What's New ? - 2013

Sogeval, a subsidiary of Sofiprotéol, joins veterinary firm Ceva Santé. Further to exclusive negotiations, Sofiprotéol and Ceva have finalised an agreement for the takeover of Sogeval by the Libourne-based Group, on 20 December 2013. Sogeval thus becomes a subsidiary of Ceva Santé Animale.

Tyson Foods is expanding its FarmCheck animal welfare program to include its beef and chicken suppliers, according to plans announced in 2012. A Tyson Foods manager told Iowa cattle producers on Monday that suppliers must meet the auditing requirements of the program in 2014 to qualify as a supplier to Tyson.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today is implementing a plan to help phase out the use of medically important antimicrobials in food animals for food production purposes, such as growth promoters. Some of these antimicrobials are important drugs used to treat human infection, prompting concerns about the contribution of this practice to increasing the ability of bacteria and other microbes to resist the effects of a drug.

New EU rules introducing origin or provenance labelling rules for fresh, chilled and frozen meat of pork, sheep, goat and poultry have been supported by a qualified majority of Member States in the Standing Committee on Food Chain and Animal Health yesterday. Under these rules, EU consumers will be able to know where the meat they buy comes from – a demand they have clearly expressed. Consumers will be able to make well informed choices taking into account the concept of "origin", "reared" and "slaughtered", each concept being clearly defined at EU level.

Edwina Currie praised the British Lion scheme as she launched version 7 of the British Lion of Code of Practice at Westminster on Friday, stating: “In Britain, provided it’s got a little Lion on, it’s safe.” The launch of version 7 coincides with the Lion’s 15th anniversary, during which time it has effectively eliminated salmonella from UK eggs.

The EU has committed over €160 million to support eradication and monitoring programmes that aim to eliminate animal diseases and zoonoses and further strengthen the protection of human and animal health. Given the serious impact that animal disease outbreaks can have on human health, society, the economy and trade, the allocation of EU co-financing will continue to assist national authorities to put in place precautionary measures, disease surveillance and eradication programmes, at national and European level.

Australia is facing an egg shortage ahead of the peak holiday season after an outbreak of avian influenza shut down two poultry farms. About 450,000 chickens have been destroyed at a free range and caged egg farm in Young, NSW, creating a national shortfall, which will cause prices to rise and take six to 12 months to abate.

About 65% of the Polish production was earmarked for the domestic market, while the remaining 35%, or 279,000t, was intended for export sales. The European Union is currently the largest market for Poland’s poultry. Turkey meat accounts for about 15% of the country’s total poultry production. In the second half of 2013, the report forecasts that Poland’s poultry production will increase further by 7% compared with the same period last year.

Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim, is looking to expand its animal health business and is set to make an offer for poultry vaccine and feed additives maker Lohmann. Boehringer Ingelheim, which is among the world's top 10 suppliers of animal health products, is expected to submit a bid for privately-held Lohmann Animal Health by the 11th November deadline. The offer is expected to value Lohmann, which is owned by PHW Group, at about 400 million euros ($535 million), or 16 times its expected operating earnings. Private equity groups such as Permira will also hand in offers for the group.

Zoetis, a former business unit of Pfizer and the leading animal health company, announced the completion of an agreement to purchase substantially all of the assets of Advanced Food Technologies LLC, a company that provides innovative food safety and animal care products to meat and poultry processing customers. Advanced Food Technologies (AFT) is a privately owned, specialty chemical company for food processors.

All eggs from caged hens will be removed from the shelves of Woolworths over five years as the supermarket responds to growing consumer demand to address animal welfare. Woolworths has also committed to no longer using caged eggs as an ingredient in their home brand products and to label the chicken stocking density on Woolworths brand free range eggs.

Manitoba Egg Farmers (MEF) which represents nearly 170 egg and pullet producers, has banned the installation of any new conventional cages after Dec. 31, 2014. Instead of conventional cages, producers will be required to use a furnished or enriched housing system, which provides birds with more space, perches, scratching surfaces and private nesting boxes. Free-run aviaries are also an option for producers moving away from the conventional cage system. Roughly a dozen Manitoba producers, representing 120,000 laying hens, have already adopted the new system.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it will rescind approval for three of the four arsenic drugs that had been used in animal feeds at the request of the companies that market them. The companies, Zoetis and Fleming Labs, already had largely withdrawn the three drugs from the market. The compounds are: roxarsone, carbarsone and arsanilic acid. Pfizer (Zoetis) withdrew its roxarsone drug, 3-Nitro, from the market in 2011.

EU Poultry sector is expected to grow in 2013 and 2014. The broiler meat production is foreseen to increase from 2012 in all major EU producing countries, including UK, Benelux, Spain, Poland, Germany, Italy and France. Brazil and Thailand will remain the largest suppliers of broiler meat to the EU. EU turkey production is now expected to decrease in 2013 and 2014.

German food and feed safety officials have rejected two shipments of frozen turkey meat from Israel after finding traces of unauthorized substance clopidol. Clopidol is an organic compound that is used in veterinary medicine as a coccidiostat. It is understood that the clopidol was found in samples taken from 24-ton and 19-ton shipments. The clopidol levels found amounted to 97 ppb and 38 ppb respectively.

Researchers at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have developed a novel technique and device for rapidly pasteurizing eggs in the shell without damaging the delicate egg white. The process could lead to a sharp reduction in illnesses caused by egg-borne salmonella bacteria, a widespread public health concern.

The EU Commission has indicated that imports of eggs and egg products from Ukraine will not be subject to the same welfare standards as required of EU egg producers, despite the creation of a free trade area. In a letter to EU packers and traders body EUWEP, the commission says that, according to international trade agreements, the EU cannot impose union law on third countries.

PHW Group, Germany's biggest poultry breeder and owner of the Wiesenhof food brand, is considering a sale of its Lohmann Animal Health GmbH business. The company hired Commerzbank AG to manage a potential disposal of avian-vaccine and feed-additive maker Lohmann Animal Health, based in Cuxhaven. The sale of the unit would allow PHW to focus on its animal nutrition unit and Wiesenhof poultry food business, which accounts for almost every second chicken slaughtered in Germany.

The Italian government has accepted Ilaria Capua agenda commitment of government to protect scientific research in line with the European Directive 2010/63/EU. Lately the Italian Parliament approved a bill that puts drastic limitations on animal testing, but an official reuest by Ilaria Capua asking the the government to stop the new law from taking effect was approved.

Germany and neighbouring European countries is to systematically collect antibiotics consumption volumes in livestock farming. The use of antibiotics in livestock farming is controversial, because it can lead to resistance in bacteria. In a scientific study sponsored by the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, the University of Veterinary Medicine Foundation Hanover and the University of Leipzig collected and analysed data on the consumption of antimicrobials in fattening pigs, broilers and cattle. Farmers and veterinarians from all over Germany participated in the study.

The total amount of chicken products being recalled by the Chilean Ministry of Health on dioxin fears has been expanded by the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). FSIS instructed importers to hold chicken products after official notification from the government of Chile of the positive result for dioxin; these products are then to be presented for re-inspection. According to FSIS, 343,637 lbs. of chicken may be affected --155,595 lbs. is currently being held. In addition, FSIS has found 188,042 pounds of the Chilean chicken was distributed to USDA-inspected establishments for further processing and then through a distributor to retailers in Florida, Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico.

Furious French poultry farmers have smashed 200,000 eggs outside a tax office and supermarkets in Brittany in protest at low prices they blame on the European Union. Egg producers insist their profits have been slashed following an EU directive passed last year aimed at protecting the wellbeing of hens. Since the new EU animal welfare law was passed in 1999, many poultry farmers had to invest in constructing bigger cages for egg-laying hens. To compensate for that investment, farmers decided to boost production, leading to oversupply A group of 20 egg producers in the north-west region of France is now intent in destroying eggs to reduce supply and push up the price. Farmers wearing masks hurled crates containing 100,000 eggs from the backs of lorries at supermarkets in the Côtes d’Armor. Then the night after they smashed pallets of another 100,000 eggs outside a tax office in Carhaix.

Both exports and domestic consumption of Polish poultry are set to reach new records in 2013. In the first five months of 2013, Poland exported about 240,000 tonnes of poultry meat, about 14 percent more than in the same period last year. Poland already surpassed the United Kingdom in 2012 as the leading producer of chicken meat in the European Union. Besides exports, this is partly because Poles are eating more and more poultry.

On July 19, 2013, the EU suspended all export refunds for poultry meat. These refunds had been going almost exclusively to two French exporters of frozen broilers. For the past few years, only exports of frozen whole broilers benefited of export refunds, and only to specific countries. The commission had been steadily reducing those refunds since 2012.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced over the weekend that about 188,000 pounds of chicken imported from Chile is being recalled for potential dioxin contamination. After the Chilean Ministry of Health found dioxin in chicken products, FSIS said it instructed importers to hold product from the country at the point of re-inspection.

The processors and suppliers of Steggles branded chicken products, Baiada Poultry and Bartter Enterprises, engaged in false, misleading and deceptive conduct by claiming its chickens were free to roam in barns when this was not the case, the Federal Court found on Monday. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which initiated proceeding against the companies in September 2011, claimed that Steggles' statistics indicated consistent stocking densities of between 17.4 and 19.6 chickens per square meter.

The South Australian Government is proposing a new industry code which aims to define what free range means when it comes to eggs. The code will not only protect producers who are doing the right thing but ensure consumers aren't misled by labelling. The new industry code would require producers of free-range eggs to meet strict conditions in order to label their eggs 'free-range'. In South Australia, there is no standard definition for free-range eggs.

To support the consumption of high quality, safe eggs, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) adopted a new section 1350 (Shell Egg Safety) and amended Section 1354 (Marking Requirements) of Title 3 of the California Code of Regulations. These regulations require any in-state or out-of-state egg producer or egg handler selling chicken eggs in California to implement Salmonella enterica serotype enteritidis (SE) reduction measures and label products accordingly. The requirements will be implemented in phases beginning on July 1, 2013. The Department will engage in outreach and education efforts to assist producers and handlers in complying with these requirements.

The Dutch government has announced plans to prohibit beak trimming of layer hens from September 2018 some three years earlier than planned. Some politicians and welfare groups had called for an even earlier introduction of the measure in 2015, but agriculture minister Sharon Dijksma said this could be counterproductive.

The European Commission has announced its decision on the non-inclusion of Formaldehyde (product type-20: preservatives for food or feedstocks) under Annex 1A or 1B of the biocidal product directive 98/8/EC.

Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Susan Collins (R-ME) took the lead on a critical public health issue by introducing the Antimicrobial Data Collection Act. The Act would require the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to report more of the information it already collects about antibiotics used in animal feed to the public. The bill would also require FDA to come up with a pilot data collection and analysis program to analyze antibiotic resistance trends and address data gaps, and to speed up its process on its proposed voluntary guidance.

Companion bills setting federal standards for the welfare of egg-laying hens have been reintroduced in the U.S. Senate. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced the Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments of 2013 on April 25 for the humane treatment of egg-laying hens and the labeling of eggs. Schrader and Feinstein introduced similar bills in the last Congress to increase the size of hen cages but failed to gain enough support. The bills require a phase-in of larger cages over 15 to 18 years at a cost United Egg Producers has estimated at $4 billion.

The British supermarket store Tesco has announced that its own-label fresh and frozen poultry and eggs will in future be fed with genetically modified soya made by Monsanto. The soya, which is grown in North America and South America, is resistant to the weedkiller glyphosate - which Monsanto sells under the brand-name RoundUp. The retailer said that new farming methods meant it could no longer promise that its birds had a diet free of GM material, as it lifted its own 11-year ban on such products.

The European Union (EU) hopes to ease the cost of protein used to make pig and poultry feed by lifting a ban on by-products imposed during the mad cow disease outbreak over a decade ago. The use of processed animal proteins (PAPs), particularly when cows were fed with feed containing cow protein, was blamed for the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), in Europe. In Europe, PAPs can currently be used in pet food. As of June this year they will also be allowed in EU fish feed. The next planned step would be to allow them in poultry and pig feed.

Bob Ingham announced Saturday that TPG Capital, a private equity firm, won the bidding for the acquisition of Ingham Enterprises, Australia's largest poultry firm. TPG will be paying more than Aus$880 million ($901 million) plus a small cash premium. Inghams was founded by Walter Ingham in 1918.

Germany is hit by a new food scandal as authorities struggled to restore consumers' confidence in meat products shattered by the recent discovery of horse meat in thousands of ready meals sold across Europe labelled as beef. As many as 150 German and 36 Dutch poultry farms are being investigated for fraud involving organic eggs. Led by prosecutors in Oldenburg, Germany.

Tyson Mexican Original, Inc., a subsidiary of Tyson Foods, Inc., acquired the assets of Clearfield, Utah-based Don Julio Foods. sells products to retailers throughout the U.S. under the Don Julio Authentic and Clover Club brands. The acquisition includes all brands marketed by Don Julio, equipment and related assets. Financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed.

Russia said earlier this month that it was requiring meat it imports to be tested and certified free of the feed additive Ractopamine, due to a lack of compliance to its zero-tolerance policy for ractopamine residues in meat and poultry products. This move jeopardizing the more than $500 million a year in exports of U.S. beef and pork to that country. Ractopamine hydrochloride, is a beta-adrenergic agonist, a feed ingredient that directs nutrients from fat to lean protein, helping increase the yield of lean meat from pigs and cattle. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved ractopamine as safe - for boosting growth and leanness in pigs in the weeks leading up to slaughter - in 1999 and has since approved the drug for use in cattle and turkeys.

A team of Iowa State University researchers has received a federal grant to study ways to reduce infections of Campylobacter a food-borne bacteria spread mostly through undercooked chicken. The $2.5 million grant announced Friday is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It will help the researchers develop new methods to manage Campylobacter, a bacteria carried primarily by poultry. It's difficult to track and contain the bacteria because infected chickens show no signs of illness. Campylobacter is a leading cause of food-borne illness in the United States, causing an estimated 800,000 illnesses a year.

Advance Pierre Foods, an Enid, Okla. establishment, is recalling approximately 1,200 pounds of fried chicken breasts that may contain small pieces of metal, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today. The problem was discovered after the company received two consumer complaints. The problem occurred when a small metal hand tool fell into a grinder, which was discovered by the company's metal detectors.

Zoetis Inc., the animal-health unit separating from Pfizer Inc., which develops and makes animal medicines and vaccines for both livestock and pets, plans to offer 86.1m Class A shares in a marketing range of US$22 to US$25 a share. At the mid-point of its $22-25 price range, the animal-health business would be worth $11.8B, or 26 times earnings in the year to September 30.

As of January 1, 2013, Poland banned ritual slaughter of animals without prior stunning. The ban stems from the Polish Constitutional Court decision that the existing regulation regarding ritual slaughter were contrary to Animal Protection Act and Polish Constitution. The Ministry of Agriculture is in the process of seeking amendment to existing Polish law to permit ritual slaughter of animals.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) has awarded funding of £550,000 to the Moredun Research Institute in Scotland, in collaboration with Pfizer Animal Health. The research grant has been awarded to boost research into the development of a vaccine to protect hens against red mites. The team's approach is to determine whether it might be possible to vaccinate laying hens using specific extracts of the mites thus inducing an immune response in the hens that will attack and kill the mites when they take a blood meal from an immunized hen. Infestation of hen houses with the poultry red mite is a major health concern of the European poultry industry with significant economic losses.

The Shanghai Food and Drug Administration has launched an investigation into the levels of antibiotics in KFC chicken. KFC's problems in China began on December 18 when CCTV, the national broadcaster, aired allegations that poultry farms in north China supplying KFC had used excessive amounts of antibiotics and growth hormones.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is establishing January 1, 2016, as the uniform compliance date for new meat and poultry product labeling regulations that are issued between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2014.