Tail biting increases with low-protein hog diets

Tail biting increases if hogs are on a low-protein ration, reports veterinarian Hannah Jansen of Southwest Ontario Veterinary Services.

She outlines her work and Netherlands research on a posting on the Swineweb internet site.

Pigs that are fed low protein diets may spend increased amounts of time investigating their environment and foraging for food in an effort to find what they are lacking, she said. 

On the other hand, lowering protein is associated with reduced rates of diarrhea among newly-weaned hogs.

When environmental enrichment is very poor the pigs may increasingly redirect their behaviours towards pen mates. If the act of “nibbling” on a penmate should happen to produce some blood the pigs will become very interested in the blood since it can be an easy source of amino acids and other nutrients that are missing from the diet, Jansen wrote.

They found that:

Hogs on a low-protein diet had a lower feed intake, growth, and gain-to-feed ratio, and were more active than hogs on a normal ration or those on a low-protein diet supplemented with amino acids.

Those on the low-protein diet interacted most often with enrichment materials, such as hanging ropes.

Low-protein pigs showed more tail biting.

 Adding amino acids and extra toys reduced tail biting in the starter phase. but did not help in grower or finisher phases.

Dr, Jansen said this study done in the Netherlands confirms previous findings that pigs that are fed low crude protein rations can be at greater risk of tail biting behaviour.

                           

 

 

 

Starbucks, Lactanet, FCC, DFC join on sustainability

 Starbucks coffee chain, Lactanet dairy services company, Farm Credit Canada and Dairy Farmers of Canada have joined forces on dairy-industry sustainability projects. 

Starbucks has committed $500,000 to support dairy sustainability-focused projects over the course of this year, rewarding the continued efforts of Canadian dairy farmers on their path to net zero.

The partnership includes three projects.

 

The first is already underway for 2024 in collaboration with Farm Credit Canada and Lactanet for FCC’s Dairy Sustainability Incentive Program. 

This program rewards farmers who are successfully adopting environmental best management practices and encourages continued sustainable farming by granting annual incentives of up to $2,000 to FCC customers who meet select criteria. 

As part of its partnership with DFC and overall investment for the year, Starbucks will provide additional funding to the FCC program in two new categories, Top Achieving and Most Improved, further recognizing the sustainability successes of Canadian dairy farmers.

                                    

Smithfield, Seaboard settle for price-fixing pork

 

Smithfield Foods and Seaboard Foods have settled with pork buyers for an undisclosed amount of money.

And in a separate deal they settled with supermarket chain Kroger, also for an undisclosed amount.

They are accused of rigging the pork market and prices between January, 2009, and until at least 2018.

In late 2022, Minnesota District Court Judge John Tunheim ruled to consolidate 27 cases involving 146 parties. The pork processors involved in the lawsuit control more than 80 per cent of the wholesale pork market.

Yoplait business rumoured for sale

 

There are rumours that General Mills has hired J.P. Morgan Chase to find a buyer for its Yoplait yogourt business in Canada and the United States.

It earlier sold its European business to Sodiaal.

General Mills is rumoured to be asking $2 billion for Yoplait.

General Mills and JPMorgan have declined to comment.

Shares of General Mills have fallen about 19 per cent over the past year to $71.04 on Friday, valuing the company at about $40 billion US.

Yoplait was started by a group of French dairy farmers in 1964 and struck a deal with General Mills in 1977.

In 2011, General Mills acquired a 51 per cent per cent stake worth $1.2 billion in Yoplait from private equity firm PAI Partners and French dairy cooperative Sodiaal. Sodiaal retained the remaining stake.

In 2021, General Mills sold the European operations of Yoplait to Sodiaal. At the time, the company said its U.S. and Canada yogurt operations generated a combined $1.4 billion in net sales for fiscal 2020.

Reuters news agency reports that General Mills sees the remaining yogurt assets as non-core in its current strategy as it faces tough competition from market leaders Chobani and Danone’s Dannon brand.

Large Listeria recall in B.C.

 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is over-seeing a fast-expanding recall of Asian-market foods contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes food-poisoning bacteria in British Columbia.

Over the weekend the CFIA added 11 products to the recall list bearing Kingwuu brand and T&T Kitchen brand names. T&T is a large Asian-market supermarket chain owned by Loblaws.

The recalled items are meat and vegetable products including spicy duck ,cold beef and offal and cold pork head.

The recall was triggered by the maker, Jue Wei Foods (Canada); the CFIA said there have been no reports of consumer illness linked to the products

Batista brothers back on JBS board

 

Wesley and Joesley Batista were elected to two-year terms on the board of directors for JBS S.A. of Brazil, the world’s largest meat-packing empire, on Friday.

They were hit with a fine of $2.1 billion in 2017 for bribing hundreds of politicians and civil servants to obtain loans that enabled them to buy major meat-packing companies, including in the United States and Canada.

The Batistas were also elected to the board of Pilgrim’s Pride In February, one of the largest meat-packing companies in the United States.

In January, a supreme court justice in Brazil suspended the $2.1 billion fine imposed on J&F Investimentos, Brazil's largest business group with ownership stakes in JBS. The Batista brothers are controlling shareholders of J&F.

J&F initially agreed to pay the fine in 2017 as part of a leniency agreement related to its involvement in corruption scandals. The Batista brothers confessed to operating a political bribery ring in a plea bargain deal.

Avian flu in cattle spreads

 

 

Colorado has been added to the states where dairy cattle have been found infected with highly-pathogenic avian influenza that has claimed millions of farmed chickens and turkeys in the United States and Canada.

And it may be far more widespread among cattle.

One in five commercial milk samples tested in a nationwide survey contained particles of the H5N1 virus, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said late on Thursday. The agency said there is no reason to believe the virus found in milk poses a risk to human health.

“This says this virus has largely saturated dairy cattle throughout the country,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota.

Many infectious disease experts and government officials have said they believe the pasteurization process will inactivate the virus, also known as avian influenza. However, additional testing is needed to confirm that there is no infectious virus in the milk, the FDA said.

“I’m not worried about the milk itself,” said Samuel Alcaine, associate professor, of food science at Cornell University. “It does indicate that the virus is more widespread among dairies than we had previously thought.”

Osterholm said the developments suggest the U.S. should be doing much more sampling, in both dairy and beef cattle, as well as pigs, which are a frequent mixing vessel for flu viruses that can be transmitted to people.

So far there have been no reports of the virus in Canadian cattle, but Canadian officials have not said if milk samples are being tested.