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IFB Animal Ag E-Letter

(IFB Animal Ag E-Letter) November 05, 2009 -USDA closes plant after HSUS undercover investigation
Source: Drovers news source

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) released the results of an undercover investigation documenting animal abuse at a Vermont slaughter plant. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture took decisive action and immediately suspended operations at the plant, pending a continuing investigation. The HSUS is cooperating with agencies, and provided undercover footage and some preliminary findings to them earlier this week.

According to HSUS, videotape from the investigation reveals that veal calves only a few days old-many with their umbilical cords still hanging from their bodies-were unable to stand or walk on their own. The tape shows that the animals were kicked, slapped and repeatedly shocked with electric prods and subjected to other mistreatment. After reviewing the undercover footage obtained by the HSUS investigator in August and September 2009, animal scientists Dr. Temple Grandin and Kurt Vogel pronounced that, "the handling practices and attention to insensibility at this plant are unacceptable and must improve."

Pollans Storyteller Outlook on the Meat Industry
Source: National Meat Assn.

ABCs Good Morning America featured Michael Pollan on October 23rd in a segment titled Where Does the Food You Eat Come From? Pollans purpose for being on the show was to promote his new book, The Omnivores Dilemma for Kids: The Secrets Behind What You Eat, which was released on October 15th. During the segment, Pollan repeated many of the common environmental myths related to beef production, according to a report by the National Cattlemens Beef Association. When describing a double quarter pounder with cheese, Pollan referred to corn as the secret ingredient. Due to the fact that animal feed consists of corn and corn turns into oil, it takes 26 ounces of oil to make one double quarter pounder. When you are eating the fast food burger, you are eating oil in effect, says Pollan. Pollan at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on October 15th told the audience that he is not a scientistjust a story teller.

Report Addresses Questions Surrounding H1N1, Swine Herds

Source:  USMEF

Earlier this year, a scientific consultation was held between the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to address the potential for transmission of the H1N1 influenza virus between humans and pigs. A meeting report is now available that summarizes the findings from the consultation, which include:

• The risk of being infected through the consumption of pork or pork products is considered negligible. Influenza viruses are generally restricted to the respiratory tract of pigs and are not detected in muscle meat, even during acute illness.
• Humans can become infected through close contact with ill pigs infected with influenza virus and showing influenza-like symptoms, but such occurrences are rarely documented through current surveillance systems.
• The risk of humans becoming infected from contamination reaching the environment, such as through manure, is minimal.
• People ill with influenza have reportedly infected pigs with influenza viruses, but these events are not well-documented. Those working with pigs should follow the same advice as the general public and stay home if they have flu-like symptoms.

The joint report is one of the resources available to pork-exporting countries as they work together to reinforce the importance of basing pork trade policies on sound science.

COOL Debate Heats Up
Source:  Pork news source

The United States has blocked a request by Canada and Mexico for relief from U.S. Country of Origin Labeling laws which the two countries claim are hurting their meat exports. The request from the two U.S. neighbors had been made recently to the World Trade Organization.

The request from Canada and Mexico is expected to go forward to the next meeting of the WTO's dispute settlement body when the United States cannot block them again, according to a Reuters report. That meeting is scheduled for Nov. 19.

Both Canada and Mexico told the WTO's dispute settlement body that U.S. COOL rules - requiring meat sold in U.S. stores to show which country it comes from - were damaging North American trade.

"COOL is discouraging U.S. retailers, processors, feedlots and producers from buying Canadian livestock and meat, Canada said in a statement The negative impact on Canadian beef, pork and cattle exporters has been significant. Canada normally exports about C$4 billion of pigs and cattle to the United States.

Canada says that it and the United States are each other's biggest agricultural trading partners, with two-way farm trade in 2008 totaling $37 billion. Mexico also said its exporters were suffering lower prices and uncertainty because of the COOL rules.

Some Improvement seen in restaurants

Source:  Meatpoultry.com

Full-service restaurants saw some sign of improvement in September in perhaps the worst market conditions the restaurant industry has seen in almost 20 years. Nationally, full-service restaurant performance declined 6.3% in September compared with 12% decline for the month of August, according to Technomic and GuestMetrics research.

The monthly SalesMetrics Report was designed to report on monthly restaurant sales performance trends. This new report combines actual point-of-sale data from more than 2,700 national full-service independent and chain restaurants.

Highlights of the study include:

• Regions of the country varied dramatically, although sales in September where down 6.3% nationally, with the Phoenix market showing year-over-year growth of 7.6% while the Los Angeles market declined 12.1%.
• Dinner business has seen the largest decrease in usage (-6.8%) followed by breakfast (-5.9%), and late night (-5.8%), daypart trends indicate. Lunch had the smallest decline (-5.3%).
• Performance trends analyzed by cuisine types varied dramatically with seafood restaurants posting the smallest decline (-0.5%) and steak restaurants declining more significantly (-12.3%). Guest traffic, in general, decreased 6.1% in September. Chain restaurants declined by 6.6%; independent restaurants showed only a 5.7% decrease.

Man convicted of breaking Premises Registration Law

Source:  WEAU.com

The first person to be convicted of breaking the Livestock Premises Registration Law has been ordered to pay nearly $400.

Thirty-nine-year-old Patrick Monchilovich of Cumberland was found guilty by a Polk County judge last Wednesday.

Monchilovich was convicted for not registering his property where he was keeping cattle.

The Premises Registration Law went into effect in November of 2005. The law requires that any property where livestock are being held needs to be registered in a central database and assigned a number.

The point of the law is that when there is a disease outbreak, state animal health experts can look at the database to quickly find susceptible animals for testing.

The system is designed to protect animals and public health.

Deadly Pig Disease Makes 'Worrying' Jump to Baltic, FAO Says 

Source:  Bloomberg News

The deadly pig disease African Swine Fever spread to northwest Russia, 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) from where veterinarians had previously located the illness, the United Nations said.

The latest outbreak was found near St. Petersburg on Oct. 20, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement on its Web site today. FAO experts had been tracking the illness in Georgia, the agency said.

"The virus has been circulating in the Caucasus, in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, for several years now, eventually spreading to southern Russia," FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Juan Lubroth said in a statement. "It is its sudden appearance far away near the Baltic coast that is worrying. There could be possible incursions into the EU."

While the swine disease cannot be transmitted to humans, it might spread to pigs in central Asia and China under "worst- case" conditions, the agency said. China has the world's largest pig population at 462.9 million head, followed by the EU with 153 million hogs, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Russia has a swine population of 19.6 million, the USDA says.

California Governor Signs Tail Docking Bill

Source:  AP

California cows are the first in the nation with the legal right to swat flies as nature intended now that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill banning the painful practice of tail docking that he once mocked as being a waste of legislators' time.

The governor also signed other farm bills he famously ridiculed this summer as he tried to pressure legislators to focus on balancing the state's beleaguered budget.

In a signing frenzy that lasted until his midnight Sunday deadline, Schwarzenegger also approved a state blueberry commission and new label requirements for honey.

"We were always confident that if reality could trump the rhetoric, the governor would see the merits of this," said Jennifer Fearing, who lobbied for the tail docking bill for the Humane Society of the United States, which vows to take the fight against the removal of tails to other large dairy-producing states such as Wisconsin, Vermont and New York.

While he made California the first state in the nation to ban the painful practice, the Humane Society nonetheless described the governor as having a "schizophrenic record on animal protection."

On the same day he protected dairy cows, Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation to crack down on puppy mills by limiting them to 50 adult dogs, becoming the only governor in the six states where puppy mill legislation passed this year to override it with a veto, the group said.

Aaron McLear, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger, said the governor has a record of supporting animal welfare legislation, including upping penalties in 2006 and 2009 for dog fighting, and in 2005 banning the sale of puppies under eight weeks old.

"In the summer, when the governor made the comments, he was saying the legislature ought not be having hearings on cow tails but ought to be focused on a solution to our budget," McLear said. "We never said we didn't like the bills."

Dairy officials say the practice of cutting off cow tails to prevent them from slinging manure is practiced on fewer than 15 percent of the state's 1.5 million dairy cows. Docking is usually done without numbing, either with sharp shears or with a tight rubber band that stops the blood flow and causes the tail to die.

Some dairy operators have argued that removing tails improves sanitation, a claim that research has not supported. In 2004 the American Veterinary Medical Association came out against the practice.

This year wasn't the first in which Schwarzenegger has maligned animal welfare legislation and then signed it anyway. As a 2005 bill lingered to ban foie gras, he chastised legislators in a radio interview for spending time talking about "feeding geese" instead of issues he believed were more pressing.

"He just makes a comment without thinking much about it, but when it comes time to assess it on its own merits, he's made the right decision, in our view, a few times," said Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, an animal protection group.

The governor may have been influenced to vote in favor of the farm animal legislation by California voters, two-thirds of whom voted for Proposition 2 last November to give egg-laying chickens more space. The governor of Michigan signed similar legislation Monday.

Sen. Dean Florez, who sponsored the anti-docking legislation, said he was happy the "governor had the intestinal fortitude to reverse himself" despite his public comments.

http://www.ilfb.org/viewdocument.asp?did=17647&r=0.3623468