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Turkey Farmers of Canada 221st Meeting US Turkey Flock Tests Positive For Novel H1N1 U of G Research May Lead to More Effective Avian Influenza Vaccine Why Bird Flu Has Not Caused A Pandemic Nutreco Acquisition Of Cargill Approved Philippines To Temporarily Lift Special Duty On Poultry Products Conferences, Courses and Workshops
Turkey Farmers of Canada 221st Meeting TFC met in Toronto on December 2nd & 3rd. Chairman Mark Davies was in Geneva monitoring the WTO Ministerial along with a contingent from the SM-5, and reported to the Board of Directors from there. His on the ground view confirms what we have been suggesting, that the Doha round is currently stalled while some countries (notably the USA) are completely focused on domestic economic recovery issues instead. The Board meetings were chaired by Vice-chair Wayne Kroeker and dealt with a number of updates from regulatory and food safety, to TRQ and live production committee reports. Attendees received an excellent presentation from the Executive Director of Food Banks Canada who confirmed that the dollars donated at Thanksgiving went to purchasing and distributing turkeys targeted at rural food banks across the country. An update on the progress to produce and adopt new regulations along with audit and penalty provisions, for the new allocation system was received. The work done to date with legal counsel has been based on the input TFC staff received from stakeholders in 2009 (including from CPEPC staff in the spring) and has been focused on legal review of federal and all provincial regulations to ensure compatibility. CPEPC, along with the provincial Boards and FPPAC, will be asked for input into the next draft early in the new year. The goal is to have the new regulations ready for approval by the Board in March and hopefully to take effect at the beginning of the new Control Period. The Board voted to support the new CPRC transition plan and increase their contribution to administration. They also agreed to approach AAFC to request an additional category (boneless skinless breast) be added to the monthly storage stocks report. If this request is successful, CPEPC members will no longer need to supply data to Council for the monthly breast meat survey. The most high profile issues on the agenda included approval of the new Interprovincial Leasing of Quota Guidelines which the Supply Policy Committee had recommended, the post Thanksgiving Turkey Market Review, the report from the Turkey Market Advisory Committee (TMAC) on whole bird allocation for the 2010/11 control period and the agreement to a quota order for next year. The TMAC report recommended that the 2010/11 whole bird quota be set at 5 million kgs below the reference level (1/2 a million below the allocation for the current year) as well as recommending acceptance of the consolidated results from the processor driven FP allocation process (which was a small decrease from the current year’s FP allocation). Both recommendations were approved by the Board of Directors. Any CPEPC members wanting more information are urged to contact Robin Horel at Council office.
US Turkey Flock Tests Positive For Novel H1N1 A turkey flock in Virginia has tested positive for the Novel H1N1 2009 influenza virus, according to USDA. It is the first confirmed poultry-related infection of the virus in that country. According to USDA reports, four samples that were collected on 20 November and one collected on 23 November, all tested positive in initial rapid screening tests. Upon further virus-isolation testing, one of those samples has been confirmed to date as Novel H1N1. USDA received virus samples from the turkey breeder flock because the hens' egg production had dropped off, reports Pork Magazine. "There is a possibility that a worker, who was sent home ill with flu-like symptoms, could have infected the turkeys as a result of the artificial insemination processes, as the worker was a member of the insemination crew," a USDA spokesperson told Meatingplace.com. The Novel H1N1 virus has been confirmed in swine at the Minnesota State Fair this August and in an Indiana commercial swine herd in October. As has been repeatedly proven and stated, Novel H1N1 influenza is a respiratory ailment and does not infect pork or poultry meat. It cannot be transmitted by eating pork or turkey. www.thepoultrysite.com A number of recent studies confirm that eggs provide an economical source of nutrition, may help in the control of body weight, and improve eye health. In an article published in the December issue of Food Science & Technology, the quarterly journal of the Institute of Food Science and Technology, Professor Bruce Griffin (University of Surrey) and Dr Juliet Gray ( Public Health Nutritionist, Surrey) state that, "Eggs boast an impressive nutrient profile that is more convenient and affordable than other similarly nutrient-dense foods". The authors quote a recent economic analysis published in the US, which concluded that limiting the population's egg consumption is not only unnecessary but is also not cost-effective as removing the nutritional benefits of eggs could lead to other, less affordable disease outcomes. The article also addresses evidence to suggest that the energy density of our food may be a key regulator for body weight, a concept which supports the replacement of high energy density food with foods of lower energy density. "Eggs fit perfectly into this category, as a single food with a relatively low energy density and a nutrient-dense profile, that may help to promote satiety and suppress appetite", say Griffin and Gray. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported on research which shows a direct link between the increase in blood levels of lutein and zeaxanthin and the decreased risk of sight loss from age related macular degeneration (abstract). Dr. Nicolosi from Massachusetts University believes that egg yolks enhance the bioavailability of these nutrients and says, “2 eggs per day is probably all that is needed to maximize blood levels of lutein and zeaxanthin”. - by CPEPC staff with information from www.worldpoultry.net and www.thepoultrysite.com
U of G Research May Lead to More Effective Avian Influenza Vaccine University of Guelph scientists have made a discovery that may lead to more effective vaccines to protect poultry and humans from the deadly avian influenza virus. "We have found one of the molecular determinants of the H5N1 avian influenza virus that can induce immune responses in chickens," said Prof. Shayan Sharif, a researcher in the Department of Pathobiology and lead author of the study published recently in the journal PLoS ONE. The molecular region identified by Sharif’s research team is a small peptide contained in the hemagglutinin (HA) antigen, a protein found on the surface of the flu virus. The researchers showed that the peptide is recognized by the chicken’s T-cells, which attack the virus directly and also trigger the production of antibodies that help the immune system fight the infection. This is the first time scientists have identified a T-cell epitope of an influenza virus– a protein on a virus particle recognized by the immune system – in chickens. “This is an important step toward developing more efficacious vaccines against H5 avian influenza in chickens,” said Sharif. “We may be able to use this epitope in future vaccines to not only protect domestic flocks but also to prevent or control the spread of the virus from birds to humans. However, this still needs to be confirmed experimentally and that will be the focus of our future research.” For information, contact: Prof. Shayan Sharif Department of Pathobiology (519) 824-4120, Ext. 54641 - University of Guelph News Release - November 24, 2009 Why Bird Flu Has Not Caused A Pandemic The authors of the new study, from Imperial College London, the University of Reading and the University of North Carolina, USA, argue that bird flu viruses would have to make at least two simultaneous genetic mutations before they could be transmitted readily from human to human. Professor Wendy Barclay, corresponding author of the study from the Division of Investigative Science at Imperial College London, said: "H5N1 is a particularly nasty virus, so when humans started to get infected with bird flu, people started to panic. An H5N1 pandemic would be devastating for global health. Thankfully, we haven't yet had a major outbreak, and this has led some people to ask, what happened to bird flu? We wanted to know why the virus hasn't been able to jump from human to human easily," she said. "Our new research suggests that it is less likely than we thought that H5N1 will cause a pandemic, because it's far harder for it to infect the right cells. The odds of it undergoing the kind of double mutation that would be needed are extremely low. However, viruses mutate all the time, so we shouldn't be complacent. Our new findings do not mean that this kind of pandemic could never happen. It's important that scientists keep working on vaccines so that people can be protected if such an event occurs," added Professor Barclay. Professor Ian Jones, leader of the collaborating group at the University of Reading, added: "It would have been impossible to do this research using mutation of the real H5N1 virus as we could have been creating the very strain we fear. However, our novel recombinant approach has allowed us to safely address the question of H5 adaptation and provide the answer that it is very unlikely." In addition to explaining why bird flu's ability to transmit between humans is limited, the new research also gives scientists a better understanding of the virus. They believe that this could help the development of a better vaccine against bird flu, in the unlikely event that one was needed in the future. The researchers used a realistic model of the inside of a human airway to study H5 binding to human cells. They made genetic changes to the H5 HA protein to change its shape, to see if they could make the virus recognise and infect the right types of cells. Results showed that the virus would need two genetic changes occurring at once in its genome before it could infect these cells. - based on www.worldpoultry.net article
Nutreco Acquisition Of Cargill Approved The European Commission anti-trust authorities in Brussels have granted Nutreco approval for the acquisition of the animal nutrition business of Cargill in Spain and Portugal. The agreement in principle was announced on 28 July 2009. The acquisition includes Cargill's 12 compound feed production facilities, with a production volume of around 700,000 mt, annual sales of approx. EUR 240 mln. The acquisition fits in Nutreco's strategy to expand its global market positions in feed specialties and fish feed in growth markets and to strengthen its leading compound feed market positions in Canada, the Netherlands and Spain. Since 2006 Nutreco has acquired animal nutrition and fish feed businesses in Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, the UK and the US. (Nutreco and Cargill are both members of CPEPC.) www.worldpoultry.net Philippines To Temporarily Lift Special Duty On Poultry Products Projecting a low supply of chicken during the holiday season, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) said it would temporarily lift the imposition of a special duty and allow eight million kilos of poultry products to enter the country. Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales said the decision was in answer to a request made by Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap. In his Nov. 6 letter to Morales, Yap said that they discovered, through their regular monitoring of the supply and demand of meat and meat products in the market, that there would be a tightness of supply of poultry during and beyond the holiday season. They requested a temporary lifting of the imposition of the Special Safeguard (SSG) duty to allow the importation of chicken products. He said the first shipment of chicken would start arriving on Nov. 30, but would not go beyond Jan. 31 next year. He added that the Department of Agriculture (DA) would be the one to issue the import permits and also to make sure that the domestic market is not flooded with the said products. The DA is currently watching the upward movement in the price of sugar, pork and chicken. Bureau of Agricultural Statistics reports noted a P2 increase in the price of sugar and a P10 increase in the price of pork and chicken. www.philstar.com
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