Livestock

Technical talks aimed at avoiding a formal trade dispute between Canada and South Korea over the latter’s ban on Canadian beef haven’t done the trick. Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and International Trade Minister Stockwell Day announced Thursday that Canada has officially asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) to set up a formal dispute settlement […] Read more

A Mississauga company has applied for patent protection on technology it says will make livestock semen sexing more cost-effective for breeders. Microbix Biosystems said in a release Thursday that it will now move toward commercializing its new technology. The company said its work “should provide a more cost-effective platform for semen sexing and significantly improve […] Read more

Two workers from a large hog farm in eastern Saskatchewan have been confirmed to have a novel, “non-pandemic” strain of influenza A with genes from human flu and swine flu. A third case is also under investigation, the Saskatchewan government said in a release Tuesday, adding that the affected workers have “fully recovered.” According to […] Read more

The Canadian Beef and Cattle Market Development Fund will expand its scope in Alberta to allow more types of applicants and support a wider range of projects. The “Legacy Fund,” as it’s often called, was created in 2005 with $80 million in public funds as part of the federal and Alberta governments’ response to the […] Read more

A court auction for the Iowa packer that had been the largest kosher meat processor in the U.S. turned up just one bidder: a company reportedly led by a Montreal businessman. The Des Moines Register reported Tuesday that SHF Industries is the sole bidder for the bankrupt and beleaguered Agriprocessors meat packing business and is […] Read more

Cow-calf producers in areas of Saskatchewan from Regina up west to Kindersley should start planning alternatives for feed, a new hay outlook warns. “Saskatchewan producers who are starting to cut their hay crops will be disappointed with yields this year, especially in this region,” the Western Beef Development Centre’s vice-president of operations, Dr. Paul Jefferson, […] Read more

Regulations that require any suspected cases of bluetongue in livestock to be reported to federal veterinary inspectors, even though Canada has lifted its bluetongue control measures on U.S. imports, are set to change by as early as next month. Amendments to the federal Health of Animals Regulations will downgrade the five common U.S. serotypes of […] Read more

A fossilized animal that changed what we know about wild horses that roamed the Yukon up until about 12,000 years ago is now on public display. The Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre at Whitehorse has opened its new exhibit featuring the 26,000-year-old Yukon horse found by placer miners in the Klondike in 1993. The horse, billed […] Read more

Transition payments, adjusted advance payments and new loans to recover from international bad press due to the so-called “swine flu” are part of the Canadian Pork Council’s proposal for federal support from now through 2014. The CPC on Monday rolled out a “Strategic Transition Plan,” which states that its proposal “respects the prudent role and […] Read more

Pfizer Animal Health has brought to market what it calls “the most current swine flu vaccine available in Canada.” The company has launched FluSureXP, which it bills as providing “relevant, broad cross-protection against contemporary flu strains found in North America including strains from both H1N1 and H3N2 subtypes.” Flusure XP, available through veterinarians, can be […] Read more