Veterinary teams will cull 130 cattle in a southeastern Bulgarian village after tests showed another outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the Balkan country. The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency said six out of seven samples taken from a herd tested positive for the highly contagious disease. This is the fifth outbreak of foot-and-mouth since the beginning of 2011. The European Union member has already culled over 850 infected domestic animals in several villages near the border with Turkey.
Sheep Code Updated
The code of practice for the care and handling of sheep is being updated through the National Farm Animal Care Council’s (NFACC) code of practice development process, the Canadian Sheep Federation (CSF) has announced.
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“Renewing the codes of practice provides a good opportunity to ensure the codes are based on the most current scientific literature,” said Andrew Gordanier, chair of the Canadian Sheep Federation in a release. “As production systems and management evolves, reviewing the Codes of Practice helps ensure they remain relevant and well used by producers. This assures stakeholders and the public that Canadian sheep and lambs continue to be produced under sound management and welfare practices that promote the well-being of the animal.”
The existing sheep code was created in 1995. The revised edition is expected to be complete in 2013. For more information on the codes of practice and NFACC’s code development process visit www.nfacc.ca.
Plains Processors Gets $2.8 Million
Portage-Lisgar MP Candice Hoeppner on behalf of Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz last Friday announced up to $2.8 million under the Slaughter Improvement Program for Plains Processors of Carman to upgrade its meat-processing plant. Funds will be used to upgrade the provincially inspected facility to federal standards in order to expand market access. The government said the project will provide cattle producers in Manitoba and the surrounding areas with access to a federally inspected red meat-processing facility.
