Russian meat firms develop consumer packs to support sales

Russian meat firms develop consumer packs to support sales. Top Russian meat producers are increasingly producing meat in so-called ‘consumer packs’, with the aim of gaining a bigger sales margin in this segment of the market.Read here

Donald Trump 3Dprinting and business.

Freshmade 3D, a Youngstown-based 3D printing service bureau about an hour outside of Cleveland that specializes in rare automotive parts , they stepped away from their usual work to make something very different – a life-sized, 3D printed Donald Trump bobblehead. This feat has brought them loads of business thanks to the publicity the image has given them. Freshmade 3D has already seen an increase in business thanks to the publicity the project has gotten them. More requests for automotive parts than usual are beginning to come through the site, according to Wetzel, and the publicity and ensuing benefits for the company are likely to increase a lot more in the near future – not only because of this week, but because the company and their partners will also be printing a life-sized bobblehead of Hillary Clinton for the first presidential debate, which will take place in September in Dayton, Ohio. Read more

Four-legged chicken in China.

The farmer, Zhu, and his daughter, were so concerned by the discovery that they took the bird to local officials to see if they could shed any light on the creature that offered double the usual number of drumsticks. According the People’s Daily Online, which has published pictures of the bird, the hen was deemed edible, and is not thought to be suffering from any long-term health issues. And all four limbs function, meaning that the chicken can walk and run as well as any other. The four-legged feathered friend, however, while a rarity is not unique. Four-legged chickens have previously been reported in China, as well as in India, the U.S. and Thailand but, more often than not, the additional limbs are nonfunctional. Various theories have been put forward as to why the bird, dubbed “Frankenchicken,” may have hatched with the additional legs, including stress, shock or radioactivity.To date, it is the only four-legged chicken found on Zhu’s 10,000-head poultry farm in Shangdong Province, and it has become somewhat of a local celebrity with visitors lining up to photograph it. But its fame will be fleeting as the father and daughter have said that -- assuming it does not outrun them -- they will eat the bird, as to do otherwise would be a waste.Read more

AGRIBUSINESS : Feathers as building construction material.

AGRIBUSINESS : Feathers as building construction material.The waste to wealth initiative is expanding by the day,with various by-products finding usefulness in numerous sectors of the economy.

 Feathers have found usefulness in fashion,,art, creative industry as well as feed production for animals read more here .Today the feathers have found another use in construction of buildings. 

Feathers may already be used in feed in some parts of the world, and work has also been carried out on turning them into fuel and, more surprisingly, computer chips, but for an industry that is already held up as being the most sustainable meat producer, finding a good new use for a waste material simply raises the sector’s environmental credential further. 

 Disposal of feathers often involves a cost, but turning a waste product into a valuable commodity has benefits that are also economic.The feathers are not only getting a second life, but are substituting materials that currently take a lot of energy to produce, using non-sustainable raw materials. 

 Feathers may not seem to be any more resistant than furze but, in the same way that feathers protect chickens from the cold, they can keep people’s homes warm, and as much as 30 percent of the foam used to make regular insulation boards could be substituted with treated feathers. 

AGRIBUSINESS : Feathers as building construction material. Feather-fill would be highly competitive compared to alternatives, with the cost of treated feathers being 14 times lower than standard foam.Read more

Yeast cell wall derivatives improve broiler gut health.

Mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS), mannose rich fractions (MRF) improve broiler microflora to strengthen gut health, reduce antibiotic usage and fight resistance.Given the ever-increasing rise in bacterial strains that are less and less sensitive to existing treatments, antibiotic resistance has the potential to become one of the greatest problems of our generation. While abuse of antibiotics in humans is probably the major contributor, policy makers have turned the spotlight on agricultural use as a way to control the problem. Treatment of animals with antimicrobials can cause drug resistance to zoonotic pathogens. Bacteria from animals can be spread to humans via food products during slaughter and processing. This spread has been extensively documented for conventional food-borne pathogens, such as Salmonella, Campylobacter and E. coli. While the debate rages over what is driving the seemingly inexorable rise of antibiotic-resistant microbes, alternatives to antibiotics and products capable of reducing the risk of antibiotic resistance transfer through the food chain are clearly required. Globally, it is recognized that there is no so-called “silver bullet” to replace antibiotic use in animal production and producers will almost certainly have to improve hygiene and husbandry to address the issue. Products that will assist the move to antibiotic-free production status include many that are designed to regulate and support the gut environment and its microflora: 1)Coccidial vaccines. 2)Probiotics 3) Feed enzymes. 4) Functional nutrients such as nucleotides 5) Organic acids and feed hygiene products. 6) Organic minerals 7) Plant-based products such as herbs, spices and essential oils. 8) Yeast cell wall derivatives such as mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS) and mannose rich fractions (MRF). The functional ingredients currently in use for microbial control, MOS and MRF are widely used in animal nutrition and have been shown to improve animal performance in a manner similar to antibiotic-like growth promoters. Since 1999 the use of MOS in animal feed has become more prominent, mainly due to the European ban on prophylactic antibiotic growth promoters in animal feed. Given their ability to bind and limit the colonization of gut pathogens, MOS and MRF have proven to be an effective solution for antibiotic-free diets, as well as providing support for immunity and digestion.Read more

AGRIBUSINESS: More light at night reduces daytime heat stress in broilers.

AGRIBUSINESS: More light at night reduces daytime heat stress in broilers. Extended lighting periods help boost welfare and production of big broilers during high seasonal temperatures, a University of Georgia study showed. “The birds are going to eat the same amount of feed per day, so if you extend the lighting period, they have more time to eat, spreading out the digestive process which also produces heat,” Brian Fairchild, PhD, poultry extension scientist, told Poultry Health Today. A couple more hours of power usage are not significant,” he added, pointing to today’s low-energy LED bulbs. “But leaving the lights on until midnight or 1 am does have a large impact on bird comfort and welfare.” Read more

Drones and veterinary medicine.

What's that hovering at your shoulder? Oh yeah, the diagnostic test you ordered a few minutes ago.You may have seen a neighbor playing with a drone in the backyard or someone flying one around town. The toy remote-controlled helicopter of yesteryear is growing up and into a device that may revolutionize some components of veterinary practice. A drone may also be called an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), but the U.S. government has adopted the term unmanned aircraft system (UAS). Drones are traditionally powered by gas, jet fuel or rechargeable batteries .Future commercial uses for drones include virtual reality video tours of foreign countries, viewing vacation real estate, virtual attendance at outdoor sporting events and, most important for you, several veterinary applications Today, the closest thing to functioning veterinary drones are those used by the local government in Houston, Texas, to track stray dogs.Read more