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1.
PCV-2 "WREAKING HAVOC"
Porcine Circovirus-2 (PCV-2) has become
a major health concern around the world, and is associated
with numerous pig disease syndromes. One is postweaning
multi-systemic wasting syndrome (PMWS). Clinical signs
include diarrhea, hyperthermia, jaundice, tremors
and wasting, the severity of which seems to increase
with excessive vaccinations. Overcrowding is one of
the factors contributing to the morbidity and mortality
rates associated with PMWS, and the PCV-2 virus has
been found to be highly resistant to common detergents
and disinfectants. In Europe, the disease was first
isolated from pigs with wasting disease in 1997. In
Asia, severe clinical losses from PMWS were first
seen in 2001 in the Guangdong province of China, where
large companies employ intensive pig production. PCV-2
associated diseases have also been a major problem
in South Korea since about 2001, with baby pig mortality
ranging from 10-30%. Thailand has experienced similar
problems but not the Philippines, where health levels
in breeding facilities are said to be relatively high.
Industry consultant Mark Greenwood attributes
a large spike in mortalities in pig production systems
across the U.S. midwest to Porcine CircoVirus-Associated
Disease (PCVAD). He says it is “wreaking havoc”
in these systems, and estimates death losses are up
at least 4%. “A veterinarian told me this week
that he has never seen health this bad in the country.
I agree. I am seeing closeouts on many systems with
14-16% mortality - as an average!” Greenwood
exclaimed.
PORCINE CIRCOVIRUS-2 AROUND THE WORLD
National Hog Farmer's North American Preview, JoAnn
Alumbaugh, Feb. 2, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2tw3kz
PORCINE CIRCOVIRUS TYPE-2 IN ASIA
National Hog Farmer's North American Preview, Production
Preview, JoAnn Alumbaugh, Feb. 9, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2wx9tx
EVER-INCREASING COSTS OF PRODUCTION
National Hog Farmer's North American Preview, Mark
Greenwood, Feb. 23, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/3c7lr2
2.
BSE IN THE USA
Three years after bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE, a.k.a., “mad cow disease”)
was officially detected in the U.S., measures put
in place against it are being shelved. Others never
materialized. Cattle blood is still permitted as a
food supplement for calves, and slaughterplant waste
and dead cattle are still used to make other farmed
and companion animal food. Rules to keep the most
infective cow parts out of the human food supply have
fallen short according to an analysis by the consumer
group Public Citizen, which found more than 800 violations
in 2004 and 2005. A ban on slaughtering nonambulatory
(“downer”) cattle, who are considered
to be most suspect for BSE, has yet to be made permanent,
and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently
scaled back testing for the disease by 90%. It has
also backed off plans for a mandatory animal-tracking
system after cattle industry groups objected to it,
saying the program will instead be voluntary.
The USDA asserts that testing and tracking
programs are too costly for such a rare disease. Of
the 759,000 cattle tested since 2003, only two more
infected animals have been found. However, the USDA's
inspector general said the USDA's expanded testing
program, which was voluntary, could have missed the
highest-risk animals. Many in the U.S. cattle industry
are especially upset by the USDA’s proposal
to allow shipments of older cattle from Canada. The
initial cow reported to have BSE in the U.S. was from
Canada, and investigators were unable to locate all
the other cattle shipped with her due to Canada’s
inadequate tracking system. However, the same problems
occurred with the two U.S.-born cattle found with
the disease. Canada now has a mandatory tracking system,
though critics claim it is not being enforced. Almost
all European countries have tracking systems, and
many are wary of allowing the importation of U.S.
beef due to the lacking system here. Most European
and Asian nations also test a much higher percentage
of animals for BSE than does the U.S. McDonald’s
is among those calling for tighter regulations. The
article includes a timeline of U.S. BSE incidents
and actions.
MAD-COW SCRUTINY IS SCALED WAY BACK
Seattle Times, Sandi Doughton, February 22, 2007
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003583249_madcow22m0.html
3.
PROCESSING PLANTS TO BE TARGETED
Meat processing plants with a high likelihood
of pathogenic germs or with poor inspection records
will be subject to greater inspection scrutiny while
less risky plants with better records will get less
inspection under a new “risk-based inspection”
(RBI see: http://tinyurl.com/yq868n
) plan by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Mandatory daily inspections would continue, with the
data used to determine which plants need the most
attention. The program -limited to processing plants
and not slaughterplants- will start with 254 plants,
about 5% of the country’s 5,300 processing plants,
and include as many as 1,200 plants by the end of
the year. Some public interest groups say that current
inspection data is not adequate for risk-based assessment
to work correctly. Another contention is that since
all concerned entities are not involved in the planning
and design of RBI, the government will not receive
the co-operation needed for it. The American Meat
Institute (AMI) is urging the USDA to slow the process
down and make participation voluntary.
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE TO STEP UP
INSPECTIONS OF MEAT, POULTRY IN APRIL
The York Dispatch/The Associated Press, Libby Quaid,
Feb. 22, 2007
http://www.yorkdispatch.com/business/ci_5279905
US GOVERNMENT PUSHES AHEAD WITH NEW MEAT INSPECTION
SYSTEM
Medical News Today, Catharine Paddock, Feb. 2007
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=63711
4.
J.M. COETZEE ON SPEAKING FOR THE "VOICELESS"
In selecting him as the 2003 Nobel
Prize laureate for literature, the award committee
described J.M. Coetzee as “ruthless in his criticism
of the cruel rationalism and cosmetic morality of
western civilization.” Coetzee spoke recently
in Sydney, Australia at the opening of an art
exhibition entitled Voiceless: I feel therefore
I am. He stated that, of the many “ways in which
our relations to animals are wrong…the food
industry…dwarfs all others in the number of
individual animal lives it affects.” He points
to the “processing of human beings” by
the Nazi government as “one warning on the grandest
scale that there is something deeply, cosmically wrong
with regarding and treating fellow beings as mere
units of any kind.”
Coetzee asserts that included in the outcry against
these World War II atrocities should have been: “What
a terrible crime, come to think of it - a crime against
nature - to treat any living being like a unit in
an industrial process!” (See also: http://www.powerfulbook.com
) He continues: “It would be a mistake to idealise
traditional animal husbandry as the standard by which
the animal-products industry falls short: traditional
animal husbandry is brutal enough, just on a smaller
scale. A better standard by which to judge both practices
would be the simple standard of humanity: is this
truly the best that human beings are capable of?”
Coetzee advises: “The task of
the movement is to offer [“decent”] people
imaginative but practical options for what to do next
after they have been revolted by a glimpse of the
lives factory animals live and the deaths they die.
People need to see that there are alternatives to
supporting the animal-products industry, that these
alternatives need not involve any sacrifice in health
or nutrition, that there is no reason why these alternatives
need be costly, and furthermore that what are commonly
called sacrifices are not sacrifices at all - that
the only sacrifices in the whole picture, in fact,
are being made by non-human animals.” In closing,
he contends: “…the animal-rights campaign
remains a human project from beginning to end.”
ANIMAL SLAUGHTER LIKE THE HOLOCAUST –
COETZEE
The Citizen, Feb. 23, 2007
http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=32757,1,22
ANIMALS CAN'T SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES - IT'S UP TO US
TO DO IT
The Age, J.M. Coetzee, February 22, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/22uhj2
5.
AMAZING GRACE
The Foreign Slave Trade Act, the first
blow to the human slave trade by England, became law
200 years ago this spring. Its champion, William Wilberforce,
also sponsored the first modern animal protection
laws and co-founded the world’s oldest anti-cruelty
society. His work is chronicled in the new movie,
“Amazing Grace.” According to The Humane
Society of the U.S. (HSUS), the film “…captures
Wilberforce's deep devotion to animals and his determination
to end the cruelty and suffering imposed upon them
in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.”
Despite objections that the subject of cruelty to
animals was not worthy of legislative consideration,
Wilberforce endeavored for over two decades to ensure
it did receive political attention and provided key
support for the first modern anti-cruelty legislation
(see p. 67 of [PDF FILE]: http://tinyurl.com/22yuod
). The HSUS web page includes film clips, a link to
the movie’s official website and one to “The
Amazing Change: A Campaign to Carry on Wilberforce's
Vision of Mercy and Justice”:
AMAZING GRACE - THE WORK OF WILLIAM WILBERFORCE
The Humane Society of the United States, February
16, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2cuvgd
6.
UPCOMING EVENTS
MEATOUT – “an international
observance…to expose the public to the joys
and benefits of a plant-based diet, while promoting
the availability and selection of meat and dairy alternatives
in mainstream grocery stores, restaurants, and catering
operations” will be observed on and around March
20th. Begun in 1985, the event is coordinated by the
Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM). More information
and resources for participation can be found at: http://www.Meatout.org
AMIF ANIMAL-HANDLING CONFERENCE – The invitation-only
conference will take place March 29-30 at the Sheraton
Hotel in Overland Park, Ks. “Sponsored by the
American Meat Institute Foundation, the Animal Care
and Handling Conference for the Food Industry is the
leading animal welfare educational opportunity for
meat and poultry companies, their customers and those
involved in the production and management of livestock
and meat products.” Topics will include welfare
standards and audits, a status report on international
welfare guidelines, handling of nonambulatory animals,
electric and CO2 pig stunning, religious cattle slaughter,
handling techniques and associated product quality,
and updates on the National
Commission on Industrial [Farm Animal Production]
(see next item). More information at: http://tinyurl.com/2kqxk4
Conference proceedings from the American
Meat Science Association’s 2006 Meat Industry
Research Conference are available on-line at: http://tinyurl.com/3b6pah
THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON INDUSTRIAL FARM ANIMAL
PRODUCTION
continues holding public hearings as part of its 2-year
examination of intensive animal agriculture on public
health, the environment, rural areas, and animal welfare
(see: http://tinyurl.com/35vqno
). Anyone attending may also offer testimony, and
pre-registration is encouraged. The events are to
occur: April 9-11th in Durham, N.C., June 4-6th in
Fort Collins, Co., Sept. 10-12th in Madison, Wi.,
and Nov. 12-14th in Kansas City, Mo. See: http://www.ncifap.org
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