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

potato crop

Manitoba potato acreage seen steady in 2015

Demand for processing potatoes is stable to up slightly in North America

It’s too early to make definitive statements about potato acreage in Manitoba in 2015, but Keystone Potato Producers Association manager Dan Sawatzky expects that if anything, it may go up slightly. “I think we’re pretty confident that we can say that,” he says. In 2014, Manitoba acreage totalled 63,340 acres, of which 45,000 were processing,


U.S. West Coast ports undergo partial shutdown

Los Angeles | Reuters –– The 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast were effectively closed to cargo freighters for the second time in less than a week on Thursday under a partial shutdown imposed by shipping lines and terminal operators in an escalating labour dispute with the dockworkers’ union. The loading and unloading of

U.S. shippers, West Coast dockworkers resume contract talks

Los Angeles | Reuters — Negotiators for shipping lines and terminal operators at 29 U.S. West Coast ports resumed contract talks with the union for dockworkers on Thursday, as cargo backups continued at the ports, a representative for the labour group said. Officials from the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union