Reuters — A consumer group on Wednesday accused the U.S. Department of Agriculture of putting the public’s health at risk by allowing meat with antibiotic-resistant strains of salmonella to be sold to consumers, according to a lawsuit filed against the agency. The allegation came in a complaint filed by Center for Science in the Public […] Read more
USDA sued over drug-resistant salmonella in meat
U.S. livestock: Cooling wholesale pork prices send hog, cattle futures tumbling
Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hogs futures fell three cents, as much as the market allows, on Friday as wholesale pork pricing cooled and cash hog prices weakened. CME feeder and live cattle prices also fell sharply in response. Livestock traders worried that wholesale prices of bacon and pork chops may still […] Read more
Merck wants to test Zilmax on 240,000 cattle but beef industry resists
Chicago | Reuters — Merck & Co Inc. wants to feed its controversial feed additive Zilmax to 240,000 U.S. cattle to prove it is safe. But there is a problem: giant meat processors like Cargill Inc don’t want to touch animals fed with the drug. Merck plans to conduct the biggest ever test of its […] Read more
U.S. livestock: Supply issues send CME hogs plummeting, cattle soaring
Chicago | Reuters — Capping yet another day of volatile livestock trading, Chicago Mercantile Exchange hogs closed down Thursday, recovering somewhat after prices went limit-down midday in response to ongoing uncertainty over the impact of a deadly swine virus on the nation’s hog herd. In contrast, fears over tight beef and cattle supplies in the […] Read more
U.S. livestock: CME hogs close lower on bearish hog data
Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange hogs closed lower on Monday, recovering somewhat from a limit-down open in response to a recent bearish USDA hog report. CME feeder and live cattle were also lower, with feeders pressed by a jump in Chicago Board of Trade corn prices after the government forecast U.S. farmers would […] Read more
U.S. cattle deaths linked to Zilmax far exceed maker’s reports, study finds
Reuters — The number of U.S. cattle deaths that may be linked to the Merck and Co. feed additive Zilmax are much higher than the figures reported by the drug company to the federal government, according to a research study published Wednesday. The findings by researchers from Texas Tech University and Kansas State University show […] Read more
Tyson demands better treatment of hogs by its suppliers
Tyson Foods, the second-largest pork producer in the U.S., said Thursday it will require more humane animal treatment by farmers that raise its pigs — and will keep a closer eye on all of its hog suppliers in North America. Tyson said it will be rolling out more third-party inspections this year of sow farms […] Read more
Lost hooves, dead cattle before Merck halted Zilmax sales
The U.S. beef industry’s dependence on the muscle-building drug Zilmax began unraveling here, on a sweltering summer day, in the dusty cattle pens outside a Tyson Foods slaughterhouse in southeastern Washington state. As cattle trailers that had traveled up to four hours in 95 F (35 C) heat began to unload, 15 heifers and steers […] Read more
U.S. farm kids have mixed views on Zilmax
Reading Time: 3 minutes Reuters / For more than a century, ranchers and their kids have paraded cattle around the dusty show ring at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, in a rite of passage that is part farm economics, part rural theatre. Today, with U.S. auction prices for champion cattle topping $300,000 a head and hefty scholarship […] Read more
U.S. universities monitor pig virus during gov’t shutdown
As the federal government shutdown stretches into its second week, veterinary labs at U.S. universities are stepping into a data gap to collect information and publish updates about an outbreak of a swine virus deadly to young pigs, according to the American Association of Swine Veterinarians. The University of Minnesota’s diagnostic lab staff last week […] Read more
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