World Hog news:

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Monday, March 23, 2009Print This Page
Salmonella Epidemic in Finland Worsens
FINLAND - Salmonella has been found on new farms, bringing the latest totals of six pig farms and 23 egg farms. Two different Salmonella types have been found across the country in the current epidemic.



YLE reports that the food safety board, Evira, said on 22 March that new cases of salmonella had been detected at three more egg farms, bringing the total recently discovered infected facilities to six piggeries and 23 egg farms.

The previous day, it had announced new cases had been found at four more piggeries and one more egg farm.

The latest findings bring those totals to six and 23, respectively. Four of the pig farms are located in Ostrobothnia and two further east in the Häme region.

In addition, another strain of salmonella has been found at five meat-producing chicken farms in Ostrobothnia, western Finland. The strain found at these poultry farms is the Salmonella Montevideo. The type found at the pig and egg farms and in fodder sold by Raisio Feeds Ltd is Salmonella Tennessee.

"All of the infected broiler chickens have been destroyed, and none have ended up on the market," says Evira Veterinary Officer, Tarja Pohjanvirta. Last year, salmonella was found on three broiler chicken farms and one turkey farm.

Samples have been taken from 770 farms that received deliveries from Raisio Feeds recently. Two thirds are from pig farms, the rest from chicken farms.

Officials say that consumers do not have to worry about consuming eggs as the infection does not penetrate the shell. However, hands should be washed well after handling eggs when preparing food. Similarly, officials are allying any fears that consumers have about eating chicken.

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Monday, March 23, 2009Print This Page
Mexico Announces Three States as Free of CSF
MEXICO - The Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fishery and Food (SAGARPA) published in the Diario Oficial (Federal Register) on 30 January 2009, a notice declaring three Mexican States free of Classical Swine Fever (CSF).

 

With the notification of disease-free status for the three States - Chiapas, Oaxaca and Tabasco - the entire country is now officially considered free of this disease by SAGARPA.

The GOM and the State Governments of these three states have made efforts to develop and implement sanitary measures for the diagnosis, control, eradication and epidemiology surveillance of CSF.

After epidemiology sampling of 100 per cent of all commercial hog farms and a representative sample of the backyard production as prescribed in NOM-037-ZOO-1995, “Domestic Campaign against the Classical Swine Fever”, the surveillance activities confirmed the absence of the CSF etiological agent. Thus, SAGARPA officially declared Chiapas, Oaxaca and Tabasco as free of CSF. With the addition of these three States, SAGARPA has now declared all of Mexico as free of CSF.

FAS comment: The GOM has been working on developing new export markets for Mexican pork products to enhance the profitability of this sector and eventually benefit domestic producers. With this declaration, the GOM hopes to gain greater access to international markets, including the United States, for its pork and pork products. Currently, USDA/APHIS considers the Mexican States of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chihuahua, Nayarit, Quintana Roo, Sinaloa, Sonora, and Yucatan as free or of low risk for CSF

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009Print This Page
Pig Hijackers Caught in PRRS Quarantine Zone
VIET NAM - The authorities have thwarted a pig hijacking an area hit by blue ear disease.



Authorities stopped a group of hijackers from stealing a truck carrying more than 300 frozen swine in a blue ear pig disease epidemic zone on 21 March.

The truck driver had been stopped by disease control and commercial management agencies earlier for attempting to bring the 305 swine out of Que Son District, Quang Nam Province. The district is currently a quarantine zone due to an outbreak of blue ear pig disease.

The driver had been instructed to transport the frozen animals to a culling centre as it is illegal to transport pigs or pork out of the zone.

It was en route to the culling centre that three people on motorbikes pulled in front of the truck, forcing the vehicle to pull over.

While the would-be bandits checked the vehicle's inventory, nearby officials witnessing the ordeal called the police, who soon arrived at the scene and arrested the hijackers.

An increasing amount of smuggling across quarantine boundaries has been recorded over the last 10 days, said local authorities.

The province has ordered all district authorities in the quarantine zone to sterilize breeding areas for free but many villages have reported being charged fees of VND3,000 (US$0.17) per pig.

The disease has infected at least 1,300 pigs in Quang Nam Province so far.

Two other provinces, Quang Ninh in the north and Bac Lieu in the Mekong Delta, have been hit by the syndrome this year.

Blue ear disease, also known as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), is a viral and economically important pandemic disease which causes reproductive failure in breeding stock and respiratory tract illness in young pigs.

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009Print This Page
Yurun Sees Profits Rise
CHINA - China Yurun Food Group, a leading vertically-integrated meat-product processor and supplier in China, recorded a turnover of HK$13,024 million compared to HK$8,635 million in 2007, representing a 50.8 per cent increase.



The chilled meat and low temperature meat product ("LTMP") segments remained the main revenue growth drivers for the Group in 2008.

During the Year, the Group's gross profit and net profit were HK$1,690 million compared to HK$1,220 million in 2007 and HK$1,138 million compared to HK$859 million, respectively, representing an increase of 38.5 per cent and 32.4 per cent.

The Group's gross profit margin and net profit margin remained stable at 13.0 per cent and 8.7 per cent, whjich were slightly down on the previous year.

The slight decrease in the profit margin was mainly due to the reduction in the gross profit margin of frozen pork products and an increase in percentage of upstream products of total turnover which generally have a lower profit margin than the downstream products.

The Board has recommended a final dividend of HK 8 cents per share for the year ended 31 December 2008.

Mr. Zhu Yicai, Chairman of Yurun, said: "We are pleased to announce our relatively satisfactory 2008 annual results despite challenging economic environment.

"During the Year, we implemented several measures to sooth the pressure brought by hog price fluctuation throughout 2008. In addition, thanks to our stringent quality control, the Group was immune from the adverse impacts brought by food crises in 2008 and, in fact, able to attract more customers and strengthen its premier brand.

"While the financial crisis is expected to persist in 2009, small-scale enterprises with low hygiene standards will be weeded out as a result of new regulation, accelerating the industry consolidation.

"Looking ahead, the Group expects to capture new business opportunities brought by the industry consolidation in an effort to further strengthen its market position and enhance shareholders' returns in a prudent manner."

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Wednesday, March 25, 2009Print This Page
Market Rejects 'Tainted' Livestock
CHINA - Guangzhou Tianhe Livestock Market stopped farmers from bringing in 151 pigs suspected to have been fed clenobuterol hydrochloride early yesterday morning.



"Urine samples of the animals, transported all the way from Mengjin county in Central China's Henan province, was soon sent for testing," a manager with the market, who wanted to be known as "He", told China Daily yesterday.

"The pigs are under observation and those that are found with clenobuterol hydrochloride traces will be culled," the manager said. "And we will ban all farmers from Henan province from entering our market with live pigs from tomorrow on."

Clenobuterol hydrochloride, a fattening drug some farmers would feed pigs with, was banned after it was found to be hazardous to human health.

Eating tainted pork may result in symptoms of dizziness, fatigue, increased heart rates, involuntary shaking of hands and vomiting.

"Our market has expanded the sample testing scale to 20 per cent from 2-3 per cent since mid-February when over 70 citizens fell prey to the tainted pork," he said.

Official statistics indicated that Guangzhou has successfully rejected and culled 43 batches of pigs suspected to have been fed the illegal drug in the past month.

"We are keeping a close watch on crimes related to clenobuterol hydrochloride-tainted pigs and will punish the criminals according to law," said Li Xuedong, a director with the procuratorate of Guangzhou, at a press conference held last week. The press meet had to with the arrest of 15 local people suspected to be involved in the sale and use of clenobuterol hydrochloride.

The use of clenobuterol hydrochloride is very common in many pig farms for the high percentage of profits it could lead to, said a report in yesterday's Nanfang Rural News.

According to the report, some farmers begin feeding pigs with clenobuterol hydrochloride 15 to 20 days before they are sold. The drug can help save about 1kg of feed even as it makes each animal gain 1kg weight per day, leading to a profit as high as 275 per cent.

"The tainted pigs can even sell at a higher price, by about 0.4 yuan per kg, than normal ones," the report pointed out.

The paper revealed that serious loopholes existed in the area of initial urine testing of the pigs in many farms.

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Wednesday, March 25, 2009Print This Page
Update on Pig Welfare Quality Programme
EU - Henri de Thoré gives an overview about the work on setting animal welfare standards in the EU Project Welfare Quality® for European Pig Producers.



The European Commission (EC) wants to upgrade the legislation on the welfare of animals and made a reform plan for the period 2006/2010.

For pigs, the issues are: slaughtering, transportation, floors and space, castration and pain, and labelling.

Until now, the legislation is based on standards and norms but the EC wants to add objective appreciation to this normative approach, as it was done with the directive on broilers.

The EC asked a European researcher consortium to build the 'welfare quality' programme whose the aim is to incorporate in its future proposal specific measurable animal based welfare indicators.

This programme takes several measures about four principles and twelve criteria:

Good feeding:
no prolonged hunger
no prolonged thirst
Good housing:
comfort around resting
thermal comfort
ease of movement
Good health:
no injuries
no diseases
no pain due to management procedures
Appropriate behaviour:
no general fear
social behaviour
natural behaviour, and
good human/animal relationship.
The EC imagines several scenarios for the use of the welfare quality assessment:

it should be used as a research tool to evaluate the welfare status of animals housed in various systems
it should define and score the minimum acceptable level of animal welfare, replacing minimum standards, implementing a regulation on compulsory labelling
it should be used as a scoring system in a voluntary assurance scheme and labelling, and
it should be used by the farmer himself as a self-assessment management tool for welfare problems and risks.
The outcomes of the welfare quality program are periodically presented to the Welfare Quality Advisory Council (WQ-AC) where there are scientists, vets, ONG members, professional organisation members and two farmers: Per-Ake Sahlberg, Swedish member of European dairy farmers' group, and Henri de Thoré from EPP, replacing Jan Daelemans. Those meetings provide some hot discussions.

The opinion of the farmers belonging to WQ-AC is, this objective approach of animal welfare could be a good way if it stops the emotional approach which upgrade continuously the standards: for instance, the authorised density of the broilers is now linked with the health level of the farm.

But the complexity of the system will demand too many scoring controllers and too much time to be implemented as it is now, and so it must be simplified.

And it does not avoid completely the discussion about higher standards.

[mikey]

Thursday, March 26, 2009Print This Page
Tainted Pigs Slaughtered in Guangzhou
CHINA - After a random test revealed that 19 pigs out of a shipment of 149 were contaminated by harmful additives, food safety authorities decided to cull the whole herd.



Danwei reports that enforcement personnel used high-voltage electricity to kill pigs in Guangzhou yesterday.

According to Danwei, an article on today's Southern Metropolis Daily uses the term "shouroujing" ("lean meat essence") to refer to the additive. China Daily identifies the chemical as clenbuterol hydrochloride, a respiratory drug that has the side effect of increasing the muscle to fat ratio.

Last week, it was reported that six pig farmers were arrested for administering clenbuterol and Ractopamine, a leanness supplement approved by the USFDA and a number of other countries but banned in China, to their pigs.

On 21 February, the newspaper reported that 67 people fell ill after eating pork products which tested positive for the additives. Some victims said they had eaten pork liver, which usually contains a higher concentration of the chemicals than meat.

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Friday, March 27, 2009Print This Page
Koreans to Get EU Pork Belly Strips on Cheap
SOUTH KOREA - Businesses are busy anticipating the future, as South Korea signed a tentative free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) Tuesday.



Korea and the EU began trade talks in May 2007, with differences over industrial tariffs and auto trade regulations initially standing in the way. The two parties, however, made progress on those and other conflicting issues since the seventh round of negotiations in May last year.

The Korea Times reports that Industry watchers say farm products will have the largest influx once the deal takes effects, especially frozen pork including belly strips, or samgyeopsal, and chuck rolls, which are in high demand here.

Prices of frozen EU belly strips cost about 86.6 percent of what they do in Korea, according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and they could further go down to 72.1 per cent.

The FTA, once finalized, will boost South Korea's exports by $11 billion and gross domestic product by 3.1 per cent, the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy forecast.

Some critics, however, raise questions over the actual effects of the FTA.

Local farmers are subject to a serious blow with the abolition of the current 25-percent tariff on imported pork and other European farm products are expected to dominate shop shelves here as apples and chicken, for example, are up to 50 percent cheaper than homegrown ones.

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Monday, March 30, 2009Print This Page
DSM Commits to Safety with 'Quality for Life'
GLOBE - Global reports of contaminations have increased governmental and consumer awareness of the importance of feed and food safety issues.



The feed industry is equally affected: recently a dioxin-tainted natural pigment imported from Spain for use in animal feed was discovered in the Netherlands and France, leading to the withdrawal of the product from the market.

This occurred only one month after the food issue in Ireland with dioxin-contaminated pork which may now lead to a major review of European food safety standards.

All those involved in the food chain are affected by these events. Feed and food ingredients producers, manufacturers and retailers, as well as governments, are coping with serious challenges to reassure consumers and offer them better labelling on the food they buy. DSM Nutritional Products, the world’s leading producer of vitamins, carotenoids, enzymes, eubiotics and premixes for the Animal and Human Nutrition & Health markets, has responded with the introduction of a new mark of excellence for all its products and services - Quality for Life™ .

Ac1cording to a company statement, this concept responds to growing demand for reliable and traceable products which meet today’s stringent safety and sustainability requirements. Quality for Life™ stands for ingredient quality, offers a clear point of differentiation and gives the assurance that DSM is committed to ensuring product quality and safety. DSM’s definition of quality is conceived from a deep understanding of customer needs.

Customers demand safety and reliability from the ingredients and premixes they buy. They are also keen about sustainable sourcing and the conditions under which products are manufactured. DSM says that Quality for Life™ ensures the quality of processing procedures, from product conception through manufacture via quality control, quality assurance and product distribution all the way to after-sales service.

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009Print This Page
EFSA Study MRSA Link of Humans and Livestock
EU - The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published an opinion on the public health significance of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in animals and foods.



EFSA’s Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) found that while food may be contaminated by MRSA, there is currently no evidence that eating or handling contaminated food may lead to an increased risk of humans becoming healthy carriers or infected with this bacterium. The Panel also concluded that where MRSA prevalence in food-producing animals is high, people in contact with live animals, especially farmers, veterinarians and their families, are at greater risk than the general population.

In the case of food-producing animals, a specific type of MRSA, called CC398, has emerged and is most often carried without symptoms by intensively reared animals. The Panel noted that this strain represents a small proportion of the overall cases of MRSA in the European Union. Various types of MRSA, including CC398, can be found in slaughterhouses and on raw meat, but the Panel stated that, based on current data, the risk of infection for slaughterhouse workers and persons handling meat appears to be low.

Professor Dan Collins, chair of the BIOHAZ Panel, said: “There’s no evidence to date that humans can become infected with the CC398 strain of MRSA from eating contaminated food. Neither is there evidence that this strain has caused food poisoning.”

The Panel further noted that the occurrence of CC398 varies widely throughout Europe. A risk for people in contact with live food-producing animals has been identified and veterinarians and farmers, as well as their families, are at greater risk of becoming carriers or infected than the general population. In affected countries, the CC398 strain is mostly detected in pigs, veal calves, and broiler chickens.

[mikey]

, March 31, 2009Print This Page
EU Pig Prices: Demand Gives Meat Business a Boost
EU - This week, the European slaughter pig market appears to go upward again, which applies for the Northwest in particular.

 

Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands have been able to moderately continue last week’s positive trend. A clear plus was reported on from Great Britain, too. The quantities of slaughter pigs on offer have decreased slightly and the slaughter companies are briskly demanding the live pigs available. The consumer demand has improved in a particularly noticeable way, which is reflected in the price increase. In Denmark, this is mostly attributed to the meliorating exports to third countries.

The situation proves to be unchanged in Spain, France, Belgium and Austria. In Sweden as well, the price moves sidewards, with only the exchange rate being on a change. The Polish quotation has not been able to remain on the existing level, decreasing by a perceptible corrected 6 cents.

Trend: For the week to come and with a view to Easter, the domestic demand for meat is expected to remain brisk and prices are anticipated to stay fix.

[mikey]

Tuesday, March 31, 2009Print This Page
Butchers Onboard Promoting Aussie Pork
AUSTRALIA - From 10 April 2009, butchers across Australia will help consumers more clearly identify home-grown, fresh Australian pork.



Consumer research shows that 33 per cent of Australians mistakenly believe fresh pork can be imported, when by law, all fresh pork is Australian. Australian Pork Limited (APL) has produced distinctive pink "Australian Pork" meat tickets for butchers to display, helping customers easily identify fresh pork as having been bred and grown in Australia. Currently, the tickets are only for use with fresh Australian pork, and not with smallgoods.

 
APL Chief Executive Officer Andrew Spencer said the meat ticketing program is an important step forward for Australian pig farmers, who have been pushing for clearer labelling on Australian grown pork products.

“Unfortunately, many consumers aren't aware that all fresh pork sold in Australia is Australian grown. The introduction of the Australian Pork meat tickets into butchers will drive that message home.”

Mr Spencer said recent consumer research conducted by APL indicated that Australian provenance is a significant selling point for consumers – 87 per cent of Australians prefer to buy Australian, with 85 per cent suggesting they would be prepared to pay a 20 per cent premium.

“Not many consumers know that over 70 per cent of Australia's processed pork products (ham, bacon and small goods) have been produced from cheap subsidised imported pork from markets like Denmark, Canada and the US.

Mr Spencer said the one thing that needs addressing is labelling of the country's pork products. Under the current labelling system, consumers have no idea of the country of origin of pork and pork products. This new meat ticketing initiative is an important way for butchers and their customers to support the Australian pork farmers.

“It is a common sense initiative to clearly articulate to consumers what is and what isn‟t Australian grown pork. The current labelling system is very confusing and not informative from a consumer perspective.

“There are currently three label claims used to describe the origin of pork products. These are: Product of Australia, which is Australian grown; Made in Australia, which can be grown and processed in Australia but potentially contains imported meat; and Made from Imported and Local Ingredients, which is in all likelihood predominately imported pork.”

Mr Spencer said the next step in garnering support for Australian pig farmers is to licence the Australian Pork logo to businesses manufacturing smallgoods containing 100 per cent Australian pork. When finalised, this licensing program will enable certified companies to use the Australian Pork logo on their smallgoods which contain 100 per cent Australian pork.

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Thursday, April 02, 2009Print This Page
Ministry Calls for Tariff Cut on Feed
VIET NAM - The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has asked the Ministry of Finance to cut import taxes on finished feed for poultry and pigs to four per cent from the current eight per cent.



Official sources also report that the Ministry has petitioned to exempt the import duty on some raw materials for animal feed processing, including buckwheat, grease and fish oil.

The import tax on dried beans will fall from 10 to 5 per cent.

The move aims to open the door for finished animal feeds to be imported into the domestic market, forcing local feed producers to reduce prices.

The same kind of animal feed in Viet Nam costs more than that in other countries in the region, causing many financial difficulties for local breeders.

Import reliance
Although Viet Nam is an agriculture-based country, most of the raw materials used in animal feed production like maize, corn, soybeans and powdered fish are imported.

Le Ba Lich, chairman of the Viet Nam Feed Association (VFA), said the country currently had 300,000 hectares under soybean plantation, with output of only 1.2 to 1.4 tonnes per hectare. The amount is just enough for making tofu and soya milk.

Each year, the country has to import 2.0 to 2.5 million tonnes of soybean meal, 500,000 to one million tonnes of maize and a large amount of cassava and other ingredients, according to Mr Lich.

The VFA has forecasted that animal feed prices will go up this month due to the increase in price of raw materials in the world market.

Viet Nam, however, still has to import 70 per cent of the total materials it needs.

The soybean meal import price, for instance, was reportedly US$430 per tonne against $280 per tonne last November.

Meanwhile, both the import and domestic maize prices have also been rising.

Domestic maize has seen the price rise from VND 3,400 to VND 4,200 per kilo, while imports have increased to $210 per tonne, increasing between 10 to 15 per cent in comparison with October last year.

Analysts say the industry must develop local sources for raw materials to reduce imports and avoid price shocks.

[mikey]

Friday, April 03, 2009Print This Page
Four New Cases of African Swine Fever in Russia
RUSSIA - The Russian veterinary authorities have sent a report to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) about three new cases of African swine fever (ASF).



The Russian veterinary authority sent Follow up Report No. 15 to OIE on 2 April.

It covers four new cases of African swine fever. The first started on 7 March, and the others in the last week of March. Three of the farms are in the Apanasenkovsky district of Stravropol Krai, and the fourth is in the Salsky district of Rostov region. In total, 45 pigs died and 34 were destroyed.

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Friday, April 03, 2009Print This Page
Protection of Animal Health Remains Top Priority
AUSTRALIA - The Minister says that improvements to New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (DPI)'s field veterinary services will enhance animal health across the state's valuable livestock industries.



Improvements to NSW DPI's field veterinary services will enhance animal health across the State's valuable livestock industries, Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, has said.

Minister Macdonald said following the creation of the new Livestock Health and Pest Authorities (LHPA), the changes were necessary for the DPI's related field vet services.

"The effective management of animal health and biosecurity is of paramount important to the State Government, and the industries we provide these services to," he said.

"That's why we have decided to use the creation of the new LHPAs to reinvigorate the veterinary network within the Department of Primary Industries. This network will work in close conjunction with the new authorities."

NSW Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Bruce Christie, said the changes include creation of Regional Veterinary Officer and Veterinary Officers that work in regions that align with the new authorities.

"These positions replace Senior Regional Animal Health Managers and Regional Animal Health Leaders," Dr Christie said.

"NSW DPI veterinary staff and the authorities have traditionally worked hand in hand, and these role changes will help continue this close working relationship.

"Key aspects of their roles will continue to include: surveillance for exotic and endemic notifiable diseases, regulatory health issues such as NLIS, exotic disease preparedness and response, residue and formal disease control programs, and certification for export and interstate movements.

"As we saw in the equine influenza outbreak, our team of veterinary experts play a key role in identifying and responding to disease outbreaks.

"Their efforts need to be supported by appropriate organisation structures which these changes represent, as well as first class facilities at Camden's biosecurity hub at Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute."