new system to manage animal movements and prevent the spread
of animal diseases
Washington
state cattle producers form second group
CPC
prepares for formal US investigation into imports of Canadian live hog
Bayer urged
to withdraw Enrofloxacin
Improving
livestock production techniques
how to subscribe
Spain
has reported its 33rd case of BSE
April 13, 2004
Meat News
http://www.meatnews.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Article&artNum=7288
Spain has reported its thirty-third case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy
this year. The case discovered through the standard testing of carcases, was
found in a cow from the Villaquilambre district of León. Spain has reported a
total of 411 cases of BSE since the brain-wasting disease was first reported
there in 1998.
Beef
industry too reliant on live exports: report
April 15, 2004
Globe and Mail Update
LUMA MUHTADIE
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040415.wcows0415/BNStory/National/
A new Senate committee report was cited as recommending that the federal
government must invest in Canada's ability to process its own meat if it wants
to prevent a future case of mad-cow disease from wreaking havoc with the
economy.
Donald Oliver, chairman of the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and
Forestry, which produced the report, was quoted as saying, "We believe that
there is going to be another case of BSE. We have got to take public policy
steps now by legislation and rules and regulations to make sure the impact is
never again as bad as it has been for this one BSE cow."
The report also calls on Canada and its North American trading partners to
harmonize their health and sanitation standards for livestock and meat, and set
up a permanent agricultural secretariat who would use the standards to regulate
trade flow scientifically.
The report was cited as saying that a single case of bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE) detected in an Alberta beef cow last May crippled Canada's
beef industry — worth about $7-billion in cash receipts one year earlier —
because of the industry's heavy reliance on exports of live cattle, almost
exclusively to the United States.
About 40 per cent of Canada's exports of beef and beef products in 2002 were
composed of live cattle, because of a lack of infrastructure to process cattle
at home. Eighty per cent of Canada's capacity for slaughtering heifers and
steers is concentrated in only two packing plants in Alberta.
If Canada wants an industry that is less vulnerable to the will of other
countries it must reduce its dependence on live cattle exports and rely on its
own processing capabilities, the report says.
The report was quoted as saying that, "Given the integrated nature of the
cattle industry in North America, it must be recognized that the Canada/U.S.
border is an arbitrary line that has little effect on the safety of beef
consumed on the continent."
The report recommends that safeguards in every aspect of the cattle industry be
consistent on both sides of the continent's borders, and a consistent protocol
be followed to contain disease when it arises, so that markets could continue to
function.
Ranchers
outraged; livestock starvation case baffling for producers
April 15, 2004
Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune
3
Jeff Korenko
Local ranchers who have a beef with a Spirit River, Alberta-area father and son
who have been charged with starving their livestock to death, were cited as
expressing dismay and anger at learning more than 100 lifeless cattle and sheep
were discovered late last month by the Alberta SPCA on a Blueberry Mountain-area
farm northwest of Spirit River.
Peace River-area rancher Ed Dziengielewski was cited as saying that considering
everything ranchers are going through lately, situations such as the one which
led to Kenneth James and Graeme Douglas Othen being charged with allowing
animals to be in distress are becoming more prevalent, but that is no excuse for
what is alleged to have happened, adding, "Sell them. They would have got
something. This way, they got nothing and they have just given themselves a bad
name."
The story says that Kenneth Othen, 58 and his son Graeme, 25, face a maximum
$20,000 fine under the Alberta Protection Act.
Avian
flu hits another B.C. farm
April 16, 2004
Globe and Mail/CP/
Dr. Cornelius Kiley of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was cited as telling
a news conference on Thursday that bird flu has spread to a 29th farm in B.C.'s
Fraser Valley, causing concern among officials who noted that the latest
infection site is a ”considerable” distance from the original high-risk
area, adding, ”The [latest] case is certainly a worry to us. One of the
reasons we are hammering home the message of biosecurity is that the 29th
finding is in the Cloverdale area, which is a considerable leap away."
The story notes that Cloverdale is about 45 kilometres west of the original
”hot zone” — a five-kilometre square tract of agricultural land near
Abbotsford, B.C., where avian influenza was first detected in February and where
strict biosecurity measures have been in place for more than a month.
The 29th site of infection marks the second area outside the hot zone to be
infected with the virus, Dr. Cornelius said.
Chicken
flu latest in long line of factory farming ills
April 16, 2004
From a press release
REGINA - Today, Canadians across the country are calling on their provincial and
federal governments to put an end to factory farm support programs and start
re-building the livestock sector with policies that support healthy,
environmentally-friendly family farming. Nineteen million chickens in BC are on
death row due to the Avian Flu epidemic, a disease crisis caused by the
excessive concentration of poultry operations in BC's Fraser Valley. The
severity of the disease and the speed it has spread is a clear result of
intensive production methods and too many operations too close together.
Factory farms - concentrated poultry operations in the Fraser Valley; giant
feedlots in rural Alberta; hog mega-barns on the Prairies, Ontario, Quebec and
New Brunswick - are driving family farmers out of business, polluting the air
and water, and are leading to serious animal disease problems.
Since the early 1990s, the number of family farms with hogs in Canada has fallen
from over 29,000 to less than 12,000-a loss of nearly 2/3 in a decade. Yet hog
production has increased. This trend toward bigger, more intensive livestock
operations is being supported by governments at all levels through policies,
programs, tax breaks, regulatory regimes, loan guarantees and even investments
which encourage factory farms to off-load costs, over-produce, and vertically
integrate with processors.
This vision of Canadian farming is increasingly at odds with the wishes of the
Canadian public. An Ipsos-Reid Poll released today shows that 89% of
Canadians want provincial and federal government support to go to family farms
with environmentally-friendly livestock production systems and not large
corporate farms. Today, the Beyond Factory Farming Coalition, made up of
national, provincial and local organizations that represent thousands of
Canadians, is calling upon governments to do just that.(1)
The Beyond Factory Farming Coalition represents thousands of Canadians through
farm, labour, environmental, animal welfare, rural and urban community
organizations. Members in communities across Canada are holding anti-factory
farming events today.
(1)These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/Council of Canadians poll conducted
from March 30th to April 1st 2004. For the telephone survey, a representative
randomly selected sample of 1000 adult Canadians was interviewed by telephone.
With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within (+/-)
3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the
entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger
within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data
were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex
composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the
2001 Census data. Please visit www.ipsos-reid.com to view the survey findings.
www.canadians.org
Horse
herd quarantined near Waverly Hall, Ga., to contain strangles disease
April 16, 2004
Knight-Ridder Tribune
Harry Franklin, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Ga.
A herd of horses on a farm just east of Waverly Hall off Georgia Highway 208
(U.S.) was, according to this story, ordered quarantined earlier this month
after some of the horses were found to have equine strangles, a contagious
disease.
Georgia Department of Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin was cited as ordering
that other horses are not to be brought to the farm or any taken from the farm
at 8459 Georgia 208 in Talbot County until a veterinarian certifies that for 30
days the horses have shown no signs of the disease. The quarantine order was
issued April 1.
The herd, which includes Tennessee walking horses, has about 115 horses but was
much larger last year, Irvin said, when the department received a complaint in
May that horses at Crowley Farms were not being properly fed.
Strangles, a potentially deadly disease, is an easily transmitted infectious
disease in of horses that is seen worldwide. It is caused by a bacterium called
Streptococcus equi.
While usually occurring in young equine, those of any age lacking immunity from
prior infection or vaccination may contract it, according to a Georgia
Department of Agriculture bulletin. The disease is not communicable to humans.
Common signs of strangles include:
Thick yellow discharge from nostrils and eyes
Swollen lymph nodes of the head and neck, often draining pus
Difficulty in swallowing, often with an extended neck
Fever up to 106 degrees
Depressed with no appetite
Coughing
Vietnam
says trafficking in wild animals at alarming proportions
April 16, 2004
Agence France Presse English
HANOI - Nguyen Thu Ha, an information officer from the Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development's forestry department, was cited as saying that wild
animal trafficking in Vietnam has reached alarming proportions, with between 450
and 1,500 tonnes and hundreds of thousands of animals being traded annually, and
that only around five percent of trafficking cases are detected each year.
The story says that despite laws prohibiting consumption and trade in endangered
animals, the communist nation has an extremely poor protection record, partly
due to the supposed medicinal benefits of using body parts in food or drink and
the social status accrued through public consumption of highly priced wild
animals.
The main routes for wildlife trafficking are across the country's porous
northern border with China and its southwestern boundary with Cambodia.
However, efforts to prevent the trade in wild animals, including snakes,
monkeys, boars and porcupines, have proved highly problematic.
Animal-rights
extremism: Playing terrorists
Apr 15, 2004
The Economist
Excrement through the post in the morning and a rape alarm through the
letter-box at night; a can of paint stripper poured on the car and
balaclava-shrouded eyes at the window to frighten the children: workers at
companies who use animals for medical research have all this to look forward to
when they down their pipettes and go home.
According to this story, on April 17th, designated by protesters as “World Day
for Lab Animals”, several hundred people will march through Cambridge
protesting against Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), which does research for drug
companies. Most of the crowd will be lawful. But there will also be a couple of
dozen who repeatedly break the law to harass the company. Mainstream
animal-rights activists shun this group. So does an increasingly
terrorism-intolerant public. So why are these predators on science and reason
not yet extinct?
Part of the answer is evolutionary adaptation to a weaker position in a harsher
environment. Anti-vivisection rallies in the early 1990s attracted thousands,
but many have since been put off by the violence and fanaticism of the hard
core. The remaining militants have now figured out that outright violence loses
sympathy and gets them arrested. So no real bombs have been sent to researchers
for a while, though pretend ones abound. Physical assaults are now rare, while
threats of thuggery are more common. The key to survival is to be extreme enough
to attract money from the small number of supporters who want violence, while
staying anonymous enough to evade the police.
The choice of terrain and prey has changed too. Extremists harass researchers
and other workers not at their well-guarded workplaces, but at home, which is
hard for the police to cover. And instead of attacking labs, which must stand
firm to stay in business, the new target is any firm that supplies services to
animal-research companies. Tactics include blocking communications with constant
phone calls, e-mails and faxes, and attacking company property. Stop Huntingdon
Animal Cruelty (SHAC) boasts that 25 suppliers have withdrawn services from HLS
in the first three months of this year.
The story adds that the industry wants new laws to deal with the problem and
points to America, which brought in special provisions against animal-rights
extremism under anti-terrorism legislation passed in 2002. That shouldn't be
necessary: the problem is weak wills, not weak laws. The police already have
extensive powers to deal with threatening behaviour.
Judges and magistrates are now, belatedly, being encouraged to treat each
incident as part of a wider campaign, rather than as isolated breaches of public
order laws. Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine political or religious bigots
getting away for so long with this level of intimidation and harassment if they
targeted, say, rabbis and synagogues. But, for the moment, workers in white
coats and their employers don't seem to matter that much.
County's
proposed bio-solids bylaw takes a pounding
April 16, 2004
The Daily News (Truro)
A1 / Front
John Christianson
Truro Daily News
A proposed Colchester County, Nova Scotia, bylaw designed to regulate the land
application of bio-solids was, according to this story, knocked full of holes
during a committee meeting last night.
Kurt Cormier, manager of the Rothsay rendering plant, was cited as saying if the
bylaw is passed as it stands, the plant may have to shut down temporarily
because there will be no place to send sludge produced from its own wastewater
plant.
Although the sludge produced at the company meets the technical requirements for
the end product, the bylaw does not recognize the technology the plant currently
uses.
Cormier was further cited as saying that without rendering, "farmers would
be forced to let dead animals rot in the fields," in addition, it may
affect thousands of jobs in dead stock collectors, abattoirs, packing houses and
more than 1,200 commercial grease accounts could go unserviced.
James Baxter, speaking on behalf of Baird's Septic Tank Pumping Ltd., said the
proposed municipal bylaw and provincial guidelines vary to such a degree it's
hard to believe that any scientific data was used to develop either of them.
Maureen Riley of the Sierra Club of Canada praised council for taking a position
on bio-solids in the absence of a strong provincial regulations.
She described the provincial guidelines as a "dog's breakfast" of
other jurisdictions regulations and called them "irrelevant."
Help
ban foie gras in California!
April 14, 2004
Animal Place E-Alert
Letters needed in support of SB1520 -- Hearing date is set for April 26.
SB1520 (a bill that would ban the production and sale of foie gras in the State
of California) has been sent to the Business and Professions Committee.
Foie gras is made from the unnaturally enlarged livers of ducks and geese who
have been cruelly force-fed. Birds raised for foie gras are confined to cages
and fed a high-protein, high-starch diet designed to promote rapid growth. When
they are between 8-10 weeks old, ducks and geese are subjected to gavage
feeding: a tube is pushed five inches down their throats so they can be
force-fed up to 2 lbs. of grain and fat two to three times a day for the next
three weeks. On average, they are force-fed 20 to 30 percent of their body
weight each day. Sometimes a stick is used to force it down.
The birds' livers, which become engorged from a carbohydrate-rich diet, can grow
to more than 10 times their normal size. Birds have difficulty standing, and
they tear out their own feathers and cannibalize one another as a result of
stress. The mortality rate of birds raised for foie gras has been found to be as
much as 20 times higher than that of birds raised normally, and carcasses show
wing fractures and severe tissue damage to the throat muscles.
Because of the suffering it causes, the force-feeding of birds has been outlawed
in at least a dozen countries, including Austria, Germany, Norway, Poland,
Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Israel previously the fourth-largest
producer of foie gras in the world. California can set a humane precedent in the
United States by following suit.
What You Can Do:
We need your help to ensure that this bill is passed into law and this inhumane
practice is ended in our state. There is only one foie gras producer in
California (Sonoma Foie Gras), but they've already hired an attorney to work on
their behalf and have recruited exclusive restaurateurs to fight for this
high-priced luxury item made from diseased ducks.
Standing
Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health Section: Animal Nutrition
March 25, 2004
European Commission, Health and Consumer Protection
The complete document of the following is available at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/rc/scfcah/anim_nut/agenda12_en.pdf
Agenda: Meeting of 25 March 2004
TRACES:
Commission adopts new system to manage animal movements and prevent the spread
of animal diseases
April 15, 2004
European Commission, Health and Consumer Protection
The complete document is available at:
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/04/479|0|RAPID&lg=EN&display=
Washington
state cattle producers form second group
April 16, 2004
Meatingplace.com
Eric Hanson
Some cattle producers in Washington state have formed a second state group that
they believe might better represent their interests than the Washington
Cattlemen's Association.
The new group, the Cattle Producers of Washington, already has signed up 75
members from across the state in its first month, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
reported.
"We're not out to draw lines between two state organizations," Ted
Wishon, a Colville rancher and president of the Stevens County Cattlemen's
Association, told the Post-Intelligencer. "We're hoping we work together
more than we oppose each other, but any time our industry gets representation,
it's good."
Tensions are due to unhappiness with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association,
which the Washington state group contends supports meat processors and packers
at the expense of cow-calf operators, according to the Post Intelligencer.
Washington state has about 10,000 cattle producers. Total membership for the
Washington Cattlemen's Association is about 1,850, including nonvoting members.
CPC
prepares for formal US investigation into imports of Canadian live hog
April 16, 2004
Farmscape (Episode 1494)
The Canadian Pork Council is vowing to defend Canadian hog producers in the wake
of the US Commerce Department's decision to formally investigate the impact of
imported Canadian live hogs on the US market. The US Department of Commerce has
initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations into imported live
Canadian hogs. Petitions filed by the US based National Pork Producers Council,
on behalf of American producers, allege subsidized Canadian weanling pigs and
slaughter hogs are being dumped into the US, lowering US prices and harming
American producers. Canadian Pork Council President Edouard Asnong says Canada
has done everything possible to ensure its programs comply with international
trade rules.
Clip-Edouard Asnong-Canadian Pork Council
We are preparing ourselves to react and to make a good defense. What we have
done and what we have developed, we have always been very careful to not develop
programs that we can be challenged on. Like the CAIS program, when that program
was developed it was in consultation with our trade lawyers in Ottawa and also
with our lawyers in Washington to make sure that would be acceptable.
Unfortunately we are accused of unfair trade but we have taken all of the
precautionary measures to prevent that.
The US International Trade Commission is scheduled to issue a preliminary
determination, May 3rd, on whether the US industry was injured as a result of
the imports. If it determines there is a reasonable indication that live swine
imports from Canada are causing material injury to the US industry or
threatening to do so, the case will continue. In that event the US Commerce
Department will issue a preliminary ruling on countervailing duties on June 11th
and a preliminary ruling on anti-dumping duties on August 25th. For Farmscape.Ca,
I'm Bruce Cochrane.
*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council
Bayer
urged to withdraw Enrofloxacin
April 13, 2004
Meat News
http://www.meatnews.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Article&artNum=7288
The Infectious Diseases Society of America is urging Bayer Corp. to comply with
a proposed federal regulatory action and withdraw enrofloxacin (Baytril) from
the market because of the concern that its use in poultry promotes
drug-resistant bacteria. Last month, FDA administrative law judge Daniel
Davidson approved the Food and Drug Administration proposal to ban
fluoroquinolones in poultry. Davidson agreed that the use of enrofloxacin has
promoted fluoroquinolone-resistant Campylobacter in poultry. He concluded that
the presence of resistant campylobacter in poultry leads to more severe
Campylobacter infections in humans. In a statement, the IDSA said it supported
"the reasonable and measured approach" the FDA has used in evaluating
the scientific data. That evaluation has shown that the use of enrofloxacin in
poultry decreases the effectiveness of ciprofloxacin in treating human
campylobacteriosis, the statement said. IDSA President Joseph Dalovisio, M.D.,
said it was not reasonable or responsible for Bayer Corp. to continue to resist
the decision, and particularly to continue to market their product during the
appeals process.
Improving
livestock production techniques
April 16, 2004
CSIRO Australia Media Release - Ref 2004/57
http://www.csiro.au/index.asp?type=mediaRelease&id=Livestockworkshop
Scientists from eight developing countries, the US, Europe, Japan and New
Zealand will attend a workshop in Brisbane next week to learn new techniques
designed to improve the productivity of ruminant livestock animals while
reducing their emissions of a major 'greenhouse' gas, methane.
Sponsored by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation and the International
Atomic Energy Agency, and hosted by CSIRO Livestock Industries (CLI), the
workshop is the first of its kind to be held at the Queensland Bioscience
Precinct.
"Our ability to attract this international workshop to Brisbane recognises
the world-class facilities and scientific expertise that CSIRO offers,"
says CSIRO Livestock Industries' Chief, Shaun Coffey.
"Supporting projects like this is necessary for global sustainability in
production systems," Mr Coffey says.
The workshop will train participants in the molecular techniques used to
characterise rumen microbes thereby enabling participants to better manage
ruminant nutrition to reduce methane emissions and improve production
efficiency.
"The world's livestock sector is undergoing a massive transformation,"
says workshop leader, CLI's Dr Chris McSweeney.
"Developing countries will have to meet increasing demands for meat and
milk in the coming decades, while reducing methane emissions and environmental
impacts. This workshop will give scientists in those countries strategies to
address these challenges."
The workshop will run from 19-30 April.
More information:
Dr Chris McSweeney, CSIRO Livestock Industries, 07 3214 2665
Media assistance:
Veronica Toohey, CSIRO Livestock Industries, 07 3214 2960
Animalnet is produced by the Food Safety
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Distributors, ConAgra Foods Inc., Meat & Livestock Australia, Ontario
Cattlemen’s Association, National Pork Board, Canadian Animal Health
Institute, Ontario Pork, Academy of Veterinary Consultants, Burger King
Corporation, Pfizer Animal Health, American Pet Products Manufacturers
Association, Feedlot Health Management Services, National Food Processors
Association, Tactix Government Consulting, Inc., and Global Public Affairs.
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