Hong Kong culls thousands of birds over avian flu scare

Hong Kong culled 4,500 birds on 7/6/16 after the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus was discovered in a chicken at a local market. Health officials in white hazmat suits and masks dumped the chickens into green plastic bins at a wholesale poultry market in central Hong Kong.The bins were then pumped with carbon dioxide to kill the birds. Hong Kong is particularly alert to the spread of viruses after an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome swept through the city in 2003, killing 299 people and infecting around 1,800. Bird flu scares in the past two years have seen mass culls of up 20,000 birds in Hong Kong. A spokeswoman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said the latest cull included chickens and pigeons. Trade of live poultry has also been suspended after authorities said Saturday the avian flu virus was found in a fecal sample collected from a chicken at a market in the Tuen Mun, a neighborhood in the west of Hong Kong. The city's health minister Ko Wing-man said the city was staying "stringent" against infectious diseases when he announced the cull late Monday. H7N9 is a particular worry for authorities as it does not kill infected chickens or cause them to develop symptoms, which allows it to spread undetected until contact is made with humans. The majority of human cases of H7N9 infection have been associated with direct or indirect contact with infected live or dead poultry, according to the World Health Organization. Human infections from the H7N9 strain were first reported in China in 2013. The virus can cause serious respiratory illness and has led to deaths. culled from pri.org

University of Illinois Veterinarians Use 3D Printing to Help With Eagle’s Surgery.

3D printing technology is helping veterinarians prep for surgical procedures on one of the most prized bird species in the world. Recently, students from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine had come across a wild eagle with its left humerus out of alignment, due to improper healing after it was shattered by a gunshot wound months earlier. In order to help the bird take flight again, an intensive surgery was required. To do this, the veterinarian students turned to those in the College of Engineering, who assisted by creating two 3D printed life-sized models of the eagle’s humerus, one that was healthy and another that replicated the actual injured bone. Before the the 3D printed models were used by Dr. R. Avery Bennett, an acclaimed avian surgeon, to help perform the procedure, a massive dataset was procured from the spiral CT scan taken by veterinary radiologist Dr. Stephen Joslyn. Consulting from Australia, Dr. Joslyn added a so-called ‘threshold’ into the data, which enabled the computer to separate ‘bone’ and ‘not-bone’ from the subtle and delicate CT scan information. Since the injured bone was fragmented, and thus unable to be printed in a single piece, medical illustrator Janet Sinn-Hanlon utilized software to manually thicken and link the bone areas together. After communications went back-and-forth between experts across the world, which were facilitated by Wildlife Medical Clinic intern and University of Illinois student Dr. Nichole Rosenhagen, it seemed that the life-sized models were set to be 3D printed in the university’s Rapid Prototyping Lab. But, the day before the surgery was planned, it turned out that the 3D printing queue was full. Thanks to Ralf Möller, the lab supervisor and director of technical services in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, the models were 3D printed overnight in about six hours, and were good to go by the time the lab opened up the next morning. Möller enlisted the help of undergraduate student and lab technician Nick Ragano, who visited the lab overnight to ensure that 3D models would be prepared for use, and also pressure washed the starch-based support material used to print the plastic models. That morning, the 3D printed bones were collected by Dr. Rosenhagen, and the injured eagle received successful orthopedic surgery in a matter of three hours culled from 3dprint.com

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN THE POULTRY INDUSTRY IN LAGOS.

 

 The poultry industry is well grounded in Nigeria with an estimated worth of over 100 billion Naira. There are a large number of commercial players and also small holder farmers in the sector most of which are located in the south-western part of the country,with close proximity to Lagos state. 

 There is a large market for poultry products in the country as evidenced by the 1.2 million tonnes of products smuggled into the country annually,the recent ban on imported poultry products has opened up more markets for home-grown products.

 A series of “megatrends” will permanently reshape agribusiness as the world’s producers and industry stakeholders re-calibrate to tackle the challenges of feeding 9 billion people in 2050, reports Christopher Nolan Sr., managing director at global professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.C. (PwC). The PwC’s top five global megatrends include:

1) Demographic shifts. 

2) Shift in global economic power. 

3) Accelerating urbanization 

4). Resource scarcity 

5)Evolving technology. 

 Lagos with a population of about 21 million people with majority in middle and upper class who show preference for poultry products,the state fits perfectly into the mega-trend that will shape agribusiness. 

We have the population,(numbers) more people are moving to Lagos, we practice urban-agric and also incorporate greenhouse and biocrop technology. 

 The state itself has commercial farmers and small holder farmers in the poultry sector churning out large numbers of chicken and eggs .

The state with a vision to be Africa's mega city and global economic financial hub has dedicated zones and areas where poultry farms are domiciled. The state has invested heavily in the poultry sector with poultry estates in Ikorodu,Ojo ,farm settlements in Badagry and a training school in Epe. 

 The state with a policy thrust to eradicate poverty through infrastructural renewal and development recently embarked on an empowerment programme where cages,poultry equipment,eggs and suitable land was allocated to poultry farmers to upscale their level of production .

 The federal government with the Agricultural transformation agenda to increase crop production and also to create value added food processing industries as a means to reduce food imports and create jobs, has given the state a platform to call for private sector participation in the poultry value chain alongside other 22 agricultural chains. 

 Investments into the poultry industry in the country recently got a boost with a Multi-Net group leading with plans to establish a farm and also the African development bank injecting 34.5 billion naira to boost the agricultural sector. 

 A partnership between the government and a Portuguese company to establish a feed mill in the country is on going.( pls check earlier posts for details of these investments.)

 Investors in the poultry value chain can look into these areas; 

1) Processing plant: many of the smuggled products are processed ,indicating the preference for more processed poultry.

 A processing plant can process poultry as chicken sausages, canned chicken, processed frozen, stewed or fried.

 The introduction of new processed products will not only be very profitable but more jobs will be available as more chicken will be in demand. 

 2) Egg powder plant; investors can look into this area, egg powder is very important in so many industries and establishment of such will also increase egg sales. The state is embarking on a school feeding programme, where eggs will be part of the menu. 

This programme itself demands more eggs to be produced ,and also the eggplant will compliment this effort to ensure that eggs are always available,by extending the shelf-life. 

There are seasons where there is egg glut,the egg powder plant will solve this problem and add more economic value to it.

 3) Production is another point of investment: we are calling for investors to revamp the industry in terms of more production. This will be traced to the onset of production. 

There are partnerships with various hatcheries with various breeds in the country,however new and well established breeds can be introduced into the country, to add to what is on ground and also create a platform for breeding. Breeding centers can be established to fashion- out how to get our own highly productive and hardy breed.

 4) Waste management: investors can look into the bio-gas plant to generate electricity and gas or to process as fertilizers which can benefit farmers. 

5) Production of fashion accessories: feathers can also be processed and sold as fashion accessories.The blood and fat can also be processed and incorporated into animal feed. 

6)Transportation : investors can look into cooling vans,trucks and buses. This is to ensure that the products get to the market in good condition.The transportation of live birds to markets is another area of investment.

Dogs may be able to smell malaria in humans and help with quicker detection.

Scientists hope using dogs could revolutionise how malaria is detected, enabling doctors to identify it quickly and without invasive tests Dogs may be able to sniff out malaria through their acute sense of smell, thereby saving thousands of lives through quick and non-invasive detection, scientists have claimed. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a grant to commission research into the possibility to scientists at Durham University, Medical Detection Dogs and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, along with counterparts in Gambia. It is hoped the animals may be able to detect odors associated with the condition and which are too subtle to be identified by human smell. Previous research has suggested dogs can be highly accurate in detection cancer in humans. Steve Lindsay, expert in the development of malaria-control measures in the School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Durham University and principle investigator in the project, said: “Recent research has demonstrated that patients infected with the malaria parasite produce specific odors in their breath that disappear after treatment of the parasite. We also know that malaria mosquitoes prefer to feed on malaria patients, which they almost certainly identify by their odor. “If dogs can be used to identify malaria-infected individuals, they could be used at ports of entry for screening travelers entering areas that are malaria free, but susceptible to re-invasion. Using dogs for detection of parasites has the advantage that it is non-invasive, portable, does not require a laboratory, is fully functional in field settings and can be used to test a high quantity of samples. By using the dogs, we can quickly find and treat those with malaria and thereby hugely accelerating the speed at which we can wipe out this terrible disease altogether.” Dr Claire Guest, CEO of Medical Detection Dogs which trains animals for medical purposes, said: “Dogs have an extraordinary sense of smell. They can detect parts per trillion; that is equivalent to one spoon of sugar in two Olympic-sized swimming pools. In training trials, they have proven themselves to be 93 per cent reliable at detecting cancer. I feel confident they will learn to detect the odor of malaria.” In August of last year, the use of medical detection dogs for sniffing out cancer was approved for use in an NHS trial following evidence the animals are highly reliable at detecting the disease in humans. In 2015, there were an estimated 214 million malaria cases globally and an estimated 438,000 deaths caused by the disease. culled from the independent.co.uk

INNOVATION IN THE POULTRY INDUSTRY.

John Jewson, a poultry farmer in East Anglia, UK, has a farm surrounded by houses on three sides and has had to tread a careful line between running his business and keeping his neighbors happy. While the family farm has reared various species over its history, Jewson has found that poultry farming is now the answer. At Poplars Farm, near Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, Jewson has three sheds and approximately four acres, from which he runs a commercial pullet replacement operation, taking in free-range chicks and rearing them to point of lay. "It is a very niche operation,” said Jewson. “This is realistically the only kind of farming that can fit onto a site like this.”(urban farming). He has found modern improvements in farming methods have made running the farm easier. “It’s all automatic feed lines now. One great development in the last few years has been the increasing use of modules for moving the chickens round,” Jewson said. “That’s been an investment that has really paid off. It’s very welfare friendly for the chickens and makes life a lot easier for the catchers.” The most recent investment on the farm has been a solar power system, which cut his electricity bills by 50 percent. The 50 kilowatt ground-mounted system occupies a small parcel of land next to the chicken sheds and in daylight conditions turns the farm into a completely green operation with power left over to export to the grid. The panels were installed by EvoEnergy, one of the country’s largest solar power companies. “They are actually doing better than we expected, producing approximately 20 percent more electricity than anticipated,” said Jewson. “On a typical day, we are using approximately 12 kilowatts of power, and the panels are producing approximately 40 to 48 kilowatts.” Under the feed-in tariff scheme, designed to encourage businesses and homeowners to produce more green electricity, Jewson is paid for all of the electricity he produces, whether he uses it or not. He is also paid for exporting power to the national grid.see more “The scheme lasts for 25 years, and I often joke that this is my pension, because it will be generating money as well as electricity long after I’ve retired,” said Jewson. Jewson decided to go for a ground-mounted system rather than put the panels on the roofs of his sheds, because he was worried about adding extra loads onto the roofs. He also felt the dust from the ventilation system might settle on the panels.

Burning poultry litter creates clean energy for producer.

One of the UK’s largest broiler farmers is burning poultry litter on farm, and already experiencing the benefits. “Where there’s muck, there’s brass,” is a phrase usually more associated with the U.K. county of Yorkshire than Norfolk, and while one of the U.K.’s largest broiler producers has discovered that this adage still holds true, there’s not much muck in evidence at Uphouse Farm in north Norfolk, run by Nigel Joice and his son Patrick. Although producing more than 5.6 million broilers per year, the Joices run a particularly tidy, even “picturesque” operation, around their 17th century farmhouse – it’s a pleasant environment, despite the scale. Given their concern for their surroundings, it’s little surprise that the Joices have decided to reduce their environmental footprint through the generation of heat via on-farm burning of poultry litter using low-emission technology. The Joices can house 800,000 broilers at any time. They have a permit for 830,000 birds but, rather than expand production, more recent years have seen the producers focus on finding and implementing a self-sustaining energy solution. They now burn their poultry litter, recently reclassified by the European Union as a by-product, and use the heat in the broiler sheds. The farm is able to satisfy almost all its heat requirements via litter burning. “One broiler produces enough manure to heat three birds, so the numbers are good,” Nigel says. Uphouse now has an almost limitless supply of clean, dry heat, giving the birds enhanced environmental conditions, as well as offering not only cost savings, but energy cost stability. There is still an occasional need for gas, but this is simply a 5 percent backup, used during downtime, or as a boost in really cold weather. Installing the plant has brought savings in fuel and litter removal, but the energy center investment is also “being paid back by the birds,” in terms of performance. “Indirectly heating the sheds has transformed them,” says Nigel. “We saw an increase in feed rate conversion of 6 points in the first flock, and this has improved with subsequent flocks. “We’re getting more heat now than we did in the early days, and we can run our houses hotter than we did before. The birds like it – they are, after all jungle birds. “But we’re still learning. Running the poultry sheds warmer has been a fairly recent development, we’re making gradual changes. We can also afford to heat the houses for longer, which was not always possible with gas.” The farm produces 8,000 tonnes of manure annually, and 2,600-2,700 are burned for heat, although the plant could be upgraded to burn more and produce electricity, as it was built with extra capacity. And for the Joices, now that the energy plant is up and running, beyond feeding the burner, there is little more to do, as the system is controlled remotely, but it can be monitored locally via an intelligent data panel. Prior to building the energy plant, the Joices had been burning liquefied petroleum gas in the broiler sheds, but this put moisture and gases into the atmosphere that had to be removed. The new system heats the sheds by piping hot water through the houses, and this gives clean and dry heat, so air conditions are improved. There were several factors that drove the Joices to decide on burning chicken manure. Nigel explains: “For a number of years, manure was of no value – local farmers didn’t want it as a fertilizer and although we had discussions with a local power station, this did not work out. “We considered producing gas on farm, but a chance occurrence led us to BHSL and its poultry manure-to-energy technology.” Culled from wattagnet

5 megatrends shaping agribusiness.

Economic shifts, scarce resources drive advances in food technology. A series of “megatrends” will permanently reshape agribusiness as the world’s producers and industry stakeholders re-calibrate to tackle the challenges of feeding 9 billion people in 2050, reports Christopher Nolan Sr., managing director at global professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.C. (PwC). A megatrend, as defined by Nolan, is a proven macroeconomic force backed by science and data that ultimately shape society. Based on discussions with its clients, industry leaders and politicians, PwC “megatrends” share common characteristics:1) Significant, consistent impact across all geographies. 2) Measurable, universal impact across all societies.3) Long-term, lasting impact. 4) An economic impact measurable in trillions of dollars Nolan outlines the key macroeconomic trends that will shape both the world and agribusiness over the next few decades. The PwC’s top five global megatrends include; 1.) Demographic shifts; Population growth is a known constant however, the buying power of a growing global middle class qualifies as a megatrend. PwC defines “middle class” as earning enough to include more protein in their diet, consuming more calories than those classified as lower class. “The rising need for food will increase faster than the rate of growth of the global population,” Nolan states. The global population is set to increase by 18 percent by 2050, “but the projected increase in global food consumption is expected to grow by 35 percent,” he reports. 2) Shift in global economic power According to Nolan, the forecasted 2050 GDP of seven emerging economies (E7 = Brazil, China, Russia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey) will nearly double that of the G7, i.e. United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K. Geopolitical issues aside, multinational companies are increasingly investing in E7 countries. With this new found cash flow, Nolan notes, E7 nations are educating their workforce and adding attractive investments to their portfolio, e.g. China’s $1.3 trillion investment in the U.S. treasury debt. Meanwhile, the economies of frontier countries (F7 = Colombia, Peru, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Philippines, Morocco, Nigeria) are growing rapidly — with forecasts pointing to 30 percent growth over the next five years. “The economic power of these economies will drive investment in agribusiness as local governments focus on being able to feed their citizens,” Nolan says. “Food-consuming nations — those who do not produce enough and have to consume product produced outside their country — will pursue investments in food-producing nations to better control the food value chain.” 3) Accelerating urbanization For the first time ever, more than 50 percent of the world’s population lives in cities. “Today there are 30 megacities — those with populations over 10 million — and the number is expected to double,” he says. “If some of these cities were stand-alone countries, they would rank in the top 50 most populated nations.” The vast majority of global population will live in urban areas by 2030. In China, for example, an additional 300 million people will move to cities. To put this in perspective, that’s equivalent to the relocation of the entire population of the United States. Such change will require new means of agricultural production and distribution to deliver food into city centers. 4). Resource scarcity In order to feed a global population of 8.3 billion, the world will require 50 percent more energy, 40 percent more water and 35 percent more food. How will this be accomplished with limited natural resources? Resource scarcity caused or accentuated by climate change will require improved crop technology, producing higher yields with fewer inputs. 5.) Evolving technology The rapid increase in development and acceptance of technology will be utilized to meet food demands, i.e. better yield through genetically modified (GM) seeds and limited use of resources. “One of the challenges we face in agribusiness today is the acceptance of these and how they are perceived to impact food security,” he notes, citing the continued backlash against GM seeds. Nolan suggests that to profit from these changes there will be a need to feed billions which will present many opportunities for agribusiness: a) Feeding the middle class will increase protein consumption and investment in the protein value chain will be required. b) E7 will allow opportunities to capture profit as consuming nations exert greater power over producing nations. c)Urbanization will fuel the rise of city farming, improve food distribution models, and less labor-intensive farms will produce more of the world’s food. d) innovative farming will reduce costs and improve resource sustainability. e)Evolving technology will improve yields and food output.More