Page 894 of articles about news

OIE has reported a case of African Swine fever in Namibia. Part of the country is considered endemic for ASF. Pigs must be raised in bio-secure pens to avoid contact with wild warthogs. The date of the previous occurrence was 12/11/2008.

On December 11, 2008, China's Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) published Decree No. 1126, the "2008 Catalog of Feed Additives". The 2008 Catalog, modified based on the "2006 Catalog of Feed Additives", adds some widely used safe feed additives and also defines the scope of use for enzymes and live micro-organisms.

The European Commission has admitted proposals to reduce livestock journey times and stocking densities may lead to a “slight increase” in meat prices for consumers.

Ontario government is investing $24 million over three years to develop the logistics to get more Ontario-grown food into the province's schools, hospitals, food service companies and other institutions. This will help Ontario farmers market and sell their products to more consumers.

Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) State Veterinarian Dr. Dennis Hughes has been notified by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission of an investigation into a wild pig infected with pseudorabies in the Genoa area.

The Brazilian Government published on April 2, 2009 Joint Directive No. 1 in Brazil's Official Gazette regulating the so-called integrated yellow-green drawback system to allow agricultural processors to be exempt from local taxes on domestic or imported inputs for the processing of agricultural and food products for exports.

Manitoba Pork Council is encouraging swine producers to provide their input on a new draft sustainable development strategy.

During the first part of this decade, the organic food and drinks market grew rapidly; sales in the U.S. and the nine largest European markets reached more then $40 billion in 2007. However, growth appears to have slowed in the market in 2008.

In relation to the news published last week, and according to figures released by the Association of Mexican Pig Meat Exports, in the last three years Mexico has increased its exports to Japan, and in fact Mexico is the only country that has managed to do this. (Original in Spanish).

Germany has banned the only type of genetically-modified crop grown there, the highly insect-resistant MON 810 maize. Germany is the sixth EU country to introduce a provisional ban on the US biotech corn, after France, Austria, Hungary, Luxembourg and Greece.

The pig stock declined by 14.8 per cent in 2008 compared to 2007, while the number of pigs slaughtered increased by 8.3 per cent. In December 2008, the pig population amounted to 65,511 heads, representing a decline of 14.8 per cent, or 11,389 pigs over 2007. The stock of piglets rose by 0.5 per cent, while stocks of young and fattening pigs fell by 21.2 and 22.0 per cent respectively. Breeding stock, which consists mainly of breeding sows, fell by 3.4 per cent when compared to 2007.

Large quantities of U.S. pork and some U.S. beef are shipped to Mexico in large combo containers, which have proven to be an efficient and effective packaging method. In December, however, Mexico announced its intention to ban all incoming meat shipments in combo containers effective January 15. Mexico later revised this policy change by only prohibiting the use of combo containers for frozen meat. Fresh and chilled meats shipped in combo containers are still being accepted in Mexico, but these shipments are scheduled to undergo a change in inspection procedures on April 20. Under the proposed change, products from the top, bottom and middle of each combo bin would require inspection. According to Chad Russell, USMEF regional director for Mexico and the Dominican Republic, this type of inspection creates significant obstacles because of the time and resources required, and the potential for damaging the product.