This autumn, flocks in the $67 billion U.S. poultry industry for the first time face a double risk for infections from dairies and migrating birds that can spread the disease.

Bird flu, which is lethal for poultry and reduces milk output in dairy cows, has eliminated more than 100 million chickens and turkeys since 2022 in the biggest U.S. outbreak ever.

Rose Acre Farms, the second-biggest U.S. egg producer, wants the U.S. Department of Agriculture to allow vaccinations, CEO Marcus Rust told Reuters. The company lost millions of hens in outbreaks and is relocating an Indiana facility for breeding chickens because it sits across a highway from a wildlife refuge that attracts migratory ducks, he said.

“We’re farmers. We want our animals to live,” Rust said.

The virus’ jump to cattle in 14 states and infections of 13 dairy and poultry farm workers this year have concerned scientists and federal officials about the risks to humans from further spread.

The nation’s leading egg, turkey and dairy groups argued in an August letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that the economic toll of the outbreak justifies deploying a vaccine. And federal lawmakers say USDA should accelerate its vaccine research and develop new methods to help farmers avoid outbreaks.

“It is obvious that the current outbreak has no end in sight,” a dozen members of Congress, led by Representatives Randy Feenstra, a Republican, and Democrat Jim Costa, said in another August letter to Vilsack.

A USDA spokesperson said the agency has been collaborating with state and federal agencies and researchers to protect livestock, farmers and farm workers and is researching animal vaccinations.

However, Vilsack said in a previously unreported March letter to members of Congress that a vaccine campaign would face challenges including potential barriers to exports. Many countries ban imports of vaccinated poultry because of concerns that the vaccine could mask the presence of the virus.

“Widespread vaccination of commercial poultry is not possible in the short term,” Vilsack wrote in the letter, which the animal welfare group Farm Forward obtained through a public records request and shared with Reuters.

‘REASON TO HAVE HOPE’

A growing number of countries are considering once-taboo vaccines. France last year began vaccinating ducks for bird flu. New Zealand, which has never had a case of bird flu, is testing a vaccine on five species of wild birds.

The U.S. approved emergency use of bird flu vaccine to protect California condors last year.

“The only use of a vaccine in the U.S. is in this particular case due to the endangered status of that wild bird,” said Julianna Lenoch, a USDA wildlife disease expert. The U.S. vaccinated 94 condors and saw deaths from bird flu stop, she said on a Thursday webinar.

Bird flu eliminated 17 million egg-laying hens from April through July, according to USDA data. By August, retail egg prices eclipsed $3.20 per dozen and reached a 16-month high, federal data show.

The egg industry will need to increase supply to reduce prices and the migratory period creates uncertainty, said Brian Moscogiuri, a vice president for Eggs Unlimited.

The migration season for wild birds is underway and will last until December, with waterfowl flying south from northern states like Minnesota, experts said. Blue-winged Teal ducks can travel all the way to South America, said Andy Ramey, research scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey.

Brazil, the world’s top chicken exporter, could see more cases in wild birds due to migrations, its poultry association said.

Migratory birds can carry the virus without dying and transmit it to poultry. However, it appears fewer wild birds are becoming infected, probably because they are building immunity, Ramey said.

“There is reason to have hope,” he said.

Additional reporting for Reuters by Lucy Craymer in Wellington and Roberto Samora in Sao Paulo

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The severity of the current outbreak of avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, and the economic and personal damage it has caused, has led governments to reconsider vaccinating poultry. However, some, like the United States, remain reluctant mainly because of the trade curbs this would entail.

“We are coming out of a COVID crisis where every country realized the hypothesis of a pandemic was real,” WOAH director general Monique Eloit told Reuters in an interview.

“Since almost every country that does international trade has now been infected, maybe it’s time to discuss vaccination, in addition to systematic culling which remains the main tool (to control the disease),” she said.

The Paris-based WOAH is holding a five-day general session from Sunday, and will focus on global control of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI.

A WOAH survey showed only 25 per cent of its member states would accept imports of products from poultry vaccinated against HPAI.

The European Union’s 27 member states agreed last year to implement a bird flu vaccine strategy.

France, which spent about one billion euros (C$1.46 billion) in 2021-22 to compensate the poultry industry for massive cullings, is set to be the first EU country to begin a vaccination programme, starting with ducks.

“It is our responsibility to use other tools that are now available such as vaccination. And this, for animal health, for public health but also to respond to societal challenges,” French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said at the launch of the WOAH General Session.

Eloit said the EU move toward vaccination could prompt others to follow.

“If a bloc like the EU, which is a large exporter, starts moving in that direction, it will have a ricochet impact,” Eloit said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) told Reuters on Friday that “in the interest of leaving no stone unturned in the fight against HPAI, USDA continues to research vaccine options that can protect poultry from this persistent threat”.

However, it still considers biosecurity measures to be the most effective tool for mitigating the virus in commercial flocks, it said in emailed answers.

The risk to humans from bird flu remains low but countries must prepare for any change in the status quo, the World Health Organization has said.

Eloit said vaccination should focus on free-range poultry, mainly ducks, since bird flu is transmitted by infected migrating wild birds. Vaccinating broilers, which account for about 60 per cent of global poultry output, makes less sense, she said.

The H5N1 strain that has been prevalent in the current HPAI outbreak has been detected in a larger number of mammals and killed thousands of them, including sea lions, foxes, otters and cats.

— Reporting for Reuters by Sybille de La Hamaide; additional reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington.

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The report, co-authored by research assistant Shawn Wiskar and centre director Guillaume Lhermie and released Thursday, used a focus group of six stakeholders in the Canadian poultry industry. It recommends several measures, primarily focused on increasing research and streamlining existing systems.

In its conclusion it states that “with the small size of Canadian poultry farms, expectations are placed unfairly on farmers across the country, creating regional strain and limiting the market’s ability to grow.”

Wiskar said the research for the report, which began last year, was “conceptualized out of an idea that it was really important for public policy to be built out of evidence-based and informed policy from producers.”

The think tank, which focuses on ag sector policy analysis and is based at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, “was really trying to function here as kind of a bridge-builder between the government of Canada as well as the government of Alberta and the producer groups,” he said.

The four main policy changes the report recommends are:

• an increase in provincially funded research;
• streamlining of the approval process for vaccines already approved in comparative markets;
• a comprehensive analysis of the poultry supply chains in other countries; and
• increased communication between poultry producers and the federal and provincial governments.

“We certainly hope at the very least this gets a conversation started between the producer groups and the government,” Wiskar said.

“The takeaway message from this report is that we think there is an increased need for efficiency in these markets, and the first step to that is improving communication between the different levels of government, the different commodity groups, as well the overarching marketing board.”

‘Barrier to entry’

Wiskar said that the poultry sector’s quota system was also a topic of concern for its focus group.

“Canadian poultry farms are a lot smaller, and their operations have to be smaller, due to the quota system, when you compare it to something like the beef sector, which doesn’t have that quota system.”

In the section on sector challenges, the report calls the quota system a “barrier to entry in the poultry sector, as farmers must bid to purchase a quota of production.”

The report said its focus group viewed Canada’s supply chain model as “posing the industry’s greatest challenges but also as providing its greatest support,” Participants cited the protection it provides from market fluctuations, but also its tight profit margins.

Wiskar said he didn’t think there was much in the report that would be unknown to producers or governments, but there is plenty the Canadian public could take away from it.

“It kind of seemed to us like the focus group we sat down with really thought that poultry was conceptualized by the public as being something more similar to what you might get out of the United States,” Wiskar said.

In Canada, he added, “poultry farming is a smaller operation, and it’s really bound up in supply management, which is not something that’s particularly well understood by the Canadian public.”

“The chicken farmers and the turkey farmers and the egg hatching farmers, they have different priorities, and they are functionally different industries, so it’s important not to group them all together.”

Asked for a review of the report, Chicken Farmers of Canada, for one, declined comment.

A CFC representative, noting the “limited sample size” of the report’s focus group, said Friday via email it could be misleading or “even risky” to draw conclusions from the report’s methodology.

Egg Farmers of Canada similarly said it had “no specific comment” on the report but also noted it was “based on a focus group that included a small sample of size of six agricultural stakeholders.”

The Simpson Centre is due to release a sister report on the challenges faced by the beef industry in several weeks.

— Jonah Grignon reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

Updated May 17, 2023 to include Egg Farmers of Canada comment.

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The trials, conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service, are the first step in a lengthy process toward the possible first use of vaccines to protect U.S. poultry from the lethal virus.

Bird flu, also known as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), has killed hundreds of millions of birds around the world, raising interest in vaccines. The virus is largely spread by wild birds that transmit it to poultry.

USDA is testing one vaccine from Zoetis, one from Merck Animal Health and two developed by the department’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

Zoetis said it previously supplied its vaccine to a USDA stockpile in 2016, following a massive 2015 outbreak, but it was never used.

Initial data from a study using a single dose of a vaccine are expected in May, while results from studies on two-dose vaccine regimens are expected in June, USDA said.

If the trials are successful and USDA decides to continue development, it would take at least 18-24 months for a vaccine that matches the current virus to be commercially available, the agency said.

The government needs to ensure vaccinations would not disrupt trading with major buyers, said Greg Tyler, president of the industry group USA Poultry + Egg Export Council.

Governments have previously focused on culling infected flocks to control the virus due to concerns importers would block shipments of vaccinated poultry to avoid the risk of infections.

USDA said on Friday its “current strategy of stamping out and eradicating HPAI… continues to be the most effective strategy because it works.”

Outbreaks in U.S. commercial and backyard poultry flocks have led to the deaths or culls of an estimated 58.65 million birds across 47 states since the high-path virus’ current run through the U.S. began in early 2022.

In Canada, as of Tuesday, an estimated 7.3 million commercial and backyard birds have been similarly impacted by the virus since late 2021.

France said last week it was launching an order for 80 million doses of vaccines to use in ducks in the autumn if final trial results are positive, the first EU member to start such a plan.

— Tom Polansek reports on agriculture and ag commodities for Reuters from Chicago. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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The group of scientists, regulators and vaccine manufacturers meets twice a year to decide which strain of seasonal flu to include in the vaccine for the upcoming winter season, in this case for the Northern Hemisphere.

But it is also a chance to discuss the risk of animal viruses spilling over to humans and causing a pandemic. At this week’s meeting, H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b was a key topic, the World Health Organization (WHO) and global flu experts told Reuters. They will brief reporters on both the seasonal flu vaccine composition and spillover risks later on Friday.

“We are more prepared (than for COVID), but even if we are more prepared, we are not yet prepared enough,” Sylvie Briand, WHO director of global infectious hazard preparedness, said ahead of the meeting. “We need to really continue the efforts for a flu pandemic.”

Experts have been tracking H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b since it emerged in 2020, but recent reports of mass deaths in infected mammals from seals to bears, as well as potential mammal-to-mammal transmission on a Spanish mink farm last year, have raised concern.

However, there have been very few human cases, and the WHO currently assesses the threat to humans as low.

“This is a natural experiment playing out in front of us, and I don’t think we are complacent,” said Nicola Lewis, director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Influenza at the Crick Institute in London. Speaking before the meeting, she said it would include assessments of the situation worldwide.

Experts also discussed potential vaccine development.

WHO-affiliated labs already hold two flu virus strains that are closely related to the circulating H5N1 virus, which could be used by vaccine manufacturers to create a human vaccine if needed. One of them was added after the previous WHO flu meeting in September 2022, and labs around the world are currently testing how closely both subtypes match the strain spreading among animals to determine whether any more updates are necessary.

A number of companies that produce seasonal flu vaccines can also make pandemic flu vaccines. For example, GSK and CSL Seqirus are already working with the United States Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to test shots based on one of the closely-related strains.

Having these strains ready could save around two months in the development of a vaccine, said the WHO’s Briand. But getting enough vaccine developed quickly would still remain a challenge in a pandemic situation, the experts said.

— Jennifer Rigby is Reuters’ global health correspondent in London, England.

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The protest on Highway 4 at the Coutts, Alta. border crossing, about 100 km southeast of Lethbridge, began Saturday in tandem with a major protest in Ottawa concerning current federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers.

News reports late Sunday afternoon said the border crossing remained blocked at Coutts and motorists needing to cross were being diverted to another Alberta/Montana crossing at Carway, Alta., about 130 km west.

The Carway crossing, however, is usually open only from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. MT, while the Coutts crossing is usually open to traffic 24/7.

As of 1:05 a.m. MT on Monday, the Canada Border Services Agency’s web page for current border wait times listed the crossing at Coutts as experiencing “no delay” for either commercial trucks or other motorists. As of 12:01 p.m. MT Monday, however, the same page listed the wait time at Coutts as “7 hours” for both commercial and non-commercial travel.

Canada’s rules, in place since Jan. 15, require any Canadian truckers and other essential workers who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 and returning to Canada to follow the same quarantine protocols as other unvaccinated Canadians returning to Canada. Unvaccinated foreign truckers attempting to enter Canada would be turned away.

The rule for unvaccinated Canadian truckers re-entering Canada was rendered a moot point effective Jan. 22, however, as the U.S. government imposed the same vaccination requirement for foreign truckers and other essential workers entering the U.S.

Alberta RCMP on Sunday afternoon asked motorists to “continue to stay away” from Highway 4 south of Lethbridge to the Coutts border crossing as “traffic continues to remain immobilized in both the (northbound and southbound) directions. At this time, no motor vehicles are able to access the border for entry/re-entry.”

In a separate statement later Sunday afternoon, RCMP said they’re “working with truck drivers who are attempting to disengage from this event so that they are able to do so; however, current conditions have traffic immobilized.”

When an event becomes “unlawful,” RCMP added, “we utilize a measured approach, which ultimately includes enforcement. This event is unlawful and we are asking those who are involved to clear the area.”

Everyone has a right to peaceful freedom of expression, the Mounties added, but “the general public, local residents and businesses also have the right to a safe environment and freedom of movement.”

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney echoed the RCMP’s concerns in a separate statement Sunday, calling on protestors on Highway 4 to end their blockade “immediately” and “not to create road hazards which could lead to accidents or unsafe conditions for other drivers.”

The blockade, he said, violated the provincial Traffic Safety Act and was causing “significant inconvenience” for other drivers, but also “could dangerously impede the movement of emergency service vehicles.”

“While I respect everyone’s right to protest peacefully, we need the blockaders to disperse as quickly as possible,” provincial Transportation Minister Rajan Sawhney said in a separate statement Sunday.

“Not having a dedicated route in or out of the area is a safety hazard and is preventing commercial truckers from delivering goods that support our supply chain.”

For example, CBC on Sunday quoted one vaccinated long-haul trucker as saying he was taking meat from the JBS slaughter plant at Brooks, Alta. across to Portland, Oregon, but was halted by the blockade and diverted to wait at nearby Milk River, Alta.

The Canadian Meat Council, which represents the meatpacking sector, took to Twitter Monday afternoon to report “over 150 loads of Canadian beef stuck” at the Coutts crossing. “Our members are going to have to slow down production  if this keeps up.”

“The blockade of emergency vehicles to Albertans in need, and the disruption in the flow of vital goods through our major transportation corridor, is both dangerous and disgraceful. It puts lives at risk, hurts our economy, and hurts families,” Rachel Notley, leader of Alberta’s opposition New Democrats, said in a separate statement earlier Sunday.

“To put it bluntly, a small group first claiming to be concerned about the possibility of grocery shortages have now most assuredly caused them.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

UPDATE, Jan. 31 — Article updated to include estimated border wait times at Monday noon.

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Canada will require all truckers entering from the U.S. to show proof of vaccination starting on Saturday as part of its fight against COVID-19.

That could force some 16,000, or 10 per cent, of cross-border drivers off the roads, the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) estimates. The government estimates five per cent of drivers will be impacted, according to a government source.

The mandate is the first policy measure taken since the pandemic began that could limit cross-border trucking traffic. Trucks crossed the border freely when the border was closed for 20 months because they were considered essential to keep supply chains flowing.

“We don’t anticipate significant disruptions or shortages for Canadians,” the source said.

Trudeau has championed a strict inoculation policy for civil servants and federally regulated workers, and the fast-spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus appears to have strengthened his government’s resolve to stick with the policy.

Industry groups and opposition parties say it is a bad idea, especially at a time when the Bank of Canada is eyeing its first interest rate increase since October 2018.

Even though the vast majority of Canadian truckers are vaccinated, those who are not “are already starting to quit,” said Stephen Laskowski, CEO of the CTA, adding that the industry is already short some 18,000 drivers.

More than two-thirds of the $650 billion in goods traded annually between Canada and the U.S. travel on roads.

“Everyone has been talking about inflation. And this is just going to continue to fuel that,” said Steve Bamford, CEO of Bamford Produce, an importer and exporter of fresh fruit and vegetables based in Ontario.

The cost of bringing a truckload of fruit and vegetables from California and Arizona doubled during the pandemic due to the existing driver shortage, Bamford said. Fresh foods are sensitive to freight problems because they expire rapidly.

Supply chain disruptions drove Canada’s headline inflation rate to an 18-year high in November, and the Bank of Canada has signaled that it could hike it as soon as April.

“We’re going to see prices skyrocket for groceries, for everything, if we see tens of thousands of truckers unemployed,” Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole said on Thursday, adding there could be “reasonable accommodations” like regular testing.

Interprovincial Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc attacked O’Toole on Friday for a “lack of leadership” on COVID-19 that “would only force more lockdowns and put Canadians at greater risk.”

‘Keep on trucking’

Canada’s health ministry did not comment when asked if any accommodations might be made for unvaccinated drivers.

Canada’s border agency, in response to a Reuters query, said unvaccinated truck drivers who are not Canadian would be turned back at the border starting on Jan. 15, possibly causing delays at the crossing. Canadian drivers will be allowed back into the country, but will be required to quarantine for 14 days.

Vaccinated drivers will be allowed in and allowed to skip a pre-arrival molecular coronavirus test, the agency said.

The Biden administration wants truck drivers at companies with 100 or more employees to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing, a policy that has been challenged to the Supreme Court.

In November, the price of food bought in Canadian stores increased 4.7 per cent from a year earlier, the largest jump in seven years, and fresh vegetable prices rose even more due to higher shipping costs.

“You’re going to see some impact on inflation and on the availability of goods on sale,” said Jimmy Jean, chief economist at Desjardins Group, adding that the mandate could trigger prices rises that prompt the central bank to raise rates quicker than expected.

Joseph Sbrocchi, general manager of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers association, said “this is not the time to create that zero-sum game for Canadians,” especially in winter months when so much fresh food is imported.

Derek Holt, vice-president of capital markets economics at Scotiabank, disagrees.

“Keep on trucking with the vaccine mandates,” he said, warning there was a “bigger price for the economy and for the health system if you don’t get more people vaccinated now.”

— Steve Scherer is a Reuters correspondent in Ottawa; additional reporting by David Ljunggren.

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The ministers from the 21 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries said in a communique issued after a virtual meeting there was wide divergence in recovery across and within economies, with downside risks remaining.

“We need to sustain our economic recovery through continued policy support measures, while preserving financial stability and long-term fiscal sustainability,” the ministers said.

They also said they would facilitate trade in a broader range of medical supplies to fight COVID-19 and voluntarily work to reduce the cost of vaccines and related goods. They pledged to support WTO negotiations on a temporary waiver of intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines.

The ministers’ meeting is part of a week-long series of APEC conferences culminating in a summit on Friday into Saturday, hosted entirely online by New Zealand, a country with hardline pandemic control measures that has kept its borders closed to almost all travellers for 18 months.

While New Zealand has emphasized APEC support for boosting supply chains for critical medical supplies and efforts to decarbonize economies, tensions are expected over self-ruled Taiwan’s bid to join a regional trade pact in which China also seeks membership, and a U.S. bid to host the 2023 round of APEC meetings.

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta told reporters at a news conference in Wellington there was no agreement yet on which country would host APEC in 2023, despite an offer from the United States.

China and Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) was not a core part of the discussions, New Zealand’s Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor said at the conference.

Taiwan’s has said it aims to use the APEC gathering to garner support for its bid to join CPTPP, while China, which has also applied to join the pact, opposes Taiwan’s membership.

“As a trade and economic forum all economies welcomed greater movement and reduction of trade barriers. CPTPP provides that but accession requests do mean that those applicants will have to look at standards required to ultimately become members and be accepted,” O’Connor said.

Opening travel

With many economies in the region dependent on tourism, the APEC ministers said they would work to ensure safe travel in the region, with “tangible outcomes in 2022.”

The trade-focused group said officials would work to foster a favourable trade and investment environment and “ensure our trade and investment environment is free, open, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent and predictable.”

The APEC ministers said they would engage at the WTO’s 12th ministerial meeting (MC12) at the end of November to modernize trade rules and deliver concrete results. They called for WTO countries to negotiate effective curbs on harmful fisheries subsidies at the meeting in Geneva.

As for agriculture, the ministers said, “despite its importance for ensuring global food security and sustainable economic development, agriculture is one of the most protected sectors in global trade.

“We recognize the need for a meaningful outcome on agriculture at MC12, reflecting our collective interests and sensitivities, with a view towards achieving substantial progressive reductions in support and protection,” in line with previous WTO mandates, the ministers said.

On climate-related issues, the ministers said they would try to accelerate efforts to rationalize and phase out “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption,” a goal first agreed by APEC leaders in 2010.

Along with the U.S., China and Taiwan, APEC’s 21 member economies include Canada and its 10 fellow CPTPP countries, plus Russia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Papua New Guinea.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Lawder and David Brunnstrom; additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Praveen Menon.

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A self-declared “doer” with a track record of taking on seemingly intractable problems, Okonjo-Iweala will have her work cut out for her at the trade body, even with Donald Trump, who had threatened to pull the United States out of the organization, no longer in the White House.

As director-general, a position that wields limited formal power, Okonjo-Iweala, 66, will need to broker international trade talks in the face of persistent U.S.-China conflict; respond to pressure to reform trade rules; and counter protectionism heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“What it (the WTO) needs is someone who has the capability to drive reform, who knows trade and who does not want to see business as usual. And that is me,” she said on Monday.

Earlier she told Reuters in an interview that her top priority would be to ensure the trade body does more to address the COVID-19 pandemic, calling the disparities in vaccine rates between rich and poor countries “unconscionable” and urging members to lift export restrictions on medical items.

She also expressed confidence that her priorities were aligned with Washington’s.

“I think our interests and priorities are aligned. They want to bring the WTO back to (its) purpose,” she told Reuters.

The U.S. delegate said that Washington was committed to working closely with her and would be a “constructive partner.” China’s delegate pledged “full support” for her.

EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said he looked forward to working closely with her to drive “much-needed reform of the institution.”

A 25-year veteran of the World Bank, where she oversaw a US$81 billion portfolio, Okonjo-Iweala ran against seven other candidates by espousing a belief in trade’s ability to lift people out of poverty.

She studied development economics at Harvard after experiencing civil war in Nigeria as a teenager. She returned to the country in 2003 to serve as finance minister and backers point to her hard-nose negotiating skills that helped seal a deal to cancel billions of dollars of Nigerian debt with the Paris Club of creditor nations in 2005.

“She brings stature, she brings experience, a network and a temperament of trying to get things done, which is quite a welcome lot in my view,” former WTO chief Pascal Lamy told Reuters last week. “I think she’s a good choice.” Key to her success will be her ability to operate in the centre of a “U.S.-EU-China triangle,” he said.

The endorsement of the Biden administration cleared the last obstacle to her appointment and she is due to begin March 1.

Sweet but strong

Okonjo-Iweala, who goes by ‘Dr. Ngozi,’ becomes one of the few female heads of a major multilateral body. When she joins the WTO’s Geneva lakeside headquarters her portrait is set to be hung beside others of men, mostly white and from rich countries.

The Trump administration’s main criticism of her was that she lacked direct trade experience compared to her main South Korean rival and even supporters say she will have to quickly get up to speed on the technicalities of trade negotiations.

She has rejected this, saying that she has plenty of experience of trade, plus other expertise.

Asked about how she took the Trump rejection, she replied: “When things happen you take them in your stride and move on.”

Raised by academics, the mother-of-four earned a reputation for hard work and modesty amid the pomp of Nigeria’s governing class, acquaintances say.

“She is persistent and stubborn,” said Kingsley Moghalu, former deputy governor of Nigeria’s central bank who worked with her when she was the country’s first female finance minister.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari welcomed her election, saying it brought “more joy and honour to the country.”

Her appointment also was welcomed by people in the streets of Nigeria’s capital Abuja where Ibe Joy, who works in marketing, said Okonjo-Iweala’s achievements were an inspiration to young women. “If she can do it, we all can do it,” said Joy.

Reforming the unreformable

The 26-year-old WTO that Okonjo-Iweala inherits after a six-month leadership gap is partially paralyzed, thanks to the Trump administration which blocked appointments to its top appeals body that acts as the global arbiter of trade disputes.

But even before Trump, negotiators had struggled to clinch deals that must be agreed by consensus, with the U.S. and other developed WTO members arguing that developing countries, notably China, cannot cling on to exceptions and that rules need to change to reflect China’s economic growth.

Okonjo-Iweala, who is a special envoy for the World Health Organization on COVID-19 and, until recently chair of the board of global vaccine alliance Gavi, said on Monday she wanted to build a framework on pandemic response “so that next time we don’t waste time trying to figure out how to respond.”

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called Okonjo-Iweala the “WTO’s perfect chief.”

The WTO currently faces deadlock over an issue of waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 drugs, with many wealthy countries opposed.

High on the to-do list will also be fisheries subsidies, the subject of the WTO’s main multilateral talks that missed a deadline to conclude by end-2020. She told journalists on Monday she thought a deal on this was “within reach.”

Asked about the challenges ahead, she joked that a book she wrote about fixing Nigeria’s broken institutions could well apply to today’s WTO: Reforming the Unreformable.

“I feel I can solve the problems. I’m a known reformer, not someone who talks about it,” she told Reuters in an earlier interview. “I’ve actually done it.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Emma Farge in Geneva, Alexis Akwagyiram in Lagos and Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels, Abraham Achirga in Abuja, Jan Strupczewski in Brussels and Tom Daly.

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New Jersey-based Zoetis, which makes drugs and vaccines for the beef and dairy cattle, equine, swine, poultry and sheep sectors as well as cats and dogs, announced Wednesday it has bought Ames, Iowa-based Performance Livestock Analytics for an undisclosed sum.

The addition is expected to help Zoetis “to accelerate progress in precision livestock farming and improve sustainability of producers’ operations,” the company said.

Performance Livestock Analytics offers Performance Beef, a cloud-based, automated on-farm data collection and analytics system for feedlot managers, and Cattle Krush, billed as a “complementary” cattle market analytics tool to Performance Beef.

Performance Beef “makes it easy to change rations; create accurate invoices and closeout reports; and analyze trends in feed efficiencies, costs and performance,” Zoetis said. “New animal health inputs can automatically be captured at the chute, providing insights into individual animal performance and health protocol compliance.”

“Real-time, accurate data allows producers to make better management decisions to help boost efficiency and profitability,” Performance Livestock Analytics CEO Dane Kuper said in Zoetis’ release.

“Now as part of Zoetis, we will be better positioned to provide practical technology solutions to improve livestock health and sustainability for our customers.”

Performance Livestock Analytics expanded its reach in Canada last October in a partnership deal with Trouw Nutrition Canada — the livestock feed firm formed in the merger of the Canadian feed businesses of Nutreco, Shur-Gain, Landmark Feeds and Hi-Pro Feeds.

The Performance Beef system “provides a more accurate view” of producers’ operation, both for themselves and their Trouw rep, “from anywhere at any time,” Performance Livestock Analytics said at the time, billing Trouw as a “premier partner” for the Performance Beef platform in Western Canada.

“Digital platforms and technology can help integrate information that a producer has available from multiple sources and turn that information into useful insights that inform health and management decisions,” Zoetis said Wednesday.

“On-farm data also may be meaningful if shared throughout the supply chain in response to consumers’ growing interest in how food-producing animals are raised.”

“The team at Performance Livestock Analytics has successfully applied Silicon Valley technology learnings to the needs of livestock producers, and we are thrilled to have them join us at Zoetis to continue leading the way in digital and data analytics for livestock,” Zoetis executive vice-president Mike McFarland said in the same release. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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