TheDairySite Newsletter - 13 August 2010

TheDairySite Weekly Newsletter

Friday 13th August 2010

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Welcome to this week's newsletter

Editorial: Trouble In China

The Chinese Ministry of Health has announced that it will be investigating claims that milk powder has caused infant girls to prematurely develop breasts.

It is suspected that the milk powder contained oestrogen hormones, which are forbidden. The food safety supervision team is looking into the cause of the premature development, as well as testing milk samples.

Synutra International, the accused formula provider, has insisted that all its products are safe.

The Ministry of Health has said that a full report will be released when the investigation is complete.

Most would expect this to be of serious detriment to the industry, however experts believe that sales of milk will not be affected.

In fact it has been predicted that, over the next four years, China's infant formula market will grow 18.7 per cent a year.

In 2008, the Chinese dairy industry suffered heavily after melamine-tainted milk made 300,000 consumers sick and caused six deaths.

Charlotte Johnston

This Week's Feature Articles

We have 4 new features this week:

Play Behaviour In Dairy Calves
Speaking at the Boehringer Animal Well-Being conference held in Barcelona, Margit Bak Jensen from the University of Aarhus, Denmark looks at play behaviour as an indicator of welfare in dairy calves. Charlotte Johnston, TheCattleSite junior editor reports.

Stress: Compromising Animal Health
Researchers in the Livestock Behaviour Research Unit in West Lafayette, Indiana, report their studies on stress in poultry, pigs and cattle in the latest issue of Agricultural Research.

Feeding Behaviour And Early Detection Of Diseases
Infectious and metabolic diseases can result in decreased milk production, poor reproductive performance, and increased culling of dairy cows, says a report from the University of British Columbia.

Dairy Outlook: July 2010
Milk production continues to advance despite declining cow numbers on a yearly basis; it is production per cow that boosts overall output. More milk both this year and next will limit price increases for dairy products, even though demand both globally and domestically continues to strengthen. Imports are forecast to decline while exports climb in 2010. Stocks will tighten more next year.