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Croatians,
Swiss Ban Italy Poultry 01/14/00
ROME (AP) -- Croatia and Switzerland announced a temporary ban on poultry from Italy on Friday, saying they wanted to keep a bird flu outbreak in Italy from spreading to their flocks. The outbreak has forced the slaughter of more than 3 million birds in Italy since Christmas. Italian authorities said Friday they were stepping on checks on turkeys, chickens and eggs in infected regions to try to confine the epidemic.
Authorities say infected turkeys and chickens are a threat only to other birds and not to humans who eat them. Croatia's Agriculture Ministry announced its ban in a statement carried by state-run news agency HINA. The ban also forbids transport of Italian poultry through Croatia. Switzerland announced a similar ban, citing the outbreak in nine Italian provinces
15aug99 THOSE egg-laying machines known as battery hens survive just 18 months before suffering burnout and having the death penalty imposed. Tens of thousands of battery layers in WA can do little to ease the discomfort of being confined to small wire cages that streamline production at their expense. With each hen inhabiting an area about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, they cannot perform the most basic natural functions such as stretching their wings, perching, roosting, dust-bathing or foraging. As a result, they suffer muscle wastage and can barely walk. Producers replenish stock with bulk-bought pullets, which have the top of their beaks sliced off within weeks of hatching to prevent them pecking each other. From 16 weeks these young hens feed the battery line, laying about two eggs every three days, until production drops off at 18 months. Then they are slaughtered, deemed too old to be effective layers but still young enough to be dressed and sold to takeaway chicken outlets. This is the picture painted in a national-education campaign being waged by the RSPCA, which says it is time for the industry to phase out battery farms in favour of the more hen-friendly method of housing them in barns or letting them run free-range. These are also the methods preferred by activists from Animal Liberation and Tasmanian Primary Industries Minister David Llewellyn, who have both been lobbying for legislative reform. But these campaigns have left WA egg producers crying foul. WA Poultry Farmers Association president Robert Da Prato said the campaigners were misinformed. Their judgment had been coloured by a handful of rogues. Mr Da Prato said only half a dozen producers had been identified as having breached the industry's regulatory code of practice. They were slowly being weeded out, he said. Long-time egg producer Paul Colletti – whose spick-and-span egg farm is recognised by the RSPCA as being one of the State's most sophisticated and animal-friendly – operates both the barn and battery systems. The WA industry's governing body, Golden Egg Farms, said Mr Colletti's Oakford farm best illustrated how the majority of WA's farms were run. Mr Colletti invited The Sunday Times inside this week for a first-hand inspection. His barn system was installed a couple of years ago to meet mounting public demand for alternatives to battery farming. Within the shed are thousands of hens packed side by side, free to move about in the open but crowded conditions. A row of metal roosting boxes dominates the centre with hundreds of hens either side. Automated food and water lines run the length of the barn. Mr Colletti and Mr Da Prato said barn systems were much more expensive to operate because they were less efficient, more labour intensive and caused more of a health hazard. Mr Da Prato said hygiene was a constant battle, with hens being more susceptible to parasite and tick infestation and more prone to cannibalism and injury, which drastically reduced the number of eggs meeting strict health regulations. He said last week's figures from the NSW egg-grading floor showed that 20 per cent of free-range eggs were deemed unfit for human consumption, compared with 13 per cent of barn-laid eggs and just 0.3 per cent of battery-laid eggs failing the test. But he conceded that the figures didn't vary as wildly in WA, which has much newer free-range and barn-laid facilities. In the battery shed, Mr Colletti passionately defended his methods and rejected criticisms that caged systems were cruel. The shed houses row upon row of 0.4sqm cages housing five hens each. The birds had difficulty changing position and all featured heavy feather loss around their throats caused by having to stretch over the bars to feed. Mr Colletti said: "The sight of this may offend some people but these birds have 500sqcm each, 50sqcm more than recommended. "Because they are caged, as soon as an egg is laid it drops away and is kept clean. "We know exactly what the birds are eating and can physically inspect the welfare of every bird, which I do twice a day. "Is it cruel? I guess that is up to the individual. "I know it's not. The laws of nature stop any birds producing if they are not healthy or happy. "It may look cruel but they have constant fresh food, fresh water and are taken care of." There are 103 farms in WA, containing an estimated one million birds. Mr Colletti said the majority of these farmers were as concerned for their stock's welfare as he was. "Most farmers would not be able to sleep if they knew they were hurting animals," he said. "I'm here because I love nature, this is my life. These birds are not unhappy." RSPCA spokeswoman Sonja Pritchard said the industry's continued support of battery farming was based purely on cost. She said the RSPCA was also concerned that much of the labelling on egg cartons was misleading to consumers.
MANDAN, N.D. (AP) - Bill Haag is getting a new computer system at his grain elevator, but ask him about Y2K and his answer is short. A lot of hype, he says. ``I think they just blow it out worse than it is,'' Haag said. He doesn't think any of his equipment will be affected. Researchers are not as confident. Those who have studied how the millennium bug could affect farm equipment are urging pork, dairy and grain operations to make contingency plans. And last-minute workshops in the Upper Midwest are planned to spread the word about how to prepare for equipment problems in case the bug bites worse than expected. Charlotte Meier, executive director of the North Dakota Pork Producers, said she has received no calls about Y2K worries from the state's 750 pork operations. ``At this point, I would say there isn't that much concern,'' she said. ``I think if they know the electricity is going to be running that's all they're concerned about.'' Mike Adelaine, an extension specialist from South Dakota State University, thinks farmers should be concerned about more than that. He has put together an Internet list of Y2K-compliant software commonly used in farm operations and is planning a workshop in November for those who get a late start on preparations. ``Basically, what we're going to do is say: `Hey, folks, be aware of this issue, make some contingency plans and let's see if we can get you through this time period,''' Adelaine said. Y2K problems could arise from malfunctions in computers that read only the last two digits in a year and mistake 2000 as 1900. In particular, owners of pork, poultry and dairy operations are being urged to make sure their climate-control devices will not collapse suddenly on New Year's Day. Producers with livestock feeding or milking systems are encouraged to contact manufacturers to find out how they might be affected. The same goes for producers with any kind of environmental control mechanisms in barns or confined feeding operations. Producers also should prepare to do farm work manually if automated machinery doesn't work, said Wayne Hansen, who has studied the issue for the University of Minnesota Extension Service. Electronic scales, moisture testers, grain drying equipment and crop storage ventilation systems used in grain elevators could be affected, he said. The Y2K bug also could hamper farmers and ranchers who use computers to keep their books. ``We are seeing the medium-size smaller operations that do have the older machines that would need to get up to speed,'' Adelaine said. Hansen said earlier workshops on Y2K have not drawn many farmers. ``We don't know if it's because they don't think it's a problem or if it's because they feel like they've fixed everything already,'' he said. He does not believe Y2K will cause the devastating problems, but said there's reason to prepare. ``There will be some problems,'' he said. ``We know that for a fact. It's just a matter of how severe they are.'' The Internet site for making Y2K contingency plans on the farm can be found at www.abs.sdstate.edu/ecs/home/y2k.html
Changes For Chickens? New Hybrid Corn Helps Reduce Phosphorus In Poultry Litter, UD Scientists ReportPhosphorus in poultry droppings--a potential threat to water quality--can be dramatically reduced by feeding flocks a new hybrid of corn with more highly available phosphorus, plus an enzyme that helps chickens digest the mineral, University of Delaware and U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists say. Total phosphorus levels dropped by 41 percent after chickens ate a modified diet containing the hybrid corn, reduced levels of supplemental phosphorus and the phytase enzyme, says George Malone, a UD poultry extension specialist and associate scientist. Better yet, he says, water-soluble phosphorus levels dropped by 82 percent, compared to the amount produced by poultry fed a standard commercial diet. "The decrease in soluble phosphorus is particularly significant because soluble nutrients like phosphorus run off or pass more readily through the soil and into the water," Malone points out. Victor Raboy, a research geneticist with the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA, Aberdeen, Idaho, agrees: "A 41 percent reduction in total phosphorus is a pretty big deal," he says. "This research can help the farming community make its contribution toward improved water quality." On the Delmarva peninsula and elsewhere around the world, too many nutrients increase the risk of pollutants in water, while decreasing the amount of oxygen available for aquatic life. Nutrients move into the water from many sources, including homeowners' yards and gardens, Malone says. But, the effects of animal agriculture-especially poultry litter-are a key concern. To help solve the problem, UD and USDA researchers teamed with leading poultry-industry companies. Support for the project was provided by Townsends, a Delaware-based poultry and agribusiness company; Optimum Quality Grains, a DuPont/Pioneer Joint Venture; and BASF Corp., a manufacturer of various poultry products. Optimum Quality Grains, in conjunction with Pioneer Hi-Bred International, as well as several other companies, have obtained the technology needed to commercialize the hybrid corn, Raboy says. A complex balancing act When chicken litter is applied to cropland to meet nitrogen requirements, Malone says, the long-term consequence can be a buildup of phosphorus levels in soil. Chicken manure has a high phosphorus content, relative to its nitrogen content, he explains. Chickens require phosphorus for muscle and bone development, Malone says. Yet, as much as 75 percent of the phosphorus in corn and other grains is poorly digested by chickens. That's because the phosphorus in these chicken feeds is locked within a molecule called phytic acid, or phytate. Low-phytate corn, therefore, results in higher levels of phosphorus available to the animal. Chickens lack phytase, the enzyme required to digest the phytate that imprisons phosphorus, making it biochemically unavailable to the animals. Thus, phytate passes through chickens unused. To meet growth and health requirements, therefore, chickens' diets must be supplemented with a more readily available form of inorganic phosphate. In an effort to produce corn with more digestible phosphorus, Raboy identified a recessive gene that results in corn with a low phytic-acid content. Just as a cake recipe calls for certain ingredients, genes may code for many different components of corn. This dominant gene in corn codes for almost 75 percent phytate, Raboy says. But, the recessive gene identified by Raboy codes for only 35 percent. New diet shows promise By crossing plants with the recessive, low phytic-acid gene, Raboy and his colleagues developed a corn containing low levels of phytic acid, resulting in a line of more high-availability phosphorus (HAP) corn, also known as low-phytate corn. "The total phosphorus in grain remains the same," says Malone. "But, the amount of phosphorus available for digestion by the chicken increases." The UD researchers conducted three experiments, involving 8,280 male broilers. The birds were fed one of six different diets, in four separate feed phases, from birth to market-age. Researchers compared diets of HAP corn and regular corn, both with and without the phytase enzyme, and with decreasing amounts of supplemental inorganic (non-phytate) phosphorus. "The results were encouraging when chickens were fed the low-phytate (HAP) corn, reduced levels of supplemental phosphorus and the phytase enzyme," Malone says. "Overall, poultry performance on the reduced, nonphytate phosphorus diets was comparable or better than the control diet in the winter and spring flocks." In addition to making phosphorus more available in feeds, researchers also want to know the minimum amount of phosphorus needed for animal performance, Raboy points out. Hot weather seems to have some effect on the birds fed the more restricted phosphorus diets, Malone reports. He recommends caution when reducing levels of dietary inorganic phosphorus by 0.2 percent in phytase diets with either corn type during hot weather. Reducing dietary phosphorus by just 0.1 percent had no influence on performance, he says. A comprehensive litter analysis and greenhouse and soil-transport study is the focus of a second phase of the project, directed by principal investigator Tom Sims, a UD professor of soil and environmental chemistry. Also serving on the UD team are William Saylor, associate dean for research and a professor of animal science; Edward Odor, poultry pathologist; and Conrad Pope, veterinary pathologist. "Over the next few years, our challenge in Delaware is to reduce phosphorus in poultry litter, especially," Malone says. "Tremendous efforts are under way to achieve this goal. This study will provide one of many strategies for addressing nutrient management issues in the future." | ||||||
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