porcus - sappo

Promotion
Working together, was the key message
to come out of a meeting between
British pig producers and UK
Farm Minister Jim Paice to discuss
the forthcoming European Union
(EU) ban on stalls and tethers.
The meeting, which also involved
British Pig executive director, Mick
International
UK pig producers, government
discuss EU stall ban
Pork seized
in China
A total of 200kg pork meat, thought
to be injected with water, was
seized by Songjiang district authorities
in China.
The pork meat was suspected of
being injected with water, following
a report by a consumer who
purchased 5kg pork from a wet
market and who later found that the
meat had leaked a lot of water. The
consumer reported the incident to
authorities. This prompted authorities
to inspect all eight vendors at
the market, leading to two vendors
being questioned.
When water is injected into the
animal, usually before slaughter,
it slows down the movement of
animals’ stomachs, and this leads to
food residue staying in the stomach
and letting out harmful chemicals,
such as ammonia and cresol. This
means that the meat could contain
chemicals, which could be harmful
to humans. Water injected meat
is also carried out to increase the
weight of meats like pork and beef.
The water used for injection is also
questionable, as polluted water is a
concern.
English.Eastday.com
36
Sloyan, Zoe Davies of the National
Pig Association and Stewart Houston,
who is chairman of both organisations,
also highlighted several other
upcoming industry measures. “While
the focus of the meeting was defi -
nitely on the stalls ban, we reminded
each other that there were one or
two other measures coming in at
Pigs with
built-in defence
against diarrhoea
Scientists at a Danish University are
investigating whether genetic resistance
to E. coli infections is a sustainable
approach to fi ght diarrhoea in
pig production.
If all pigs could avoid the diarrhoea
caused by E. coli infections, life would
be a lot easier for millions of pigs and
for thousands of farmers.
The resistance to E. coli is caused
by a mutation on the FUT1 gene,
but there has been no strategy to
include this mutation in breeding
programmes. The crucial issue is to
investigate whether the resistance to
E. coli could have other signifi cant
biological side-effects on animals.
This is what the new project will examine.
The scientists will compare the
pigs that carry the FUT1 mutation with
pigs that do not carry the mutation
for a number of different parameters.
They will, for example, examine how
the FUT1 gene affects the colonisation
of the intestines with benefi cial microbiota,
as this colonisation is crucial
both for the health of the gut and for
the pig’s health generally.
The additional knowledge about
the structure and function of specifi c
receptor molecules that the scientists
will obtain can be used to develop
new preventive and therapeutic
medicines for E. coli infections in both
animals and humans.
PigProgress.net
the same time,” said Sloyan. “These
include slat design, stocking rates for
pregnant gilts and sows and overall
fl oor areas. It was agreed the government
would write to all registered
pig producers reminding them of the
changes.”
WattAgNet.com
McDonalds
supports
humane
handling of
animals
The McDonald’s Corporation announced
that it will require of its US
pork suppliers to outline their plans
to phase out of the use of sow gestation
stalls.
“McDonald’s believes gestation
stalls are not a sustainable production
system for the future. There are
alternatives that we think are better
for the welfare of sows,” said Dan
Gorsky, senior vice president of
McDonald’s North America Supply
Chain Management. “McDonald’s
wants to see the end of sow confi
nement in gestation stalls in our
supply chain. We are beginning an
assessment with our US suppliers to
determine how to build on the work
already underway to reach that goal.
In May, after receiving our suppliers’
plans, we’ll share results from the assessment
and our next steps.”
McDonald’s actions are backed by
leading independent animal welfare
experts.
nationalhogfarmer.com
Porcus Januarie/Februarie 2012