Freshly picked potatoes move along a conveyor.

Potato growers beware new PVY strains

Newer, necrotic strains of potato virus Y (PVY) are creating headaches for potato farms in Eastern Canada, and Manitoba farmers should pay attention

Newer strains of potato virus Y (PVY) are creating headaches for potato farms in Eastern Canada, and Manitoba farmers should pay attention




Photo: File/Reuters

G4 swine flu virus not new, China says

Ag ministry says virus does not infect or sicken humans, animals easily

Shanghai/Beijing | Reuters — China’s ministry of agriculture and rural affairs said Saturday that the so-called “G4” strain of swine flu virus is not new and does not infect or sicken humans and animals easily, rebuffing a study published last week. That study, by a team of Chinese scientists and published by the U.S. journal


A customer shops at a pork meat hall at the Yuegezhuang wholesale market in Beijing on June 17, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Tingshu Wang)

Food exporters to China asked to declare produce coronavirus-free

Declaration puts onus on exporters for product safety

Beijing | Reuters — China’s customs authority has asked food exporters to the country to sign a declaration their produce is not contaminated by the novel coronavirus, three people who received a letter said on Friday. The declaration, seen by Reuters, may be an effort by China to reduce the additional testing it has carried

(Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

One Alberta PED case deemed ‘false positive’

The third of four reported on-farm outbreaks of porcine epidemic diarrhea in Alberta so far this year can now be marked as a negative. The provincial government and hog producer agency Alberta Pork on Monday announced the first of two cases reported Friday was in fact a “false positive.” Specifically, Alberta Pork said Monday, the


Antibodies from cattle, combined with engineered antigens, can trigger an immune response. A similar technique could work in humans.

Cow antibodies show a path to fighting human disease

Novel vaccines combine natural antibodies and engineer antigens 
to trigger immune response

Old Bessie may have shown researchers a new way to fight human diseases. A recent paper from University of Guelph scientists says a novel vaccine that protects cattle from a viral-driven respiratory disease may hold the secret to creating similar treatments for human diseases, ranging from gut infections to HIV and cancer. Azud Kaushik, a

How to fight the flu

How to fight the flu

Prairie Fare: Personalized Homemade Vegetable Soup (Slow Cooker Or Stovetop)

Lately, people have been sniffling and coughing around me. I practically run down the hallway to escape the germs. I thought about barricading my office door or wearing a surgical mask. I’m really not a “germophobe.” I had the flu a couple of years ago and was bedridden for four days after not using any


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