Can COVID-19 lessons be applied more broadly to food?.

Can COVID-19 lessons be applied more broadly to food?

The difficulties and challenges brought under the spotlight by the novel coronavirus pandemic have, in reality, long existed Reports of millions falling ill, high numbers of deaths and damage to economies are all too familiar at the moment, but I want to take a break from reporting on COVID-19. Ahead of World Food Safety Day, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which takes place on June 7 this year, I thought it might be interesting to look at what food poisoning means for the global population and economy.420,000 people die each year from foodborne illnesses. While the novel coronavirus might still be relatively new, it has yet to claim that many lives. We are all now too familiar with the various costs that can be associated with disease. Foodborne illnesses are no exception, putting strains on healthcare systems, harming national economies and trade, and, ultimately, impeding socioeconomic development.

AGRIBUSINESS: GlobalG.A.P. as a Way to Safer Food and Safer Food as a Way to a Better Business.

AGRIBUSINESS: GlobalG.A.P. as a Way to Safer Food and Safer Food as a Way to a Better Business.

An international study conducted by Unilever reveals that more than a third of consumers (33%) are now choosing to buy from companies they believe are producing in accordance with ecological principles, and the majority of consumers nowadays expect that products they buy fulfill high social, ecological and ethical standards (source: Unilever). 

 When buying, consumers are wondering: 'Is this product good for my family and me? Is this produced in a healthy way? Although the label claims it is organic, is it really? Is it possible for a false statement to be on a label? Is the price I’m paying justified? Although there are already many certificates that seem to guarantee the origin of the product, there is only one which has definitive rules for growers to follow. 

The GLOBALG.A.P. is a food safety standard developed to regulate food production processes from micro to macro level of producing. GLOBALG.A.P. certificate can provide the customer a complete transparency of the food production process, from the farm to its final product.

Urine sampling can reliably detect procaine penicillin G (PPG) residues in sows.

Urine sampling can reliably detect penicillin residues in sows.Urine sampling is an effective way to detect procaine penicillin G (PPG) residues prior to processing and may help producers avoid processing-plant violations. There has been an increasing incidence of PPG-residue detection in cull sows reported, due in part to changes in the PPG-testing method made by USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service in 2011. Residues of PPG in sows are not uncommon at processing, although plasma concentrations of PPG correlate well with tissue residue, collecting and evaluating plasma is complicated. Urine is easier to collect and handle. PPG residues are most often found in sows if extra-label doses of PPG have been administered or if treatment was continued for more than 3 consecutive days. A study carried out by Karriker, DVM, a professor at Iowa State University shown below: Karriker designed a study involving 47 sows, with three treatment groups: Group 1 received the labeled dose of 3,000 IU/lb (3 mL/lb). Group 2 received an average volume of sterile solution once a day for 3 days. Group 3 received an extra-label dose of 15,000 IU/lb (15 mL/lb) once a day for 3 consecutive days. Karriker found PPG residues persist longest in injection-site tissues — for at least 28 days after PPG administration. It stays in the skeletal muscles for 14 days. PPG depletes faster from the kidneys, and residues can be found for up to 6 days after administration to the sow. Sampling the sow’s environment was not reliable for determining residues. While PPG residues were easily found in the environment, they did not correlate with tissue residues, Karriker says. The current withdrawal time for PPG is 7 days. Although a 15-day withdrawal time has been proposed by the Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank, it may not be sufficient to avoid processing-plant violations, Karriker says.

Scientists develop groundnut resistant to aflatoxin.

Scientists develop groundnut resistant to aflatoxin. The discovery has the potential to drastically improve food safety and reduce losses caused by the contamination from the poisonous carcinogen, aflatoxin. 

The discovery was recently published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal. Aflatoxins pose a major risk to human and animal health worldwide and result in an enormous amount of food waste. 

The molds, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus, which infect groundnut, maize, cottonseed and chilly, produce these toxins which suppress the immune system, hinder growth in children and even cause liver cancer. The fungus which produces these toxins can stay dormant in soil for years. It infects maize and groundnut during drought and heat stress. 

 Contamination also happens when grain is stored in hot, humid and poorly-ventilated conditions. Since aflatoxins are potent carcinogens, the United States does not allow the sale and export of food with aflatoxin levels exceeding 20 parts per billion (ppb). European Union standards are more stringent; the bar is 2 ppb.

VETERINARIANS AND ONE HEALTH .

THE ROLE OF VETERINARIANS IN ONE HEALTH. Happy one health day!!!One Health. Such a significant movement—and veterinarians are a vital part.Happy One Health Day! Every year on November 3, International One Health Day is observed around the world. Veterinarians and their teams are involved in many of the areas that fall under the One Health umbrella. You provide veterinary care for cats, dogs, horses and exotic pets to prevent zoonoses from spreading to their human families and to preserve the human-animal bond for as many years as possible. Vets know a lot about vector-borne and parasitic infections and how to prevent them, perhaps more than their counterparts in human medicine. Vets strive to ensure food safety and are at the forefront of combating antimicrobial resistance. Veterinarians work on technology and procedures that one day may translate to human medicine, or the converse; veterinarians also are working to adapt human medical advances to the veterinary field. The One Health connections is everywhere you look. When you see science bulletins such as “Flying Insects Are Disappearing at Huge Rates, And We Should All Be Worried,” you’re knowledgeable enough to understand the implications—and you see the connections. Or when you see news articles such as “Pollution linked to 9 million deaths worldwide each year,” you’re concerned about pollution’s effects on animals, as well as humanity—and you see the connections. Or when you read about current events like the deadly black plague outbreak in Madagascar, you know Yersinia is usually transmitted through flea bites and rodents are involved—and you see the connections. Should you ever doubt the importance of the role of veterinarians in One Health, please take just 13 minutes to watch this;

Strategies that address the role of antibiotic use in animals to drug resistance.

Strategies that address the role of antibiotic use in animals to drug resistance. The first involves a global regulation that would cap the use of antimicrobials at 50 mg per population correction unit (PCU), which could reduce 64% of consumption by 2030. 

 The second strategy is to limit global meat intake to 40 g per day, which is the equivalent of one fast-food burger per person. This would reduce 66% of antimicrobial consumption in food animals by 2030. 

 The third strategy is to impose a 50% user fee of the current price on veterinary antimicrobials, which could reduce 31% of global consumption. This policy would generate yearly revenues of $1.7 billion to $4.6 billion. 

Alternative user fee rates of 10% or 100% could reduce 9% or 46% of global consumption while generating $0.4 billion to $1.2 billion or $2.8 billion to $7.5 billion in revenues. more

How to convert egg shells to crockery.

How to convert egg shells to crockery. Disposable crockery made from eggshells could turn egg processing waste into a valuable commodity.

Eggshells are normally somewhat of an annoyance if found on your plate, but what if they formed the plate itself, or even the cutlery? 

 The idea is not quite as strange as it may sound. Martina Zupan, a fourth-year product design student at the U.K.’s Edinburgh Napier University, has come up with a way of making eggshells into a range of disposable tableware which she calls her “Collegtion.”  

 The making of products from egg shells is a waste to wealth project as many landfills are filled with tons each year. 

A study shows that U.K. alone produces more than 75,000 tons of eggshell waste each year.

 At least 17,000 tons of waste eggshell was disposed of in landfill last year and, leaving sustainability to one side, this represents a cost to egg processors or anyone else having to dispose of eggshell waste in this way. 

 The processing of egg shell to other products have been explored in various industries such as agriculture,building, fashion,creative design and art work. Read How to convert egg shells to crockery. more

Five ways agriculture could benefit from artificial intelligence.

Five ways agriculture could benefit from artificial intelligence. Agriculture is the industry that accompanied the evolution of humanity from pre-historic times to modern days and fulfilled faithfully one of its most basic needs: food supply. 

Today this still remains its core mission, but it’s integrated in a more complex than ever mechanism driven by multiple sociological, economic and environmental forces 

 Digital and technological advancements are taking over the industry, enhancing food production while adding value to the entire farm-to-fork supply chain and helping it make use of natural resources more efficiently. 

   How artificial intelligence is changing agriculture.

 Data generated by sensors or agricultural drones collected at farms, on the field or during transportation offer a wealth of information about soil, seeds, livestock, crops, costs, farm equipment or the use of water and fertilizer. 

 Internet of Things technologies and advanced analytics help farmers analyze real time data like weather, temperature, moisture, prices or GPS signals and provide insights on how to optimize and increase yield, improve farm planning, make smarter decisions about the level of resources needed, when and where to distribute them in order to prevent waste. 

 Efficiency and productivity will increase over the years as precision agriculture grows bigger and farms become smarter and more connected. The growing number of connected devices represents a big opportunity for food and agribusiness players and it also adds more complexity for farmers and organizations. 

 The explosion of unstructured data, like social media posts, imagery or video content drives the need to know more, to receive real time recommendations on close at hand devices, like smartphones or tablets,with all this information there is bound to be an overload thus prompting the need to sort out data intelligently.

 1) Artificial intelligence will help IoT achieve its maximum potential. While digital transformation is disrupting the agricultural world and more data comes to feed the systems. Solutions that apply machine learning abilities to sensor or drone data,thus transforming management systems in real artificial intelligence systems. 

 Cognitive IoT technologies allow many types of correlations of large amount of structured and unstructured data from multiple sources, such as historic weather data, social media posts, research notes, soil information, market place information, images, etc., to extract knowledge and provide organizations with richer insights and recommendations to take action and improve yields.

 2) Chat-bots for farmers Chat-bots are conversational virtual assistants who automate interactions with end users. Artificial intelligence powered chat- bots, using machine learning techniques, understand natural language and interact with users in a personalized way. While it’s still early days and chat-bots are used mostly by retail, travel, media or insurance players, agriculture could also leverage this emerging technology by assisting farmers with answers to their questions, giving advice and recommendations on specific farm problems. 

   

Ways artificial intelligence has potential to improve agriculture.

 Although at the beginning, these ways of using cognitive technologies predict exciting times ahead for agriculture on its road towards efficiency, sustainability and meeting the world’s food needs. 

We’re looking forward to seeing how farmers, agribusinesses and other decision makers on the value chain will harness the power of IoT and artificial intelligence to shape the industry’s future. more

Cassava as a global livestock feed ingredient.

Cassava known mostly for its starch-rich tubers is a plant that also offers many possibilities to provide other lesser-known feed ingredients for man and livestock. Cassava is a plant that is very tolerant to poor growing conditions as it can be cultivated in regions suffering from poor soil, droughts and even frequent plant diseases. 

Under such conditions, it yields about 13 metric tons of tubers per hectare. Of course, when grown in near-ideal (tropical) conditions, yield can reach up to 80 metric tons of tubers per hectare. Cassava is the second largest carbohydrate-rich crop worldwide, with over 9 million hectares of cultivated land devoted to cassava production in Africa and Asia. 

Global cassava cultivation expands to Asia, Latin America and Africa due to high demands from the human, feed, industrial starch and ethanol industries. Thailand is the largest exporting country for cassava products but surpassed by Nigeria and Brazil, two countries that use their local cassava internally. Nigeria has used cassava extensively as food for man,making different products such as garri,tapioca, cassava chips,starch and flour. 

Cassava has also made an entrance to livestock feed to boost productivity and reduce cost of production by using local feed. Cassava peels and cassava root meal have been explored in livestock with good results,see The cyanide content of the plant is the major reason why many farmers are skeptical about using it but processing reduces the cyanide content and also cyanide content varies with cassava specie making the inclusion in livestock feed safe .

There are two types of cyanogenic glucosides in cassava: linamarin and lotaustralin, the first making up to 93 percent of total. When animals eat the raw cassava tubers or leaves ,they consume the cyanogenic compounds thus releasing the cyanide which is highly toxic to animals causing asphyxia and death. Processing the cassava removes the cyanide thus emphasis is on proper processing, when the cassava peels are sun dried or oven dried, linamarase enzyme is released and this comes into contact with the cyanogenic glucosides and releases hydrogen cyanide (HCN), which is volatile and evaporates, and because sun drying takes longer time span than oven it releases more of cyanide which makes the peels safe. 

 The processing removes as much as 90% by this processing method.The raw cassava pulp contains as much as 200 mg/kg HCN, whereas these levels are reduced to 31 and 27 mg/kg, by oven-and sun-drying, respectively. The whole tuber contains as much 400 mg/kg HCN, with the peel containing as much as 800 mg/kg. 

The leaves are even richer in this compound, containing up to 1,500 mg/kg. There are several varieties of cassava, ranging from 75 to 1,000 mg/kg HCN, and factors such as soil conditions, fertilizer and weather also affect the concentration of HCN, so choosing the variety with the minimum cyanide content will be a factor to jump start the processing for safety. 

 Cassava leaves can also used as feed ingredient but must be dried and milled to create cassava leaf meal, a material rich in protein and fiber but low in energy. The inclusion in feed must be with extra caution because of the very high levels of HCN in raw leaves. 

 The high level of cyanide in leaves can be reduced by proper processing, timing of the harvest and appropriate variety selection. 10 metric tons dried cassava leaf meal can be produced per hectare, this is a significant by-product, suited especially as an animal feed.

Biotechnology will aid sustainable agricultural production in Nigeria.

Biotechnology will aid sustainable agricultural production in Nigeria. 

Benjamin Ubi, the President, Biotechnology Society of Nigeria (BSN), says the adoption of biotechnology will facilitate sustainable agricultural production in the country. The benefits of biotechnology in agriculture cannot be over emphasized as the task of feeding the estimated 9 billion people by 2050 will require innovative strategies and techniques. 

Biotechnology in animal husbandry and agriculture will boost food production and sustainability. Food security can be achieved on a global scale if production processes are subjected to improved stock using genetically proven animals. The way to harness the advantages in using genetically proven lines include; selective breeding,rearing and cross breeding to develop strains/lines that can produce more in the desired country. The use of biotechnology in food security cannot be overemphasized as the introduction of biotech to food production is of immense benefits. 

Biotechnology.

The springing up of bio crops allows farming even in areas where there is much pressure on the land,thus availing the urban farmer an opportunity to participate in food security. Biotechnology making better crops and livestock by careful selection of traits to increase yield,produce disease and pest resistance and drought resistance products. 

This entails a collection of specific technique to improve plant and animals. Bio technology enhances breeders ability to make improvement in crops and livestock,this is achieved through various techniques used to improve plants and animals. Bio technology use gene modification,genetic improvement and genetic engineering.

Crops improved with transferred DNA referred to as genetic improvement have been developed to aid farmers to increase productivity . 

 Biotechnology holds the key to food security with higher yield and better products Genetic modification/genetic improvement/genetic engineering; refers to the process where there is transfer of useful characteristics into plants and animals. 

This process allows transfer of specific traits to plants or animals to produce improved and better breeds and strains that grow faster,bigger and most importantly resistant to diseases. more

#biotechnology #foodsecurity #biotech

Healthy tips for raising antibiotic free broilers (ABF).

An Indiana-based producer with more than 15 years’ experience raising broilers without antibiotics — offers these tips for ensuring a strong, healthy and efficient bird: Muller poultry has been raising broilers without antibiotics (ABF) and these are their tips. 

 1) Start with healthy stock that have been proven over the years.Miller Poultry now exclusively raises Aviagen Ross 708. While the line has a reputation for being a “big-bird breed” that requires more nutrients than other lines, they seem to have fewer leg problems — a common trouble spot in ABF production — and a higher yield at processing, according to live operations director Stephen Shepard. 

 2) Understand that gut health is the key to success in production. Birds with healthy guts absorbs food properly,grow fast and are disease free. Coccidiosis and necrotic enteritis (NE) are their biggest health challenges. To help prevent coccidiosis — a prerequisite for managing NE — Miller Poultry leans on vaccines all year long for its organic birds.

 3) lightening techniques,the first 7 days in the life of birds are critical and hence great care must be taken to ensure growth and stability. The lightening procedure of lights on to ensure birds can see at night for feed can be manipulated for better effects. 

The use of LED lights have been shown to boost growth and hence productivity. see Miller Poultry is experimenting with LED tube lights along the water and feed lines, making the inside of a dimly lighted broiler house look like an airport runway at night. 

The lighting, Shepard says, attracts the birds and ensures good feed and water intake. 4) Rotate medication ,feed and vaccines. Miller Poultry was a big user of a recombinant vaccine for Marek’s disease and infectious bursal disease (IBD). In recent years, however, they’ve been rotating in traditional live IBD vaccines to get better protection against shedding — a known shortcoming with continuous use of recombinants. 

 Maintaining healthy bursas is important in any production system, it is especially critical for ABF operations to help optimize immunity. 

 5) Vaccinating year-round for Escherichia coli is a common practice in the industry for broiler-breeders and layers.E. coli typically emerges in broilers as a secondary infection to infectious bronchitis virus or reovirus, and can lead to high numbers of condemnations in the processing plant when birds are harvested . 

 Miller poultry administers the E. coli vaccine at day 1 via hatchery spray, sometimes in combination with a coccidiosis vaccine.

Antimicrobial Resistance(AMR) : Herbal intervention in dairy farming to curb antibiotic use.

Antibiotic residues in food and milk also have health consequences for humans. In China, a widespread presence of veterinary antibiotic residues was detected in schoolchildren. Long-term exposure to these antibiotics, which may come from contaminated food or water, is connected to obesity. Some antibiotics, such as penicillin and sulfa drugs, also are known to cause allergies in humans, yet these drugs have been found in animal products due to legal or illegal use. 

 The most urgent problem related to antibiotic overuse is the development of drug resistance—when bacteria evolve to become stronger “superbugs” that are able to survive subsequent antibiotic applications. 

 This resistance makes it increasingly difficult to cure bacterial infections in livestock as well as in humans, since many human medicines rely on the same types of drugs being used for livestock. Losing the effectiveness of antimicrobials renders many medical therapies increasingly risky, including organ transplantation and cancer chemotherapy, due to the danger of untreatable infection. 

 A common problem on dairy farms—especially large-scale industrial farms—is mastitis, an udder infection that is responsible for 16.5 percent of dairy cattle deaths in the United States. In addition to shortening the cows’ lifespans, mastitis results in the production of lower-quality milk, with lower cheese yield and a shorter shelf life. 

 To address this and other health problems throughout the dairy industry, many farmers apply antibiotics and other anti-inflammatory drugs. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, around 90 percent of dairy cows with mastitis in the United States are treated with these drugs. In many other countries, especially in the developing world, antibiotics are sold over the counter, and their use on dairy cows is not measured or recorded. 

 Herbal treatments offer a new mindset for health. Rather than simply replacing the one-shot mechanism of antibiotics, the Ayurvedic application of medicinal herbs (like that of Chinese traditional medicines) acts via a more multi-faceted mechanism, centered on restoring balance and regaining the body’s own resilience to disease. 

Farmers are turning to medicinal plants in recognition of this underexploited and undervalued holistic approach. To address health risks, the government of the Netherlands announced in 2010 an ambitious goal to reduce the use of antibiotics in animal farming by 70 percent, compared with a 2009 baseline. 

To maintain the quality of the milk while also reducing antibiotic use, dairy farmers looked around the world for solutions. With the help of a Dutch non-governmental organization, Natural Livestock Farming, farmers found inspiration in India. more

Agribusiness: How the Internet of things is solving the issue of food waste.

According to UN FAO data, approximately $1 trillion in produced crops is annually lost post-harvest. This includes the various stages — from farm, to shelf, to fork. Even in technologically advanced regions such as the EU, post-harvest losses for grains and cereals are often more than 10%, with higher percentages seen in developing countries in Africa or in industrialized Asia. 

These losses are incurred during raw material storage, processing — milling, for example — and distribution in the logistics chain. One company that is responding to the challenge of food waste with IoT technology is Centaur Analytics, the first full stack IoT company that provides real-time stored agri-products monitoring and protection solutions. 

They develop and market end-to-end solutions for the Internet of Things, focused on the quality and safety of stored goods. Their mission is to dramatically increase post-harvest yields and eliminate waste from farm to shelf. Storing crops is a tricky process. 

Most farmed crops are stored in massive quantities in big metal containers like silos, an environment that is susceptible to a range of challenges like moisture, temperature and insect infestation. Traditionally methods of managing these challenges have involved farmers physically visiting their silo or storage container in person by testing each one individually — not an exact science — and provide treatments. Insect infestation is particularly problematic. 

 As well as eating crops, insects increase the moisture levels within the storage containers, which can further spoil the crops. Bantas explained that treatment typically involved a fumigants such as phosphine which is administered over a set number of days, typically up to a week. 

 Fumigation is used for all kinds of crops: tobacco leaves, flowers, grain, rice , feeds, fruit fresh, died and so on, people have been fighting this product with fumigating gases but it has been without monitoring,which is where the problem lies. 

 The problem is that while fumigation can eradicate the problem, if the temperature of the container is too low, the dosage is incorrect or the duration of treatment too short, it can harden they insects and they mutate and grow into something stronger, making treatment ineffective. continue

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) :Poultry and the superbug MRSA.

A study has shown that novel form of the dangerous superbug Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can spread to humans through consumption or handling of contaminated poultry.

 The research, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, shows that poultry may be a source of human exposure to MRSA, a superbug which can cause serious infections and even death. The study focuses on a special newly identified strain of MRSA associated with poultry.

 MRSA is often found in chickens, pigs and other food animals. Researchers know that farmers, farm workers, veterinarians and others working directly with livestock are at risk of MRSA infections, however the study shows that people with no exposure to livestock are becoming colonized and infected with this new strain of poultry-associated MRSA -- most likely by eating or handling contaminated poultry meat. 

 This poultry-associated MRSA may be more capable of transmitting from food to people and as MRSA continues to evolve, it may spread from animals to people in new ways. Early research suggests that modern farming practices, that involve giving food animals low doses of antibiotics to spur their growth and compensate for overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions led to the rising tide of superbugs, like the new strain of MRSA identified in this study. 

 The fact that food inspectors don't typically test poultry and other food products for MRSA contamination and instead are focused on Salmonella and other more typical food-borne pathogens may be the reason why the link has remained undetected until now. 

There is a need to expand the number of pathogens that are tested for in the food supply chain, and an urgent need for international bodies to enforce the ban on unnecessary use of antibiotics on industrial farms around the world. 

 The indiscriminate use of antibiotics in livestock must be abolished to prevent emergence of new, and more virulent strains of livestock-associated MRSA which will pose a much greater threat to human health.continue

Emerging pathogens in meat and poultry.

Meat and poultry are among the leading vehicles for foodborne illnesses around the world and are responsible for sickening million of people worldwide.Outbreaks from foodborne diseases are widely reported and are responsible for several recalls in several countries. 

 These pathogens cause these infections are typically zoonotic and can be introduced at any point along the food chain,starting from when the animal is raised, to the day of slaughter and beyond, up to the processing to consumption. 

 A significant number of pathogens can be transmitted to humans through meat and poultry, and the risks have changed over time. The public health threat posed by some pathogens has diminished, while others have persisted for decades.

 New, often more virulent strains of existing disease agents continue to emerge, along with previously unknown pathogens such as the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) while some emerging pathogens, such as E. coli O157:H7, have eventually developed into major food safety concerns. 

 The food safety measures to allay public health concerns must be adaptable systems that are able to detect, assess, and control both emerging and established risks. continue

Food Safety : Use of banned drugs in food animal production and the health implication in man.

Animals raised and processed for food have a great deal of impact on the health and well being of man. The saying "you are what you eat" hold true ,as whatever you throw in or gulp down shows up in terms of fat or a trim frame. 

Now a days the term is modified to you are "what your animals eat", meaning if you feed crap,you get crap at the end. The business of raising animals for consumption is not a minor issue, aside the monetary issue(profit margin),the health status of the animals and by extension humans that consume these products is very important as the drugs used in the production line must be safe for the animals and humans as well. 

 The superbugs issue has actually been traced to misuse or overuse of antibiotics in food animal production and this has birthed the antibiotic free production movement ,everyone is alert and aware of nutrients,health benefits,side effects and most importantly,people are going organic. 

This awareness has helped to enforce certain regulation and formulation of new regulations regarding what drugs to use and what not to administer during production. The regulation coupled with surveillance and strict inspection during slaughter to test for residues has helped to prevent greedy producers from passing dangerous products to the public. 

 This is the case of a cattle breeder;Stanley Richardson (67) from Woodford, Newtowngore,convicted and fined €500 and ordered to pay costs of €5,000 after he was found guilty of selling an animal which had been given bute, a banned substance.

Richardson was found guilty of selling a bull which had been administered the banned substance phenylbutazone, also known as bute. 

 Phenylbutazone is known to induce blood dyscrasias, including aplastic anemia, leukopenia, agranulocytosis, and thrombocytopenia, and can result in death. Hypersensitivity reactions of the serum-sickness type have also been reported. 

 The banned substance has the potential to have a carcinogenic effect on humans, thus why it is prohibited in food producing animals. Bute can be used to treat horses, as it is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, provided horses treated are not intended for human consumption.

Army Veterinary Corps marks 100 years of service

On June 3, the Veterinary Corps will celebrate its centennial with a ceremony at the U.S. Army Medical Department Museum at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, where a monument depicting aspects of the corps’ history and mission will be unveiled (see “A century of history in bronze”). The centennial is a benchmark highlighting the diverse services the corps has provided to the nation over the past 100 years, explained Maj. Troy Creason, a veterinarian and assistant to the chief of the Army Veterinary Corps. The Army Veterinary Corps’ 880 personnel include 600 active-duty Veterinary Corps officers and 280 officers in the Army Reserve. Supporting this small force of veterinary professionals are almost 1,600 enlisted food inspection specialists, 560 animal care technicians, and approximately 425 civilian employees. All told, there are just over 3,400 members that constitute the U.S. Army Veterinary Service. The vets being the ‘mechanics’ of a horse-powered Army in 1916 to developing tests for detecting botulism in canned foods during the intra–World War years, and current efforts to develop a human vaccine for Ebola, the accomplishments of the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps span the spectrum of the veterinary profession. Army Veterinary Corps marks 100 years of service years

HOW TO GENERATE DATA FOR FOOD SECURITY USING APPS, PHOTOS AND FOOD PRICES.

A San Francisco-based startup has sent out data collectors armed with just an Android phone, to harvest real-time economic data as and where it happens. From the price of onions in Indian cities to delayed infrastructure projects in rural China,


Premise data is, for the first time, giving governments, investors and NGOs an accurate glimpse of what is happening on the ground.

 In the Butantã branch of Extra, the Brazilian supermarket chain, in the western suburbs of São Paulo, Sandra Morais, 37, is taking photos of bags of rice.

She's not some retail Instagrammer or an obsessive foodie, but one of 25,000 data collectors that a San Francisco-based startup called premise.

 The aim is to ascertain which products are available , at what price and quantities available and location available to facilitate proper planning .

 Premise was founded in 2012 by an American former investment analyst, David Soloff, now 46, who realized that a large amount of developing-world economic data, on which big institutions were basing their risk and funding decisions, was significantly out of date by the time it reached their desks.

FEED COSTS AND PRODUCTIVITY.

The Nigerian poultry industry is estimated at ₦80 billion ($600 million) and is comprised of approximately 165 million birds, which pro-duced 650,000 MT of eggs and 290,000 MT of poultry meat in 2013. From a market size perspective, Nigeria’s egg production is the largest in Africa (USDA 2013). Chicken importation was banned by Nigeria in 2003, which spurred growth in domestic poultry production. Statistics from Eurostat, however, shows that between 2009 and 2011 over 3 million MT worth of poultry products were imported into the Republic of Benin, and these products ending up in the Nigerian market. If this is reflected in overall assumptions, estimated poultry meat consumption in Nigeria is approximately 1.2 million MT. This smuggled chicken costs about ₦500- ₦700 ($2.50-$3.50) per kg while locally produced frozen chicken costs between ₦1,000- ₦1,300 ($5 - $6.50) at retail locations, and approximately ₦650 ($3.25) at the farm gate. The price differential between imported and locally produced poultry is driven pri-marily by the high cost of maize and soybeans in Nigeria, and wide fluctuations in these commodity prices during the year. The overview shows the market for poultry and poultry products,and this can be fully harnessed to access the profit potential of the industry. Feed accounts for 65-75% of production cost in livestock,thus strategies to bring down feed costs will spill over on production costs and cost of products.Feeding of livestock must be balanced if adequate growth and development is to be achieved and if products are healthy and wholesome for consumption. Feeding strategies to elicit growth will hinge on the substitution of certain feed stuff with other alternatives to get same desired growth and wholesome products.The basic components dictating the cost of production are maize and soybeans healthy substitutes have been studied and various inclusion rates experimented to get desired results. Producers have been known to indulge in various practices to break-even and reach market weight at desired times,but which have detrimental effects on man and even the animals on a long term. The use of growth promoters have been explored to reduce cost of production by increasing the weight of animals so as to attain market size early. Feed substitutes are the only reliable way to ensure maximum food production and ensure food safety.The other alternatives are use of feed additives, and improved feed conversion techniques such as feed fermentation, provision of forage and other greens for growth.

Soilless farming an avenue to food security.

Soil-less farming could help developing countries with little arable land and harsh for agriculture climate, such as Qatar, to become self-sufficient in terms of their produce. Relying on advanced hydroponics and multi-story vertical growing, the proposed system uses nutrient-enriched water to produce approximately a hundred times more yield compared to when the crops are grown on a conventional farmland of the same size. The hybrid setup, devised by Nik-Othman Abdullah, biotechnologist at Malaysia University of Science and Technology, is described in his Methods paper, published in the open-access peer-reviewed journal Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO). The proposed vertical-horizontal regulated soil-less farming is theoretically capable of increasing the domestic produce on such a scale that the country. This type of soil-less farming could provide reliable quantity as well as quality of the crops. Grown indoors, where they would be constantly monitored by personnel with good technical and scientific knowledge, the produce would be less affected by factors such as atmospheric conditions, contamination or pests. The plants would be supplied with the calculated amount of nutrition they need, as well as the exact amount of light and gas exposure. Being grown in a sterile environment and not treated with fertilizers, pesticides, and other harsh chemicals, the crops would not only look visibly identical, but would also be cleaner, fresher, healthier, tastier and richer in nutrient content. They would also grow faster and bigger. Plants would not waste energy in root tissue production because nutrients in pure form will be provided to the plants instead of the plant stressing to search for the nutrients," explains the bio-technologist. "Therefore, plants grow evidently 50% faster and bigger. This type of farming platform can be constructed basically in any location. It can be set up almost anytime and everywhere, in a greenhouse, warehouse, inside a building. This in-house farming is viable in urban areas as well,where more of the available land is for infrastructure.This platform is a model of the hydroponic system described in earlier posts. #food security # hydroponic system # food safety.