Slaughter of 100,000 pigs gets under way today

SEAN MacCONNELL, Agriculture Correspondent

THE SLAUGHTER and destruction of the 100,000 pigs at the centre of the pork meat contamination scare will begin today.

Plans are also being finalised for the destruction of the 4,000 cattle which were also fed the same feed, the Department of Agriculture confirmed last night.

The announcement came as investigators attempting to trace the source of the oil at the centre of the pig and cattle dioxin scare confirmed that it came from electricity transformers.

The chemical profile of the contaminant was identified as being waste-transformer oil, according to sources close to the investigation.

This may help the environment protection agencies North and South who are investigating the incident with the Garda and the PSNI to find the culprits responsible for the crisis.

The focus of the investigation is now on how the contaminated oil entered the system and ended up being used to convert out-of-date food for cattle and pig ration at the Millstream recycling plant in Co Carlow.

That company has said it had only ever purchased oil from a legitimate supplier in the Republic. That supplier, which has not been named, has not made any public statement.

A Co Tyrone company which supplied oil to the plant for a limited period has said it is not responsible for the contamination and it has passed an audit by the Northern Ireland Environment Protection Agency.

The recall of beef from the 21 beef farms which were known to have used the contaminated feed, is continuing as plans are being put in place to slaughter and destroy the animals on those farms.

The number of animals is not know but will be considerably fewer than the 9,530 cattle originally identified in the Republic on 52 farms.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland had reported on Thursday last four samples from restricted beef herds were above the allowable limit but posed no threat to public health

All these animals, and the 100,000 pigs which were exposed to the feed, will be removed from the food chain and their bodies rendered and incinerated abroad.

The European Commission announced on Friday it would co-finance a disposal scheme for these pigs and pork in a move which will see it make more than €20 million available.

It said it would pay 50 per cent of the cost of buying the animals blocked on farms and for pigmeat stocks held in slaughter houses or still owned by slaughter houses.

The EU also put into place a scheme for buying up 15,000 tonnes of pigmeat in Northern Ireland, a so-called aids to private storage scheme, similar to that already established in the Republic which will take 30,000 tonnes of pigmeat off the market.

The EU contribution to resolving the pigmeat crisis here now stands at almost €36 million and the Government had already put a €180 million package in place to get the factories reopened and the industry moving again.

The dioxin test results from cattle herds in Northern Ireland exposed to the contaminated feed are expected later this week.

Source

Pig pollution costs farmer £4,000

Published Date: 22 December 2008

A BRIGG area pig farmer is having to find £4,000 to pay for fines and court costs after allowing slurry waste to run off his farm in three different ways, seriously polluting Froghall Drain, Howsham.

James Edward Andrews, trading as Lincolnshire Pigs pleaded guilty to three charges of causing pollution and was fined £1,000 on each with £1,000 costs.

Cotswold Farm in Cadney Road, Howsham is a pig breeding unit which has up to 4,000 pigs and has been operated by Andrews and a partner for the past four years. He admitted to Environment Agency officers that he had no drainage plan for the farm and did not know if there were land drains in the fields.

Mrs Miriam Tordoff, prosecuting, said the pollution had resulted from a combination of poor management and a lack of knowledge of the site’s drainage.


‘The accumulative environmental impact of the discharges was serious, having a major impact on the invertebrate community in Froghall Drain and extending as far as Kettelby Beck. The polluting effect was evident for at least 10 days,’ she said.


There were three separate leaks into the drain; one from an overflow of a storage lagoon, one from the farm’s sewage treatment plant and a third from a land drain.


The Environment Agency was alerted to the first leak on April 9 when someone reported pollution in the Froghall Drain. Liquid pig waste was running into a tributary of the Drain from a trench which officers traced back to the farm.


There they discovered that the trench led from the slurry lagoon which was full to the top and overflowing down a bank and into the tributary. Andrews started to fill in the trench with soil to prevent any more waste getting into the water.


Officers returned to the farm the following day to take more samples and saw that slurry was leaking from a corner of the slurry lagoon and running across a field before getting into the Drain in several places. On a third visit they found the ground saturated from slurry run-off from the farmyard.


While still investigating the first incident on 10 April, Agency officers also found a blue pipe discharging into Froghall Drain. Previous owners were authorised to discharge fully treated sewage liquid through the pipe from a sewage treatment plant but the consent had not been passed to Andrews and partner and the liquid was not of a suitable cleanliness, Mrs Tordoff told the court. ‘The sewage treatment plant was found to be clean and dry inside,’ she said.


On their third visit to the farm officers also discovered an orange pipe (the subject of the third charge) which was also discharging polluted liquid into the tributary. The source of the discharge could not be traced. ‘Knowledge of the site’s drainage could have prevented the discharge,’ said Mrs Tordoff.


Andrews told investigating officers that he relied on farmers taking the sewage effluent to spread on their fields to keep the level in the lagoon down but because of bad weather in March that had not happened.

There was no system in place to deal with the slurry if the lagoon was full and it had never been that full before.

He said that in the future more slurry would be taken out of the lagoon during the previous summer months to make sure it did not fill up. A contingency plan has now been put in place to ensure this incident does not happen again.

Mrs Tordoff told magistrates: ‘Samples showed that all of the discharges were grossly polluting and had a polluting effect on the entire length of the Froghall Drain downstream of the farm to where it meets with Kettleby Beck and including a short stretch of Kettleby Beck.’


After the hearing Environment Agency officer Keith Hughes-Marshall said: ‘Farm slurry is highly polluting and can have a serious impact on river quality, and aquatic life. Slurry should be stored in properly constructed and well maintained lagoons with sufficient storage capacity. This incident could have been avoided with better site management and planning.’


The Environment Agency offers advice on pollution prevention. If farmers do have any concerns about their slurry storage arrangements, they should contact 08708 506 506.




Andrews, trading as Lincolnshire Pigs, pleaded guilty to:


1. Between 8 April 2008 and 19 April 2008 you did cause poisonous, noxious or polluting matter, namely slurry, to enter controlled waters, namely the Froghall Drain at Cotswold Farm, Cadney Road, Howsham, Lincolnshire.


Contrary to section 85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991


(SLURRY LAGOON OVERFLOW)


2. Between 9 April 2008 and 19 April 2008 you did cause poisonous, noxious or polluting matter, namely sewage effluent, to enter controlled waters, namely the Froghall Drain at Cotswold Farm, Cadney Road, Howsham, Lincolnshire.


Contrary to section 85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991


(BLUE PIPE - STW DISCHARGE)


3. On or about 18 April 2008 you did cause poisonous, noxious or polluting matter, namely organic effluent, to enter controlled waters, namely the Froghall Drain at Cotswold Farm, Cadney Road, Howsham, Lincolnshire.


Contrary to section 85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991


(ORANGE PIPE DISCHARGE)

• Last Updated: 22 December 2008 10:00 AM
• Source: Market Rasen Mail
• Location: Market Rasen
• 
  

Source

Some Austin pork plant workers struggle with disease and its aftermath

by Sea Stachura, Minnesota Public Radio

December 18, 2008

A year after a neurological disease surfaced among workers at a pork plant in Austin, some workers still can't get worker's compensation for their illness. Doctors traced the disease to a mist of pig brains at Quality Pork Processing.

Austin, Minn. — Felicitas can't do much now besides watch TV. She'd rather be working, but the disease doctors say she developed at Quality Pork Processing--or QPP-- makes everything a struggle. Even walking from the living room where her daughter's toys are piled in the corner and to the kitchen where her mother is cooking dinner.

"Now, nothing is the same," she says in Spanish. MPR news translated her comments into English.

Felicitas is in the country illegally, so we've agreed to only use her first name.

The disease originated at the "head table", where workers would stick hoses with compressed air into pigs' skulls to blast out the brains. Felicitas worked on the head table for only a week, but she walked through the area half a dozen times a day for three years.

The pressurized air created an aerosol mist of pig brains. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic and the Health Department found that breathing in the brain matter prompted an auto-immune response in workers' bodies. That means their bodies began to attack the nerves in the arms and legs, and sometimes even the central nervous system. For Felicitas, at first her hands and feet started to go numb.

"I felt horrible. I couldn't walk. If I sat down I had to help myself up with my hands. In order to climb stairs I had to pull myself with both hands," she says.

Felicitas's claim for worker's comp was denied by QPP's insurance company. As a result she can't afford to buy the steroids she needs to manage the disease. Shortly after she renewed her request for worker's compensation, QPP fired her.

She was told the company discovered she was working illegally. QPP confirms that. Courts have ruled that workers can receive workers' compensation regardless of their immigration status.

"Who determines whether or not an individual is a case and who's not from a worker's compensation perspective is completely out of my hands," says Mayo Clinic neurologist Dan Lachance, one of two doctors treating all of the QPP workers.

Lachance says he does not work with QPP's insurance company.

"I have no idea what criteria the people deciding are using even though we are the ones who are defining the disease," he says.

Lachance, along with scientists from the Center for Disease Control and the Minnesota Department of Health recently submitted scientific articles on the disease to a major medical journal. QPP has hired a neurologist from Johns Hopkins University to decide whether a patient qualifies for worker's comp. But Lachance says that neurologist has not been privy to any of the research on the disease or to the patients.

MPR news has spoken with two diagnosed workers who have been unable to get worker's compensation. A worker's compensation lawyer tells MPR, he represents two other workers who have also been denied coverage.

Quality Pork Processing has been open about this disease and fully responsible for its workers, according to company president Kelly Wadding.

"We said anybody has any symptoms or problems even family members, come up tell us about it. We drove people to the doctor's," he says.

Each worker's comp cases is thoroughly reviewed, Wadding says. But the process has taken longer than usual because this is a new disease.

"I think 95 percent of the people who have been diagnosed are covered under worker's comp," he says.

Wadding can't discuss specific cases, and won't go into detail on the criteria for worker's comp. But he will say that Felicitas's case is being re-examined.

That's news to her, and in the meantime she's making do without her medicine.

"There's no point to my life anymore. I feel like a burden to my family. It's not fair to them and it's not fair to me," she says. "It's really hard. The truth is it's really hard to live with this disease. But what can I do?"

Source

I am shocked this pig crisis can occur in the era of traceability

By Oliver McDonnell

Tuesday December 16 2008

I don't intend to comment on the current state of affairs in our country other than to say that my overriding reaction is one of utter shock and indeed anger.

Shock that such a thing could happen in these days of traceability, and anger that our whole agricultural industry -- including our reputation -- could be placed at indescribable risk by such action.

We have all been thrown into turmoil this past couple of weeks so much so that I must admit that I am finding this diary very hard to write. I just can't get my thoughts together.

However, I have to say that I admire all of our localDepartment of Agriculture staff who have worked practically around the clock and who have adopted a most understanding and friendly approach to farmers in general. They did their investigations efficiently and with the minimum of fuss, while at the same time recognising that none of this is our fault.

Thank God none of this whole sorry business affects us personally. Other than that, I had a load of cattle ready for sale, but these may now wait until after Christmas and until some order is restored to the agricultural industry in general.

Holding on to these cattle for the extra couple of weeks will pose some housing problems for us, insofar as we have planned for cattle coming in and cattle going out at specified times, but it cannot be helped in the circumstances and we will deal with it.

We have empty housing which can be used. It is a bit inconvenient because it is at the far end of the farm, and feed will have to be hauled there which is time consuming.

As we prepare now for the Christmas period and try to organise our work to give ourselves some free time, the roller is working flat out to build a small stock of rolled barley. The lads have given me their Christmas orders too as they also want to ensure that they have sufficient stocks on hand.

Having said this, the roller cost us a small fortune a few weeks ago when it broke down. However, this is the first time it has required major repair. The cost of the spare parts was considerable, but the cost of labour was astronomical and, to my mind, unsustainable.

When I first bought the corn roller some five years ago, the machine cost €13,000 and it will now cost €7,000 to repair. While we have no way of knowing exactly how the labour charges were billed, we worked it out roughly that if two men worked on the machine for two days then we were charged in excess of €115/hour.

Now, while I know that labour charges such as these have become the norm, it is a serious concern. Farmers cannot afford such labour charges and will return to fixing as much as possible themselves in an effort to curtail machinery costs on the farm.

Anyway, despite the huge cost of repairing the machine, I was glad to get it back into action within a couple of days.

Murphy's law applied here. The machine broke down at the worst possible time when the yard was full of cattle, but fortunately we had a couple of days' supply of rolled barley on hand. We feed 80pc of the ration in the form of rolled barley and wheat and so cannot be without this vital machine.

I took a walk out through the tillage fields a few days ago and was heartened to note that the late-sown wheat is doing very well indeed.

We changed our seed this year and are delighted to see the aggression of performance and development despite the difficult sowing conditions.

No spraying has been done as yet but, having said this, there doesn't appear to be a weed problem. However, we are keeping ahead with slug pellets because these little pests are capable of clearing all before them overnight unless halted.

Less than half of our tillage crop is actually sown at this stage. The weather has been terrible this year but the last few weeks of frost have certainly been welcome and are more akin to the winters of our memories.

Housed cattle are healthier in cold weather conditions and we all feel more uplifted when we can stay in the same set of clothes for a whole day without getting soaked. Let us hope that this cold weather is a forerunner to better conditions for the new year so that we can catch up on crop sowing.

Now, more than ever, it has been brought home to us the importance of using natural, home-grown products over which we, as farmers, have some measure of control.

Meantime, there is great excitement on the home front as our 11 grandchildren count down the days to Santa's arrival and, with great interest, inspect the Christmas tree and all the decorations on every visit. It really is a time for children and we are so privileged to be able to enjoy it a second time around.

- Oliver McDonnell

Source

Can You Identify these Pig-Stabbing Suspects?

CONVERSE, Texas - The search is on for the teens that went into a Judson ISD school barn and stabbed a pig to death.

It was all caught on surveillance video at Judson High School.

Seen on the video are two people, with their faces covered, who enter the barn.Police say they appear to be teens and are familiar with the area. The pig that was killed was a project of one of the high school students.

School officials hope the surveillance tape will help catch the criminals.

A Judson ISD spokesperson says it is offering a cash reward for the apprehension and conviction of the people involved. 

If you have any information call the Judson ISD Police Department at 210-659-7867.

Source

1,000 kilos of double dead meat seized

By Julie M. Aurelio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:24:00 12/13/2008
Filed Under: Local authorities, Food, Health

MANILA, Philippines – A few days after the Ebola-Reston virus hit hog farms in Luzon, health officials in Quezon City seized over 1,000 kilos of double dead meat at the Balintawak market before dawn Friday.

City veterinarian Dr. Ana Marie Cabel said they confiscated the spoiling pork after a routine nighttime inspection of markets for illegally slaughtered meat, as well as pork unfit for consumption.

“It is part of our regular inspection. We know that Balintawak is a dumping ground of double dead meat,” she told the Inquirer.

In a phone interview, she described the spoiling pork as foul smelling, very pale, and cold from being stored in blocks of ice.

She added that since the double dead meat came from a sick hog that died and was cut up for sale, its skin hair tended to stick to the fat even if it is dipped in boiling water.

“Maitim na rin ang balat ng double dead meat (even its hide is dark),” Cabel noted.

Meanwhile, she defined hot meat as illegally slaughtered meat which did not pass sanitary standards but can still be fit for human consumption.

Cabel’s team stumbled upon the meat, worth around P100,000, at around 1 a.m. Friday. They were however unable to arrest the vendor of the merchandise.

“We suspect this is coming from hog farms in Bulacan. But we have not yet identified the financier of this operation,” she added.

Cabel said they are upping their monitoring and inspection of markets after reports that the Ebola-Reston virus infected pigs in four hog farms in Luzon.

“We are always for the protection of the consuming public against this virus strain, thus we are doubling our inspections of meat vendors,” she explained.

The health official noted that there is a need to ensure that pork products to be consumed for the holidays are safe for eating.

“We are going after these vendors of hot meat and double dead pork to make sure that the pork we buy for Noche Buena are fresh and fit to eat,” Cabel added.

The pork was buried at the Payatas dump Friday morning to prevent unscrupulous residents from making use of the spoiled meat.

Source

No Ebola found at pig farms

MANILA - PHILIPPINE health officials have found no cases of the Ebola-Reston virus in two pig farms and slaughterhouses despite earlier reports that the disease had been discovered, an agricultural official said on Friday.

The search has been narrowed to two farms and a quarantine was still being maintained until all animals had been tested and the source of the suspected outbreak found, said Dave Catbagan, head of the Bureau of Animal Industries.

All farmworkers and slaughterhouse employees who handled the pigs from the two farms in Pandi town, Bulacan province, and Manaoag town, Pangasinan province, had tested negative for Ebola-Reston, Mr Catbagan told AFP.

Mr Catbagan said none of the animals tested thus far had the virus.

Earlier, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said Ebola-Reston, a strain of the Ebola virus, had been found at three pig farms north of the Philippine capital, forcing the government to order a temporary ban on pork exports.

The Ebola-Reston strain was accidentally discovered when the government, starting in late August, sent samples of pig blood to US authorities to find a vaccine for another disease killing local pigs.

Six of 24 samples sent to the US tested positive for Ebola-Reston.

Despite the US findings, no new animals have been found with the virus.

'No sick pigs, no sign of critical illnesses of pigs or the human caretakers of these pigs,' said Mr Catbagan.

While the four strains of the Ebola virus found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Ivory Coast and recently Uganda are known to be deadly to humans, the Ebola-Reston virus is not, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Although the Ebola-Reston virus has previously been found in monkeys in the Philippines there were no signs that the pigs at the quarantined farms had contact with monkeys.

Health Department programme manager for Emerging and Re-emerging Diseases Lyndon Leesuy said that, while it was possible for the Ebola-Reston virus to be transferred from pigs to humans, there were no recorded cases in the current suspected outbreak. -- AFP

Source

Pig Ebola May Lead Scientists to ‘Elusive Reservoir’ of Virus

By Jason Gale

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- The first known Ebola infections in pigs may help researchers answer a question that’s confounded them since the deadly virus was first discovered more than 30 years ago: where it comes from.

International scientists will converge on farms in the Philippines to help local authorities discover how pigs contracted Ebola-Reston, a monkey-killing strain not known to harm people. The findings may help identify which species carries the virus in the wild without getting sick, enabling the pathogen to persist undetected in the environment, said Juan Lubroth, head of infectious diseases in the animal health unit of the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome.

Knowing the natural host of Ebola will help people better protect themselves against one of the most-feared infectious diseases. African strains usually kill 50 percent to 90 percent of those infected through lethal bleeding and organ failure, according to the World Health Organization.

“Since the 1970s, scientists, veterinarians, microbiologists and physicians have been looking at thousands of species to see if they can find this elusive reservoir, and we have been pretty much empty-handed,” Lubroth said in a telephone interview today. “This opens up avenues to delve into the ecology and do more searching.”

Ebola was first recognized in 1976 after an outbreak near the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as Zaire.

Thirteen years later, Ebola-Reston was discovered in the U.S. in association with an outbreak of viral hemorrhagic fever among monkeys imported from the Philippines to Reston, Virginia. The virus was found among Philippine monkeys in the U.S. again in 1990 and 1996, and in Italy in 1992. In October, for the first time, the strain was found in Philippine pigs.

Pig-Ebola Nexus

“What is the connection between the natural habitat of Ebola-Reston and swine production? That needs to be teased out in the Philippines,” Lubroth said.

Ebola-Reston turned up in six of 28 swine samples tested at a U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory in New York, said Davinio P. Catbagan, the Philippines’ chief veterinary officer. The infected pigs were traced to two commercial and two backyard farms in three provinces north of Manila, he said. Further testing found no new cases, including among 42 people involved in caring for the animals.

“We’re still trying to find out how it came to the pigs,” Catbagan said in a telephone interview today.

Both Ebola, and a related virus known as Marburg hemorrhagic fever, are thought to infect humans via primates.

Snakes, Guinea Pigs

Disease trackers have tested everything from snakes to guinea pigs in the search for an animal reservoir and have been repeatedly led back to caves, mines and bats.

A 2005 study published in the journal Nature found evidence of symptomless infection by Ebola in three species of fruit bat in West Africa, indicating that these animals may be acting as a reservoir for the virus.

“It would merit looking at it in the natural habitat in the Western Pacific further,” Lubroth said. “We are only scratching the surface.”

The Philippines government said yesterday it would like technical assistance from the WHO, FAO and the World Organization for Animal Health in studying the disease and assessing what potential health risks it may pose.

“At the moment, it’s not a dangerous pathogen, but we cannot be sure it will remain like this,” said Soe Nyunt-U, the WHO’s representative to the Philippines. “We have to make sure we understand the ecology of the virus really well.”

Source

Complaint filed in pig deaths on ships

Associated Press

Animal rights activists filed a complaint yesterday with the U.S. Department of Agriculture requesting an investigation into the deaths of several pigs that died while being transported via cargo ship from California to Hawai'i.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said 13 pigs died on two separate voyages during the summer and may have suffered from poor conditions, which could be in violation of the Animal Welfare Act.

The vessels, operated by Matson Navigation Co., were transporting hundreds of swine from Oakland to Honolulu, some of which were to be used for human consumption and others were headed for the Army's Schofield Barracks, according to state agriculture records.

It's unclear how many, if any, of the deceased pigs were to be used by the Army.

A phone message left for the Army's 25th Infantry Division was not immediately returned.

The complaint was PETA's latest efforts to thwart the Army's practice of shooting live pigs and treating their gunshot wounds in a medical trauma exercise that the military says is critical to learning emergency lifesaving skills.

Source

Company eyes brain implant of pig cells for Parkinson's

Auckland-based biotech entrepreneur Living Cell Technologies (LCT) claims that rat studies show brain cells taken from pigs and wrapped in seaweed gel may be useful to combat Parkinson's disease.

LCT is preparing to trial xenotransplantation of islet cells from the pancreas of its pigs in a clinical trial in Auckland in diabetes patients, and said today that it is considering using brain cells from pigs in diseases such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's, among others.

Research on both the brain and islet cell transplants from pigs has been supported by New Zealand taxpayers, through the Government's Foundation for Research Science and Technology.

The company owns a herd of pigs bred from survivors of a herd in New Zealand's sub-Antarctic islands, which it claims were isolated from modern pig diseases.

The company said animal studies showed that its product, NeurotrophinCell (NtCell) -- encapsulated brain choroid plexus cells -- improved limb function in a Parkinson's disease rat model.

The choroid plexus produces cerebrospinal fluid, and the pig cells were implanted to supply the neurotrophin proteins which can repair diseased tissue.

The choroid plexus cells were encapsulated in a gel derived from seaweed to protect them from immune rejection and to permit implantation without using toxic anti-rejection drugs -- a technique it developed for its diabetes product.

The company has filed a patent for the new product and said that the preclinical studies on rats with induced Parkinson's disease showed improved limb function and significantly more surviving brain cells after they received implants of NtCell.

"LCT is now evaluating NtCell for other brain diseases," the company said.

NtCell capsules were surgically implanted into the area of the brain affected by Parkinson's disease.

The xenotransplants were followed by normal use of the affected limb and recovery from the abnormal turning behaviour characteristic of the disorder in rats. The affected part of the brain of the treated animals showed more dopamine-containing cells, the typical cells lost in Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease -- caused by degeneration of the cells in the brain that regulate dopamine -- affects 107 people per 100,000 worldwide and occurs more frequently with increasing age. As the "dopaminergic" brain cells die, the dopamine supply decreases and becomes irregular, and the activity of nerves that regulate muscle tremor malfunction.

As the degeneration continues, tremors become increasingly frequent and pronounced. The cell degeneration has many causes but the company said the principal cause was decreased production of local brain hormones.

Existing treatment with dopamine replacement was usually effective initially but effects faded over time.

LCT has previously published data on the effects of choroid plexus transplants in the treatment of brain diseases, and the use on rats with Huntington's disease and stroke.

In May, the company -- listed on the Australian stock exchange -- said it had received investment of $US6 ($NZ11) million, for 24,150,408 ordinary shares, at a price of A29c ($NZ35c) a share.

This resulted from the exercise of an option attached to the $US2 million investment made by NaviGroup Management in January, and with a private placement of $A6 million announced in November 2007, boosted the capital raised in the past year by LCT to more than $A15 million.

Source

Ireland strikes deal to restart pig slaughtering

DUBLIN, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Ireland's government and pig processors said on Thursday they had agreed a deal that would allow the resumption of pig slaughtering, halted after Saturday's recall of pork products due to dioxin contamination.

"I want to share with the (prime minister) in welcoming the agreement that will see full-scale slaughtering resumed very quickly and I hope that the thousands of jobs compromised in recent days can now be secured," said Agriculture Minister Brendan Smithd.

(Reporting by Andras Gergely)

Source

Waste oil from Northern Ireland may be source of dioxin scare

Gardai and the PSNI are reportedly investigating if waste oil that should have been stored or incinerated in Northern Ireland is the source of the pig-meat contamination scare in the Republic.

Reports this morning say the Co Carlow plant that supplied contaminated feed to several pig farmers was using waste oil from electricity transformers in the drying process.

The oil has reportedly been traced to a business in Co Tyrone, where this morning's reports say it should have been stored or incinerated under licence.

The Gardai are investigating how the oil ended up being used at the Carlow plant, where it transferred poisonous dioxins into the feed supplied to pig farmers.

The plant owners have reportedly told detectives that they bought the oil legally and believed it was suitable for processing animal feed.

Source

Protest demands reopening of pig plants

STEVEN CARROLL

More than 100 members and representatives of the Irish pig industry gathered in Dublin this afternoon to demand that processing plants be reopened.

Members of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) congregated at the Department of Agriculture on Kildare Street to say it was unacceptable that the closure of 10 farms, following the discovery contaminants, should shut down business for 450 others.

Discussions aimed at reopening processing plants, involving Taoiseach Brian Cowen, the Minister of Agriculture Brendan Smith and pigmeat processors, remained deadlocked last night and the talks continued in the Department of Agriculture as the as the demonstrators gathered today.

Tim Cullinan of the IFA national pigs committee said farmers are losing €1 million for every day and that their livelihoods are being put in "jeopardy".

"Pig producers whose herds are clear of any contamination have been unable to move their perfectly healthy animals to processors," he said.

"We are suffering severe losses every day while supermarket shelf space is being lost to imports."

The protesters said a backlog of 60,000 pigs that are ready to be slaughtered has developed since the processing plants closed their doors and that this figure was increasing rapidly every day.

Mairead O'Brien, a pig farmer from Mitchelstown in Co Cork, said it was imperative the processors and the Government come up with a solution that got the pigmeat market moving again.

"It's like the tap is on and the sink is filling and the water has nowhere to go. I've had pigs ready for sale since last Monday and I have banamhs being born every minute," she said.

Fine Gael agriculture spokesman Michael Creed and party colleagues Shane McEntee, Seymour Crawford and Charlie Flanagan joined the protesters.

"We're here to support these people who's livelihood is under threat but we're also here to support people who's jobs have been lost and are under threat in the processing sector," Mr Creed said.

He added that it was very important that the ongoing discussions over a plan to assist farmers and processors be concluded as soon as possible.

Source

€125m of pork to be destroyed in biggest food scare since BSE

AN ESTIMATED 100,000 pigs will have to be destroyed because of the pigmeat crisis which has led to the recall of all Irish pork products in Ireland's largest food scare since BSE.

The public have been told to dump or return all pork products which they purchased since September 1st last because of the risk of dioxin contamination.

It is estimated that €125 million worth of food products in home and in export markets - up to 25 countries - will have to be destroyed.

The recall followed the discovery of potentially dangerous dioxins, known as PCBs, in pigmeat. They were initially traced in an un-named meat plant in the Republic. The dioxins were contained in feed supplied from a Co Carlow food recycling plant, it emerged yesterday.

As the Government moved to ease the fears of consumers, investigations were continuing at 10 pig farms and 38 beef farms in the Republic. The contamination is likely to have a severe impact on the €7 billion Irish food industry.

It emerged yesterday contaminated feed from the Co Carlow facility, Millstream Recycling in Clohamon Mills, had also been supplied to nine farms in Northern Ireland which now have been restricted.

The investigation has found contaminated pork with dioxin levels of 80 to 200 times above the safety limits. It is being led by the Departments of Agriculture and Health, and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI). The Garda Síochána are also involved.

The dramatic food recall was announced on Saturday night as the investigation into the source of the contamination, understood to be oil, was stepped up after tests at a UK laboratory in York confirmed the presence of dioxins in the pigmeat.

The crisis began, however, last month when a routine sample was taken from the meat plant. Results of further tests from cattle farms will be known later today.

Other examination of Irish products in the Netherlands, France and Belgium prompted the action by the Government in an attempt to protect consumer confidence at home and abroad.

The European Commission has called a meeting of food safety experts from Ireland and other affected EU states tomorrow to co-ordinate a Europe-wide response to the contamination of Irish pork products.

Millstream Recycling has confirmed it has been working with Department of Agriculture officials to identify the source of PCBs found in pig meal used in a number of farms in Ireland. Accepting the need for a recall, Millstream Recycling said it would be carrying out "a full investigation to establish how the company's strict health and safety procedures and the high quality standards could possibly have been breached".

Last night the FSAI repeated its advice to consumers not to eat any pork products. But it said people should not be alarmed or concerned in relation to the potential risks from short-term exposure to dioxins found in pork products.

Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer at the Department of Health, said a number of health studies conducted in Belgium since the dioxin scare in 1999 had not found any negative effects on the population. "From the experience in Belgium we don't anticipate any health effects and on that basis we are reassuring people."

Prof James Heffron, a specialist on the biochemistry of detoxification at UCC's biochemical toxicology lab, told The Irish Times, however, the Government in his view needed to do more to reassure the public. Prof Heffron said information on the amount of dioxin found in affected meat should be released in addition to further details on the duration of exposure. "When we have this information we can relate it to World Health Organisation guidelines on acceptable levels of dioxin," he added.

The recall led to almost 2,000 calls to the FSAI helpline yesterday. Queues formed at supermarkets as shoppers returned products for which the Government said they should receive a refund. The National Consumer Agency (NCA) said consumers were entitled to be refunded. NCA chief executive Anne Fitzgerald said: "Under legislation consumers are entitled to repair, replacement or refund of a faulty product. In the case of pork meat or other food products containing pork, consumers are entitled to a refund as a repair or replacement does not apply in this instant.

The Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association called on the Government to provide an emergency compensation package so that retailers and suppliers would not be left out of pocket.

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Prison served pork to muslim prisoners

Solveig Horne of the Progress Party says no to special diets in prison. She thinks the reporting of Trondhem prison to the police for serving pork to muslims should be dismissed.

A muslim prisoner at Trondheim prison has reported the prison for discrimination, after muslim prisoners were served pork without being told.

Muslims reacted strongly when they discovered they had eaten pork, which is forbidden for muslims.

Pork in the sauce

«We were given fish in bread-crumbs. While we ate, someone discovered small pieces of pork in the sauce that was inside the fish. Many here pray and practice their religion more than me, and several of them were furious when they found out they had eaten pork,» says the 39.year old Salma to Adresseavisen. He has reported the prison on behalf of himself and the other muslim prisoners.

No to special diets

MP, Solveig Horne, who is a member of the Justice Committee, says on the party's home page that special diets behind bars should be refused.

«There are already limited resources in the prison unit. We shouldn't use time, money and energy on making room for special diets for some prisoners, based on religious convictions, culture, or taste buds, for that matter,» she says.

Horne thinks that certain muslims, who want to live in accordance with the Koran, are more concerned with food in prison than with not commiting the criminal acts that send them there.

Halal-meat for everyone

Abid Raja of the Left-Wing Party (Venstre), thinks the most practical thing would be for the prisons to serve only halal-meat.

«Norwegians have no problems eating halal-meat. If they want pork, they can have this as an addition,» he says to Dagavisen.no.

He points out that pig is shameful for many muslims, and that eating pork for some muslims feels like abuse.

More than a third of all prisoners in Norwegian prisons are muslims. There are no prisons in Norway that offer halal-meat to prisoners.

Pork several times

The muslim prisoners have been served pork several times. Following the first episode, a couple of months ago, they complained and received an apology from the kitchen. A few weeks later it happened again, and in November again, the story repeated itself.

All prisoners have a right to dinner in prison, which caters for muslims, vegetarians and those with allergies.

«I can confirm that a prisoner in Trondheim prison has reported the prison for discrimination and breach of human rights. As long as the parties have not yet been questioned, I can't comment any further on the matter,» says the criminal duty-officer, Geir Olav Granbo of South Trøndelag police district.

«It's a meaningless use of resources to prioritize such a case. It should be immediately dismissed,» says Horne.

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Pork Industry To Turn Waste Into Energy

2 December 2008 - A new project launched today will look at the potential to turn pig manure on New Zealand farms into energy, significantly reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

The Pork Industry (NZPork), the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) have joined together to launch the eight month project which will evaluate using manure in different biogas systems on farms.

Farm biogas systems convert methane emitted from farm manure into renewable energy resources that can be used to power the farm, or in some cases, exported to the local electricity network. Using manure for biogas has many benefits including reducing harmful emissions and limiting nutrient leaching through improved storage. Using a waste product to generate energy also reduces costs and can provide security of energy supply to rural farms and communities.

The pork industry has the overall capacity to produce over 8,500 tonnes of methane annually, which has the potential to generate over 100 GWh (400,000 GJ) of renewable energy each year.

"The New Zealand pork industry has identified a significant potential opportunity to better manage our emissions, and deliver on our climate change goals, said New Zealand Pork Chief Executive Sam McIvor.

'We are committed to taking a lead role in the reduction of industry emissions and we already have several projects underway. Working in partnership with EECA and MAF means we can identify the most effective projects and share that knowledge across the whole industry," Mr McIvor said.

EECA's business programme enables New Zealand companies to become more energy efficient and competitive, using more renewable energy and emitting less carbon dioxide.

"Our primary production businesses are operating in an increasingly competitive international market where demonstrating a commitment to sustainability can make all the difference to market share," said EECA Chief Executive Mike Underhill.

"Managing energy use and using renewable energy are two key ways a business can move towards more sustainable practices and save on their energy bills at the same time."

The initial research stages of the project were supported by MAF's Sustainable Farming Fund. "Reducing the emissions from our agriculture sector is a key goal for New Zealand, said James Stevenson-Wallace, Manager - Sustainable Businesses, at MAF. 'There is no one silver bullet that will solve the problem, but projects like these make positive contributions towards making a real difference."

The project will assess up to 10 individual farm biogas systems across various regions and farm sizes and the results will be used to inform the industry of the most effective opportunities for their farms.

"The feasibility studies will create a basis of knowledge for pork producers, whether small or large, to learn about new options to create additional energy, and therefore value, from manure,' Mr McIvor said.

"As we gather experience with farm-scale biogas systems, NZPork envisages that the industry may develop a regional network of biogas installations. The longer-term aim is to use our learnings to benefit the primary production sector as a whole by providing concrete learnings and plans to help reduce greenhouse gases," Mr McIvor said.

"The programme will help pork producers improve their environmental performance, improve their energy efficiency and achieve cost savings for their businesses at a time when electricity and fuel costs are rising,' said Mike Underhill.

The pork industry is one of several industry groups to work with EECA in developing knowledge. EECA has supported the tourism industry, the Seafood Industry Council and Plastics New Zealand in the development of their best practice programmes, which have committed to real savings and already uncovered significant potential economic benefits for their industries.

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