General manager of Manitoba Beef Producers, Melinda German, reviewed the group’s efforts and advancements over the past year at the District 7 meeting held in Strathclair on November 6.

Manitoba Beef Producers provide industry, organization updates

Beef producers are meeting throughout the province

Beef producers have been filling community halls across the province over the past month to hear updates on animal health concerns, industry support tools and progress made on trade agreements and research initiatives. Members of the Manitoba Beef Producers (MBP) organization gathered in Strathclair on November 6 as general manger, Melinda German reviewed efforts made

Beef 911: Watch for newer respiratory pathogens

Beef 911: Watch for newer respiratory pathogens

Corona virus and B. trehalosi bacteria aren’t always easy to spot

We have all heard of corona virus being one of the main causes of viral scours in our newborn calves. It and a couple of strains of rotavirus are the two main viruses we see in our scours vaccines. (It also causes a winter dysentery bloody diarrhea in mature cattle, especially housed dairy cattle in


Common cattle virus linked to breast cancer in women

A high percentage of women with breast cancer has been exposed to the bovine leukemia virus (BLV)

Researchers with University of California, Berkeley, are exploring a link between a common bovine virus and breast cancer in women. In a study analyzing 239 tissue samples from women diagnosed with breast cancer, scientists found 59 per cent had been exposed to the bovine leukemia virus (BLV) compared to 29 per cent of tissue samples

pig and piglets

Genetics tool sought for hogs

Breeding pigs to have better immune responses means using fewer antibiotics and other medications

New research being led by the University of Guelph could help reduce the amount of medical intervention required in swine production. As part of a $9.8-million national research project aimed at enhancing Canada’s pork industry, a team of researchers will work to develop genomics tools that select pigs able to resist multiple diseases, improve animal


Understanding and controlling the risk of EIA

Understanding and controlling the risk of EIA

Horse Health: Horses that test positive must be euthanized or quarantined for life

The recent increase in confirmed cases of equine infectious anemia (EIA), also known as swamp fever, in Alberta is a reminder to horse owners that this disease maintains a constant presence in equine populations. Often evidence for infection is noted only after routine surveillance testing for EIA. EIA is a blood-borne and potentially fatal viral

PEDv spread like wildfire in the U.S., but Canada successfully limited its spread.

Standing tall: How Canada’s pork sector survived the attack of a killer virus

PEDv decimated the U.S. hog herd, but Canada showed how to do biosecurity right

When it comes to finding expert advice on biosecurity, cattle producers might want to sit down with their local hog farmer. The country’s outstanding record on controlling the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus has a host of lessons for the cattle sector, says a swine veterinarian who was deeply involved in Alberta’s battle against PEDv. Start


young piglet on hay at pig farm

Pork producers fear increased disease risk from PEDv

U.S. truck washes are known to harbour a deadly pig virus

A decision by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to end measures intended to keep the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, or PEDv, out of Manitoba, has producers worried. As of October 1, trucks returning to Canada after dropping swine off in the U.S. will be required to be disinfected and cleaned at American facilities before entering Canada.

white-feathered turkeys

CFIA blames wild birds for spread of avian influenza

While there are no new cases of bird flu in Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says 
it’s still too early to breathe a sigh of relief

Officials with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are confident that the cases of avian influenza they’ve responded to in Ontario and British Columbia are the result of contact with wild birds, not farm-to-farm transmission. “From the seasonality of this disease and the characterization of the virus — we cannot be 100 per cent sure that


geese near an urban pond

Hatchery amps up bird deterrence in face of avian influenza

Consumer faith in poultry products appears to be holding in spite of a growing 
number of avian influenza cases on farms in Ontario and the U.S.

Manitoba poultry producers and processors have yet to be stung by the avian influenza sweeping farms south of the border, but that doesn’t mean it’s business as usual. Enhanced biosecurity brings a host of changes and logistical challenges. “We’ve increased our sanitation measures, we have foot baths now at all the entrances to our production

barn chickens in cages

Avian flu on Manitoba’s doorstep

The best line of defence is at the farm gate and barn door

Manitoba’s egg and poultry producers are on high alert as avian influenza spreads to neighbouring jurisdictions. More than 75,000 birds have already been euthanized at two farms in Ontario and farms in the American Midwest have seen more than seven million birds destroyed this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Now cases have