(Stephen Ausmus photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Hens near Chilliwack catch H5N1 avian flu

About 95 layer hens on a “non-commercial” farm near Chilliwack are the Fraser Valley’s latest cases of avian influenza, but not of the same strain seen at 12 other farms in December. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Saturday announced a quarantine on the Chilliwack farm after confirming, effective Feb. 2, that table egg-laying birds




Equipment such as this offal blow tank at Quebec’s Levinoff-Colbex plant was sold to buyers onsite and online on Dec. 2. (BidSpotter.com)

Shuttered Que. beef plant’s equipment sold

The chance of a rescue for Quebec’s Levinoff-Colbex cull cow packing plant has passed, now that the facility’s equipment has been sold off piecemeal at auction. Provincial investment financing agency Investissement Quebec and other creditors still own the Colbex building and land at St-Cyrille-de-Wendover, in the Centre-du-Quebec region. But the plant’s receivers sold its equipment to a consortium of


meat aisle in grocery store

U.S. appeals latest WTO ruling on COOL

Retaliatory tariffs are now delayed

Canada will have to wait up to three more months before it can impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods over Washington’s mandatory country-of-origin labelling (COOL) law on meat from imported livestock. The U.S. government filed a notice of appeal Nov. 28 against the latest ruling by a World Trade Organization (WTO) compliance panel, which last

(Dave Bedard photo)

CWB takes pass on FNA’s proposal

Ag input buying group Farmers of North America (FNA) says its proposal to buy the grain firm formerly known as the Canadian Wheat Board has been rebuffed. Saskatoon-based FNA said Monday its proposal — which called for CWB’s assets to become part of an farmer-owned grain handling and fertilizer manufacturing and marketing organization dubbed Genesis


(WTO.org)

Revised U.S. COOL law still breaks trade rules, WTO panel finds

A World Trade Organization compliance panel has ruled the U.S. government offside in its latest attempt at a trade-compliant country-of-origin labelling (COOL) law on meat. Following a long-awaited public release Monday, the ruling may give Canada and Mexico the ammunition to demand COOL be scrapped, on pain of retaliatory tariffs against a range of U.S.-made

(Canada Beef Inc. photo)

Chance remains for Que. beef plant before asset sale

The equipment at Quebec’s now-shuttered Levinoff-Colbex cull cow packing plant goes to auction in about eight weeks — but until then, its owners will entertain offers from buyers interested in rescuing the plant. The Colbex building and land at St-Cyrille-de-Wendover, in the Centre-du-Quebec region, are still owned by provincial investment financing agency Investissement Quebec and