Two PED outbreaks

 

Swine Health Ontario reports there have been outbreaks of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in Middlesex and Huron counties.

In Middlesex it’s at a farrow-to-finish farm.

CFIA suspends a licence

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has suspended the licence for Ehsan Foods Canada Limited located in North York.

There have been six recalls of the company’s products, said the CFIA.

The company imports Persian foods, mainly from Iran.

There have been a multitude of recalls of pistachios from Iran.

Farm antibiotic sales increase in U.S.

Farmers in the United States used 16 per cent more antibiotics in 2024 than the previous year, reported the United States Food and Drug Administration.

That was a big change from the previous decade during which sales mostly held steady or declined.

The increase is worrisome because widespread use of antibiotics paves the way for bacteria resistant to antibiotics to multiply. That renders them useless in treating human infections and bacterial diseases.

Tetracyclines accounted for 69 per cent of all medically important drugs sold and their sales increased by 20 per cent in 2024 from the previous year.

Sales of Aminoglycoside increased by 37 per cent, lincosamides by 11 per cent and macrolides by one per cent. Penicillin sales declined 14 per cent.

Hog producers bought 43 per cent of the antibiotics sold in 2024,  dairy and beef producers, 41 per cent, turkey producers four per cent and chicken producers oner per cent.

Cattle accounted for most cephalosporin, aminoglycoside, tetracycline and sulfonamide sales, while swine represented the majority of lincosamide and macrolide use. Most penicillins were sold for turkeys.

Steven Roach, director of the Safe and Healthy Food Program at Food Animal Concerns Trust, said increases were seen across most drug classes and species, with particularly sharp growth in poultry. He attributed the trend to a lack of firm reduction targets and continued antibiotic use without confirmed bacterial infections.

                           

 

 

 

PED in Middlesex

 

Swine Health Ontario reports there has been an outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in a farrow-to-finish hog business in Middlesex County.

It is the third disease outbreak in Ontario this month.

Third farm has avian flu

A third turkey farm near Listowel has been infected with highly-pathogenic avian influenza.

They are all located close to each other and have experienced outbreaks over several days.

More than 109,000 turkeys are being sacrificed to prevent further spread of the disease.

Meatable closes business

 

Dutch-based cultivated meat start-up Meatable has closed.

 

It made pork sausages by growing pork stems cells in vats.

 

Meatable was unable to raise additional funding after attracting such investors as Agronomics, Betagro, BlueYard Capital, DSM Venturing and Invest-NL, according to several media outlets. 

The industry faces increasing development costs, scaling challenges and a hostile reception from lawmakers, including in several U.S. states thqt have declared bans because the technology threatens livestock and poultry farmers and processing plants.

Meatable’s closure follows the recent demise of Believer Meats and a shift in growth prospects for similar companies such as GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods.

Clemens settles lawsuit

Clemens has settled a pork price-fixing case for $7.75 million.

It goes to indirect institutional and commercial customers of Clemens Food Group and Clemens Family Corporation.

The lawsuit accused them of conspiring with competitors to obtain higher prices.