AnimalNet June
5/07
Chinese soldier dies of bird flu
To
halt bird flu outbreaks, researchers perfect fast
poultry extermination
Learning from animals
South
Korea halts some U.S. beef imports
When
fakery turns fatal
New,
stricter regulations may force small abattoirs
underground
More
research the way forward to oust pig disease
Dutch
try to grow enviro-friendly meat in lab
how
to subscribe
Chinese soldier dies of bird flu
05.jun.07
Wall Street Journal
Associated Press
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118102915540524903.html?mod=home_whats_news_asia
BEIJING -- A 19-year-old Chinese soldier has,
according to this story, died of the H5N1 bird-flu
strain, the country's 16th reported death from the
virus reported World Health Organization and China's
Health Ministry on Tuesday.
Joanna Brent, a spokeswoman for WHO's Beijing office
was quoted as saying that the Health Ministry,
informed WHO about the death on Sunday but didn't
give any details about his case, including how he
contracted the disease or exactly where he was
posted.
The story goes on to say that one of China's two
other reported human cases of bird flu this year was
a farmer in Fujian, but the soldier wasn't near that
area.
To
halt bird flu outbreaks, researchers perfect fast
poultry extermination
05.jun.07
The Daily Iowan
Associated Press
http://media.www.dailyiowan.com/media/storage/paper599/news/2007/06/05/Nation/To.Halt.Bird.Flu.Outbreaks.Researchers.Perfect.Fast.Poultry.Extermination-2911704.shtml
MOUNT PLEASANT MILLS, Pa. (AP) -- As Jim Skinner
scans 5,000 ducks quacking and pacing across a barn
he knows, according to this story exactly what he
most fears.
Back in November, one of his flocks caught bird flu.
He had to kill 2,500 ducks to block any spread,
gassing them with carbon dioxide or simply breaking
necks by hand.
He also lost $90,000 in business and came "this
close" - his fingers form a pincer - to going under.
Under industry and government rules, flocks infected
with the strongest strains are put to death as
quickly as possible. That's because if the disease
spreads, it imperils both farms and foods they
raise. Some strains can also sicken and kill people.
The story goes on to say that the industry prefers
the term "depopulate," but no euphemism softens the
raw reality of putting down birds by the tens of
thousands. This may be done by electrocuting,
gassing or chopping under international standards.
The new poultry-killing instrument of choice
according to industry, academia and government
representatives, is foam.
These soapy air bubbles, adapted from what
firefighters use to smother blazes, can smother
birds within several minutes, with minimal contact
between workers and infection. Supporters say this
method saves precious hours and costly labor.
The problem is that some consider it less humane
than gassing. Carbon dioxide at least knocks birds
unconscious before it poisons them, say its
advocates.
Learning from animals
05.jun.07
Commentary from the International Food Safety
Network (iFSN)
Douglas Powell
Four-year-old Erin Jacobs of Jeffersonville, Penn.
went to Merrymead Farm in 2000 to pet the animals
and learn about farm life. Her learning experience
included contracting E. coli O157:H7 and an eventual
kidney transplant.
At the 2005 Florida Strawberry Festival, a
7-year-old Tampa girl and a 53-year-old St.
Petersburg woman who visited the petting zoo
acquired E. coli O157:H7, required extensive medical
treatment and settled lawsuits for millions of
dollars.
Last month, several cases of cryptosporidium, which
causes severe diarrhea, were diagnosed across
Greater Manchester (U.K.) after people visited local
farms on educational trips.
There have been over 20 outbreaks of severe illness
from petting zoos in the past decade.
And now, Canadian researchers have reported that
operators and visitors at petting zoos in Ontario
aren't doing what they are supposed to be doing.
Scott Weese, a clinical studies professor at the
University of Guelph, and colleagues report in the
July 1 edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases that
in a study of 36 petting zoos in Ontario between May
and October of 2006, they observed infrequent hand
washing, food sold and consumed near the animals,
and children being allowed to drink bottles or suck
on pacifiers in the petting area.
So seven years after 159 people, mainly children,
were thought to be sickened with E. coli O157:H7
traced to a goat and a sheep at the 1999 Western
Fair in London, Ontario, and seven years after all
Canadian fairs were urged to adopt 46
recommendations to enhance petting zoo safety, many
are still doing a lousy job.
In commenting on the Florida settlement last month,
Seattle attorney Bill Marler said, "It's a hard
lesson for petting zoos and county fairs to learn,
but they really need to do more than what they have
been doing."
Weese noted that risk can be significantly reduced
by locating hand-washing stations at the exit of a
petting zoo, posting signs promoting good hygiene
and educating people about the risks of bringing
food, beverages or items that may end up in a
child’s mouth into the zoo.
Such measures echo recommendations issued in 2001 by
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Unfortunately these reports and recommendations do
not offer advice on how to ensure that fair
operators are actually doing what they are supposed
to be doing.
In 2003, U.S. researchers, in a study of livestock
at 29 county and 3 large state agricultural fairs,
found E. coli O157:H7 in 13.8 per cent of beef
cattle, 5.9 per cent of dairy cattle, 3.6 per cent
of pigs, 5.2 per cent of sheep, and 2.8 per cent of
goats. Over seven percent of pest fly pools also
tested positive for E. coli O157:H7.
The bad bugs are there and handwashing may not be
enough to get rid of them.
The E. coli O157:H7 that sickened 82 people in 2002
at the Lane County Fair in Oregon appears to have
spread through the air inside the goat and sheep
expo hall. In a case-controlled study, health
investigators found that the percentage of sick
people who washed their hands after leaving the Lane
County animal barns -- 31 percent -- was only
slightly lower than the percentage of healthy people
who washed their hands -- 36 percent. In other words
those who washed their hands were at almost the same
risk of contracting E. coli, O157:H7. One child
sickened at the fair, 23-month-old Carson Walter of
Eugene, spent a month at Doernbecher Children's
Hospital before coming home.
These learning experiences raise questions: how best
to motivate fair managers to provide petting zoos
that are microbiologically safe? Should the urban
public be allowed to interact with livestock at all?
Should petting zoos be inspected, as restaurants
are, and the results displayed?
Prof. Hugh Pennington of the U.K. has gone so far as
to say that children under five (who are more
vulnerable because of their still-developing immune
systems) should be banned from visiting livestock
farms because of the serious risk of acquiring E.
coli O157:H7 infection from farm animals. Such a ban
already exists in Sweden.
There is much to learn from interacting with
animals, farms, the world. The challenge is to do so
in a microbiologically safe manner.
Douglas Powell is scientific director of the
International Food Safety Network at Kansas State
University
foodsafety.ksu.edu
dpowell@ksu.edu
South
Korea halts some U.S. beef imports
04.jun.07
Reuters
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SEO77496.htm
SEOUL (Reuters) -- South Korea has, according to
this story, halted beef imports from plants owned by
Cargill and Tyson Foods Inc. after determining the
meat they shipped violated an export agreement with
Washington.
Last week, South Korea suspended beef imports from
two Cargill plants after the discovery of bone in
beef cuts.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture was quoted as
saying in response to an inquiry from Seoul that
66.4 tonnes of 118 tonnes of beef shipped to South
Korea, including the meat from Cargill, were
actually intended for U.S. sale, not export. The
South Korean Agriculture ministry was cited as
saying in a statement
"We asked Washington to explain how the government
issued export quarantine certificates for the beef
and to step up its efforts to ensure safe beef
exports."
When
fakery turns fatal
05.jun.07
New York Times
David Barboza
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/business/worldbusiness/05fakes.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
WUDI, China -- They might be called China’s renegade
businessmen, according to this story, small
entrepreneurs who are experts at counterfeiting and
willing to go to extraordinary lengths to make a
profit. But just how far out of the Chinese
mainstream are they?
Here in Wudi in eastern China, a few companies tried
to save money by slipping the industrial chemical
melamine into pet food ingredients as a cheap
protein enhancer, helping incite one of the largest
pet food recalls ever.
In Taixing, a city far to the south, a small
business cheated the system by substituting a cheap
toxic chemical for pharmaceutical-grade syrup,
leading to a mass poisoning in Panama. And in the
eastern province of Anhui, a group of entrepreneurs
concocted a fake baby-milk formula that eventually
killed dozens of rural children.
The incidents are the latest indications that
cutting corners or producing fake goods is not just
a legacy of China’s initial rush toward the free
market three decades ago but still woven into the
fabric of the nation’s thriving industrial economy.
It is driven by entrepreneurs who are taking
advantage of a weak legal system, lax regulations
and a business culture where bribery and corruption
are rampant.
Wenran Jiang, a specialist in China who teaches at
the University of Alberta was cited as saying“This
is cut-throat market capitalism. But the question
has to be asked: is this uniquely Chinese or is
there simply a lack of regulation in the market?”
The story goes on to say that counterfeiting, of
course, is not new to China. Since this country’s
economic reforms began to take root in the 1980s,
businesses have engineered countless ways to produce
everything from fake car parts, cosmetics and brand
name bags to counterfeit electrical cables and phony
Viagra. Counterfeiting rings are broken nearly every
week; nonetheless, the government seems to be waging
a losing battle against the operations.
But the discovery of dangerous ingredients in foods
and drugs has raised more serious questions.
One such operation is centered here in Wudi, about
five hours southeast of Beijing. This is where the
trail of the American pet food recall leads.
Regulators came to Wudi in early May and shut down
one of the region’s biggest feed exporters, the
Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Company. They also
detained its manager, Tian Feng, after American
officials identified Binzhou Futian as one of two
Chinese companies responsible for shipping
contaminated pet food ingredients to the United
States.
Agricultural workers and experts in this region say
the practice of doctoring animal and fish feed with
melamine and other ingredients is widespread in
China. And Wudi, they say, has long been known as a
center for such activity.
“Wudi became famous for fake fish powder almost 10
years ago,” Chen Baojiang, a professor of animal
nutrition at the Agricultural University of Hebei
was cited as saying "All kinds of fillers have been
used. At the beginning it was vegetable protein,
then urea. Now it’s feather powder.”
Xue Min, who works at the Feed Research Institute, a
division of the China Academy of Agricultural
Sciences in Beijing was quoted as saying that “about
90 percent of the fish powder on the market is
fake.”
The story goes on to sat that to reach bigger
customers, feed producers from Wudi recently began
calling themselves “technology” companies that sell
protein powder. And they are using online trading
Web sites like Alibaba.com to sell their goods.
But few companies here were as successful as Binzhou
Futian, which in 2006 won contracts to ship pet food
ingredients to major suppliers in the United States
and South Africa.
The American and South African middlemen say that
they found Binzhou Futian through online
advertisements and commodity-trading Web sites. The
companies did not bother to visit Binzhou’s
factories or to investigate its background or its
export record.
Leon Ekermans, a marketing director at Bester Feed
and Grain, a South African grain trader was quoted
as saying “I’m not sure of the introduction, but I
think it was through Google search.”
Asked whether Bester had researched the supplier’s
record or visited China, Mr. Ekermans was cited as
acknowledging that the answer was no. “We tested
samples,” he said, “but it was very difficult to
test for melamine.”
Dali Yang, who teaches at the University of Chicago
and has studied China’s food safety regulations was
cited as saying that if something is not explicitly
banned — it’s not banned. “As long as people are not
sick or dying, it’s O.K.”
New,
stricter regulations may force small abattoirs
underground
05.jun.07
Globe and Mail
Shannon Moneo
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070605.BCHOUSE05/TPStory/National
VICTORIA -- Demanding and expensive new government
regulations are, according to this story, driving
small B.C. slaughterhouses out of business or
underground, and farmers are joining the exodus.
a B.C. slaughterhouse operator was cited as saying
"I've spent $70,000 to get my government inspection,
but they keep moving the goal posts. It's a joke.
They're making us break the law." On Oct. 1, anyone
who slaughters animals and processes meat to be sold
within B.C., must meet the requirements of the
province's new Meat Inspection Regulation.
The regulation covers everything from the diameter
of slaughterhouse floor drains to the height of
rails that enclose the animals.
There are even provisions that meat inspectors, who
must be present whenever animals are slaughtered,
must have their own office and washroom.
The slaughterhouse operator was further cited as
saying even if he fails the inspection, he will
continue to butcher animals.
The unnamed operator was also cited as saying that
that the cost of the upgrades to his business mean
that he'll raise his price to kill, cut and wrap a
cow to $150 from $85.
The story goes on to say that some feel that
livestock-dependant business on the island will be
forced to close in response as there will be no
where to slaughter and process meat. In July, new
disposal methods will be introduced for animal waste
products - known as specified risk material - to
fight the spread of bovine spongiform
encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease.
B.C. Agriculture Minister Pat Bell was cited as
saying the changes are necessary.
"We want to ensure human health is protected."
Anthony Toth, chief executive officer of the B.C.
Food Processors Association was cited as saying that
this new regime will guarantee the safety and
reputation of B.C.'s food from animal diseases like
BSE and avian flu
But Saltspring Island farmer Rollie Cook was quoted
as saying that small-scale B.C. farms and abattoirs
have rarely been a source of disease. The farmers
know their animals and the butchers know the
farmers.
Cook was further quoted as saying that "the new
rules are a way of getting rid of small agriculture.
The little guys are getting slaughtered."
More
research the way forward to oust pig disease
05.jun.07
fwi.co.uk
Jonathan Long
A more integrated approach to pig research is,
according to this story, needed if conditions such
as post-weaning multi-systemic wasting syndrome
(PMWS) are to be avoided in future. Francois Madec
of France's Food Safety Agency told delegates at the
Alltech Symposium, Lexington, Kentucky was cited as
saying that "Despite a number of scientific reviews,
PMWS and porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) remain
puzzling problems. There is growing evidence that
PCV2 is an associated cause of PMWS."
Dr Madec was further quoted as saying that "There
are five basic hypothesis of where PMWS came from,
each of them valid in some way."
First, PCV2 changed, so PMWS is induced by a new
specific virulent strain. Second, PCV2 didn't
change, but there is another new or presently
unknown pathogen involved.
Third, pigs were exposed to something new of a
non-infectious nature, but which triggered PCV2
replication through immunomodulation and/or
modification of the virus environment within the
target cells. This new factor has been spreading
through trade.
Fourth, management and husbandry have been changing
and these changes in breeding herds may have also
interfered with the routes of PCV2 spread. And
finally, the genetic background of pigs changed,
through reduced variability as a result of targeted
breeding programmes and increased susceptibility of
certain lines.
Dutch
try to grow enviro-friendly meat in lab
01.jun.07
Reuters
Reed Stevenson
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL3051670020070601?feedType=RSS&pageNumber=1
UTRECHT, The Netherlands (Reuters) -- Dutch
researchers are, according to this story, trying to
grow pork meat in a laboratory with the goal of
feeding millions without the need to raise and
slaughter animals.
Bernard Roelen, a veterinary science professor at
Utrecht University was quoted as saying that they
are "trying to make meat without having to kill
animals." Although it is in its early stages, the
idea is to replace harvesting meat from livestock
with a process that eliminates the need for animal
feed, transport, land use and the methane expelled
by animals, which all hurt the environment.
Asked whether people would be repulsed by lab-grown
meat, Roelen was cited as saying he believed there
would be enough demand, as much of what people eat
today is already extensively processed, from the
feed that animals consume to the conditions under
which they are raised and the preparation of meat
after slaughter.
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