Veteran civil servant made his mark during the BSE crisis

Brian Evans retires from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency

After ages as the federal government’s public face of food safety, Brian Evans has taken a well-earned retirement, but not the quiet kind. In addition to being the country’s chief veterinary officer and chief food safety officer, Evans was the government’s main spokesman during the 2003 BSE crisis. But the biggest food safety event was

Mystery of Chinese bird flu outbreak grows

Health officials are trying to find out how a new strain of bird flu is infecting people in China — more than half of patients have had no contact with poultry. By late last week, 87 people, mostly in eastern China, have contracted the H7N9 virus, and 17 had died. It is not clear how


Optimizing the use of energy in pig feeds

With the cost of dietary energy more than doubling in the last eight years, it’s vitally important to optimize the efficiency with which it is utilized. Meeting the energy specifications of a typical grower diet now represents about 85 per cent of the cost of the diet and over 50 per cent of the total

China readies to fight new bird flu

Reuters / Chinese authorities slaughtered over 20,000 birds at a poultry market in Shanghai April 5 as the death toll from a new strain of bird flu mounted to six, spreading concern overseas and sparking a sell-off in airline shares in Europe and Hong Kong. The local government in Shanghai said the Huhuai market for


Fruit flies fed organic diets are healthier

Fruit flies raised on diets based on organic foods performed better on a variety of health tests, including fertility and longevity

Researchers aren’t sure why, but fruit flies fed organic fruits and vegetables in a laboratory study lived longer and produced more offspring than flies fed a non-organic diet. The study from the lab of SMU biologist Johannes H. Bauer, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, found that fruit flies raised on diets of organic foods performed better

U.K. scientists develop safer foot-and-mouth vaccine

Reuters / British scientists have developed a new vaccine against foot-and-mouth disease that is safer and easier to manufacture, an advance they believe should greatly increase production capacity and reduce costs. The technology behind the livestock product might also be applied to make improved human vaccines to protect against similar viruses, including polio. The new


EU may lift animal byproduct ban for pig and poultry feed

But safety measures may make its use in animal feed too expensive and retailers fear a consumer backlash

The European Union hopes to ease the cost of protein used to make pig and poultry feed by lifting a ban on byproducts imposed during the mad cow disease outbreak over a decade ago. The change would come at a time of heightened consumer concern about food safety in Europe after it was discovered that

April is Parkinson’s awareness month

Many of us can relate to juggling a career while parenting young children. Now imagine adding a debilitating disease to the shuffle, one that takes years to diagnose because you are, supposedly, too young to have it. Karen Gross of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba was just 34 when, as a teacher and mother of two


New varieties aim to push CDC Falcon from its perch

As of Aug. 1, 2014, CDC Falcon moves to the Canada Western General 
Purpose class from Canada Western Red Winter

Winter wheat growers in Manitoba have some new options to consider after their overwhelming favourite, CDC Falcon, moves to the Canada Western General Purpose (CWGP) class Aug. 1, 2014. That class is usually composed of feed and ethanol feedstock wheats, which don’t fetch the premiums paid for milling and baking wheats in the Canada Western

Curbing farm use of antibiotics heats up again

Ontario Medical Association says incidence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is on the rise and must be stopped

The Ontario Medical Association is calling on government to impose sweeping restrictions on non-essential farm and other uses of medicines before bacterial resistance to life-saving antibiotics threatens human health. Growing resistance to antibiotics endangers “one of the most fundamental and life-saving tools in medicine,” the association warns in a report entitled ‘When Antibiotics Stop Working.’