Rainwater Harvesting Could Revolutionize Poultry Industry.

A new system for harvesting and storing rainwater from poultry barns provides birds with high quality water while reducing the grower’s dependency on local wells and municipal water systems. A typical broiler farm with four poultry houses uses an estimated 1.8 to 2 million gallons of water per year with costs up to $22,000 annually from a municipal water system. According to Gene Simpson, Alabama Cooperative Extension System and associate director of Auburn University’s National Poultry Technology Center, rainwater harvesting has the potential to reduce those water bills by as much as $16,000 and pay for itself in 7-8 years. The harvesting system utilizes a gutter system to funnel rainwater from poultry-house roofs into a 100-foot by 36-foot flexible bladder. A 2-inch rainfall on the 82,000 square feet of roof space on four poultry barns would fill the bladder to its 100,000-gallon capacity. The water is then filtered multiple times, including an ultraviolet light filter that kills any bacteria, producing water with excellent quality free from contaminants. A control room pumps the collected water to the houses as needed and automatically switches over to municipal water in the event of an emergency. Simpson believes harvesting rainwater could help producers reduce their municipal water bills by as much as 90%, making it a strong option for growers who have high water rates, low availability of well water or water with significant quality issues.continue

Food importation is posing danger to Africa

Despite agriculture employing more than 80 per cent of the African population, the continent generates only 10 per cent of global agricultural output. Another shocking reality is that Africa still spends $35 billion a year on importing food, despite having a quarter of the world’s arable land, according to latest findings from the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Kanayo F. Nwanze, president of IFAD, said the money Africa spends on food imports would have been used to create more and improved jobs in agriculture. Nwanze, who is expected to be part of the ongoing sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), in Nairobi, Kenya, is expected to tell African leaders that the potential for prosperity on the continent is enormous, but investments need to be redirected to developing the agricultural sector. Nwanze noted that African leaders are failing their people by their weak investments in agricultural inputs and infrastructure, and their lack of policy support for the sector,and if a portion of the money used for food imports was spent on creating jobs in rural areas, not only would the world’s largest youth population see a viable future on the continent, but Africa would be able to feed itself. The purpose of TICAD is to promote high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and partners, with a focus on African-led development. Although Africa is the world’s second fastest growing economic region, more than 300 million Africans live below the poverty line. Most live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Unemployment rates are close to 40 per cent. “Economic growth alone is not enough. If we want a continent with food security and social stability, we have to ensure that development focuses on people. They do not want handouts. They want economic opportunities,” said Nwanze.more

Researchers evaluate significance of IBV shedding.

Shedding of infectious bronchitis virus into the environment by infected birds isn’t a significant problem if birds are well vaccinated, but it can be a problem for naïve birds, according to researchers at the University of Georgia. The poultry industry routinely vaccinates broilers with multiple serotypes to try and generate cross-protection against different IBV serotypes. Previous work at the university has shown this approach can protect chickens from clinical signs and lesions associated with IBV infection, but that chickens still shed virus into the environment. For this study, researchers wanted to determine whether shedding after challenge with a heterologous (dissimilar) IBV is a problem for birds without proper immunity. They took 40 day-old broilers at industry stocking density in a colony room and vaccinated half of them by eyedrop with IBV Ma5, a Massachusetts IBV serotype, and a Delaware 072 IBV. The rest were left unvaccinated and served as contacts in the room for vaccine transmission. Another group of 20 day-old broilers was housed in isolators and served as unvaccinated controls. At 35 days of age, investigators challenged the directly vaccinated broilers with pathogenic Arkansas serotype IBV. The unvaccinated controls that had been separately housed were then added to the floor. Every 5 days after challenge, researchers evaluated all broilers for viral load and respiratory signs; they also checked five birds from each group for lesions. The directly vaccinated birds were protected from challenge at all time points. Unvaccinated and unchallenged contact birds were also protected from signs and lesions at all time points except at 10 days after challenge. The unvaccinated, unchallenged controls were protected at 5 and 20 days after challenge but not at 10 and 15 days after challenge. Viral loads were detected in all birds at different time points after challenge. Based on this data, the researchers concluded that virus shed into the environment by infected birds isn’t significant if the population is well vaccinated, but it can cause signs and lesions in naïve birds. Contributed by poultry health today

Eheld Urges Students to Choose Science and Agriculture.

A USAID sponsored project referred to as "EHELD" has urged Liberian students wishing to enroll at universities to choose Science and Agriculture as their life-building careers. EHELD gave the encouragement recently at the end of a career selection seminar for 40 Liberian students on the Fendell campus of the University of Liberia.A representative of EHELD at the closing ceremony, Oscar Goodyee, said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Observer that the program is meant to tutor and persuade high school students wishing to enter university to choose Agriculture and Engineering in their university studies. The program, Mr. Goodyee said, is implemented in collaboration with the University of Liberia and Cuttington University from where faculty staff also came to complement the facilitators' efforts.

Long-term planning key to effective coccidiosis management.

The best way to ensure effective sustainable control of coccidiosis is long term planning,irrespective of the method of production.Today’s broiler farms in antibiotic-free (ABF) production rely heavily on vaccines and synthetic anticoccidials for coccidiosis prevention. Mathis PhD, of Southern Poultry Research, Athens, Georgia, told Poultry Health Today the limited supply of approved in-feed coccidiostats has led to higher vaccine use and has increased likelihood for product shortages in some situations. The vaccines also require careful administration for maximum uptake and efficacy. The keys to controlling coccidiosis in ABF production are planning and management.The shift to ABF has growers switching to vaccines, extending brooder times and incorporating alternative products,. Although some alternative or natural products have shown great potential for managing coccidiosis, he advises producers not to add these new alternative products blindly without understanding the consequences. The reason is that many of these drugs haven’t been thoroughly tested outside laboratory or research settings. Mathis said, pre- and probiotics, saponins and essential oils have shown potential for stimulating the bird’s immune system, controlling Salmonella, improving gut health and nutrient absorption. one of the biggest changes in the alternative products available today is the improved purity and consistent supply

Who really feeds the world?

Vandana Shiva—Indian physicist, researcher, author, anti-globalist and world-renowned advocate for economic, food and gender justice—has written more than 20 books. Her latest, Who Really Feeds the World? The Failures of Agribusiness and the Promise of Agroecology, offers a scathing critique not only of industrial farming, but of the half-truths and outright lies employed to promote it around the world. It also presents us with an alternative. Shiva makes the case that not only is the dominant industrial paradigm not needed to feed the world, it’s doing a tremendous job of destroying it. The planet’s soil, water, biodiversity and human health are being compromised and exploited for profit by a relatively small pack of corporations operating on a worldwide scale: Over the last 20 years, the globalization of food and agricultural systems has been presented as a natural and inevitable phenomenon. However, there is nothing natural about globalization, and in particular, the globalization of food.

Farmer who fought off bear in bloody 3-hour battle shows horrific scars across face.

When a bear approached Jube Valanti Adveppache, he had no idea it would be a lengthy fight for survival against one of nature's killers.A brave farmer fought off a giant bear in a horrific three-hour battle that left him covered in blood with huge scars across his face. Jube Valanti Adveppache had been picking mushrooms in one of his fields in southern India when the bear attacked without warning. The 58-year-old later told wildlife officials and police how the animal, which was believed to be a sloth bear or Melursus ursinus, pounced on him without warning and would not let him go. The bear kept breaking off the attack and then starting again, and the recovering man says it was three hours before it seemed convinced it had killed him. After the attack, he moved off into the forests around Haliyal in Karnataka State. Mr Adveppache told officials he staggered nearly three miles, bleeding heavily, to get back to his village. Hospital officials say he has been transferred from an intensive care unit to another hospital to recover. A medic told local media: "He is out of immediate danger."Horrific photos of Mr Adveppache's injuries reveal horrific scars on the man’s head where the bear mauled him.One eye is closed and swollen, a thick scar from the bear's fearsome claws runs down the side of his nose.His face and his head are covered in other cuts and bruises. Despite their shambolic, sometimes comic appearance, sloth bears are seen as highly dangerous in India.contributed by mirror.co.uk