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Per capita meat consumption grew 7% to 63 kilograms in the Russian Federation in 2008.

Can humans catch swine flu? How common is swine flu infection in humans? Can people catch swine flu from eating pork?...

U.S. and Canadian inventory of all hogs and pigs for March 2009 was 77.3 million head. This was down 4 percent from March 2008 but up 1 percent from March 2007. The breeding inventory, at 7.39 million head, was down 4 percent from a year ago and down 1 percent from last quarter.

Global efforts to promote alternatives to testing on animals receive a significant boost today through the signing of a cooperation agreement by international bodies, including the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), tasked with the validation of alternative test methods.

To contribute to a cleaner environment and help cushion the adverse effects of global warming, owners of piggery and poultry farms are being urged by the Department of Science and Technology to make use of a technology that easily converts gas-fed generators into biogas generators.

The Russian government has suspended imports of all meat from Mexico as well as Texas, California and Kansas shipped after April 21 on fears of the spread of swine flu. In addition, China has banned pork imports from Mexico and the U.S. states of Texas, Kansas and California.

The Emergency Committee, established in compliance with the International Health Regulations (2005), held its second meeting on 27 April 2009. The WHO Director-General has raised the level of influenza pandemic alert from the current phase 3 to phase 4.

The Council took note of the request tabled by the Belgian delegation, supported by the Irish, Greek, French, Hungarian, Polish, and Austrian delegations for the introduction of temporary export refunds for fresh and frozen pig meat, as well as of the interventions made by other delegations. The Commission representative noting the recent market developments maintained the Commission position that no market support is required.

A new outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease has been reported in Hunan province.

German pig futures prices fell by around 3.5 percent on Monday because of fears that bad publicity about swine fever will cut pork consumption, traders said.

The Philippines has again failed to receive its FMD-free status with vaccination after the Office Internationale des Epizooties (OIE) turned down its request, said National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc President Albert Lim.

Any current information in influenza like animal disease in Mexico or the USA could support a link between human cases and possible animal cases including swine. The virus has not been isolated in animals to date. Therefore, it is not justified to name this disease swine influenza. In the past, many human influenza epidemics with animal origin have been named using their geographic name, eg Spanish influenza or Asiatic influenza, thus it would be logical to call this disease “North-American influenza”.

The World Veterinary Day was introduced by the World Veterinary Association (founded in 1906) in the year 2000, to be commemorated on the last Saturday of April, usually with an accompanying theme. This year, World Veterinary Day is on April 25 and the theme is “Veterinarians and Livestock Farmers: A Winning Partnership”.

The Australian Veterinary Association says the international swine flu outbreaks not a threat to Australian pigs and that eating pork poses no human health risk. The AVA is not concerned about an outbreak among pigs here in Australia.