TheBeefSite Newsletter - 27 June 2012

TheBeefSite Weekly Newsletter

Wednesday 27th June 2012

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Welcome to this week's newsletter

EDITORIAL: Global Plan to Eliminate FMD

FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) have joined forces to fight foot-and-mouth disease on a global scale.

The two organisations underlined, however, that only solid commitments from global partners will make the strategy possible, as they opened an international meeting in Bangkok supported by the Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.

The announcement at the opening session of the FAO/OIE global conference in Bangkok set out a global strategy combining two tools developed by the FAO and OIE.

FAO is emphasising the need for collective action to better control FMD where it is a high burden to millions of farmers, pastoralists and commercial operators.

Most importantly, for the poorest farmers who often depend on just a few animals, foot-and-mouth disease means hunger and economic ruin when it strikes and cuts off people's only source of income and protein.

The OIE tool, called the Performance of Veterinary Services Pathway (PVS), evaluates national veterinary services with the aim of bringing them into compliance with OIE quality standards. Reliable veterinary services ensure the quality and safety of livestock production. In turn, strong veterinary systems protect the safety of food sources, trade and animal health, and as such, are a global public good.

FAO developed the Progressive Control Pathway for Foot-and-Mouth Disease, the PCP-FMD, which guides countries through a series of incremental steps to better manage FMD risks, beginning with active surveillance to establish what types of FMD virus strains are circulating in the country and neighbouring areas.

The process moves countries continuously towards improved levels of FMD control and thus an eventual opening to trade and international markets. A key pillar of the PCP-FMD involves coordinating efforts with countries in the same region in order to control the disease systematically across porous national boundaries.

FAO and OIE are confident that the task is achievable following the success in eliminating rinderpest.

"The successful eradication of rinderpest, a joint effort by scientists, governments, donors, veterinarians and farmers, clearly shows that we can reduce and even eliminate the threat of major diseases," said Juan Lubroth, FAO's chief veterinary officer.

This Week's Feature Articles

We have 4 new features this week:

Dynamic and Positive Climate for Beef
In the long term demand for beef globally is expected to be good writes Chris Harris.

Older or Better, The Longevity Debate
More longevity and fertility in the cowherd seem like a “no brainer.” But when those pursuits come at the expense of uniformity or other functionality, it could pay to do some hard studying, writes Miranda Reiman for Certified Angus Beef.

Economic Benefits of Managed Grazing Systems
The main goal for any livestock operation is to turn a profit. Despite the currently high cattle prices, this can still be a challenging goal for many in the beef cow/calf business, particularly with the rising costs of inputs, writes Jeff Duchene, Central Minnesota Regional Grazing Specialist at the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Individual Factors Associated with L- and H-Type BSE in France
In what they believe is the first study of atypical cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in France, researchers based in Lyon found that the cases were detected in animals much older than for the classical form of the disease. There was a significant geographical cluster in central France for one of the atypical forms although this may have been due to the BSE testing scheme in place.

Market Reports

» UK Slaughter Statistics - June 2012
» Irish CSO Livestock Slaughterings - May 2012
» AHDB European Market Survey - 22 June 2012
» AHDB UK Market Survey - 22 June 2012
» Irish CSO - Output, Input and Income in Agriculture

Company News

Exploiting Natural Defences of Farm Animals to Control Infectious Diseases
NETHERLANDS - Pfizer announced the launch of a new Public-Private partnership research program, ALTANT - ASIA in collaboration with leading scientists in the Netherlands, seeking to develop alternative strategies to protect farm animals from infectious disease by minimising the likelihood of inducing antibiotic resistance.

Global Beef Cattle Industry News