Reading Time: 3 minutes U.S. farmers are increasing pressure to allow vaccinations for chickens, turkeys and cows to protect them from bird flu infections that have devastated flocks for three years,
U.S. farmers call for vaccine option to fight bird flu as wildfowl migration begins
Animal health body backs bird flu vaccination to avoid pandemic
Vaccination should focus on free-range birds, WOAH chief says
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — Governments should consider vaccinating poultry against bird flu, which has killed hundreds of millions of birds and infected mammals worldwide, to prevent the virus from turning into a new pandemic, the head of the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) said. The severity of the current outbreak of avian influenza, commonly […] Read more
New report shows poultry sector burdened by expectations
Simpson Centre paper calls for increased research, financial sustainability for sector
Reading Time: 3 minutes Updated, May 17 — The Simpson Centre for Food and Agricultural Policy has released a report detailing its findings on challenges now facing Canada’s poultry sector. The report, co-authored by research assistant Shawn Wiskar and centre director Guillaume Lhermie and released Thursday, used a focus group of six stakeholders in the Canadian poultry industry. It […] Read more
U.S. begins testing bird flu vaccines for poultry after record outbreak
Four vaccines to be tested
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. government is testing four potential bird flu vaccines for poultry, officials said on Friday, after more than 58 million chickens, turkeys and other birds have died in the nation’s worst outbreak ever. The trials, conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service, are the first step […] Read more
Flu experts gather with H5N1 risk on the agenda
Threat to humans from current strain seen as low
Reading Time: 2 minutes London | Reuters — The world’s leading experts on influenza met this week to discuss the threat posed to humans by a strain of H5N1 avian flu that has caused record numbers of bird deaths around the world in recent months. The group of scientists, regulators and vaccine manufacturers meets twice a year to decide […] Read more
Vaccine protest jams southern Alberta border crossing
Premier, transportation minister called for blockade to disperse
Reading Time: 3 minutes UPDATED, Jan. 31 — A major supply chain corridor between Alberta and the U.S. remained blockaded through into Sunday evening by vehicles in protest of mandates requiring foreign truckers entering Canada and the U.S. to be vaccinated. The protest on Highway 4 at the Coutts, Alta. border crossing, about 100 km southeast of Lethbridge, began […] Read more
Canada resists pressure to drop vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers
Reading Time: 3 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is pushing ahead with a vaccine mandate for international truckers despite increasing pressure from critics who say it will exacerbate driver shortages and drive up the price of goods imported from the United States. Canada will require all truckers entering from the U.S. to show proof […] Read more
APEC ministers call for curbs on farm, fuel, fishing subsidies
Reading Time: 3 minutes Washington/Wellington | Reuters — Pacific Rim trade and foreign ministers on Tuesday pledged to sustain the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic while pursuing talks to curb subsidies for fisheries and agriculture at a forthcoming World Trade Organization meeting. The ministers from the 21 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries said in a communique issued after […] Read more
Nigeria’s Okonjo-Iweala makes history as new head of WTO
Geneva-based body leaderless for six months; Trump paralyzed some of WTO's functions
Reading Time: 4 minutes Geneva/Washington | Reuters — Three months after the Trump administration rejected her, former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala received unanimous backing on Monday to become the first woman and first African director-general of the World Trade Organization. A self-declared “doer” with a track record of taking on seemingly intractable problems, Okonjo-Iweala will have her work […] Read more
Zoetis buys livestock data management firm
Performance Beef platform to expand drugmaker's 'precision' production offering
Reading Time: 2 minutes The producer of livestock drugs such as Draxxin, Bovatec and Excede is buying space in the “precision livestock farming” market with a deal for a U.S. livestock data management firm. New Jersey-based Zoetis, which makes drugs and vaccines for the beef and dairy cattle, equine, swine, poultry and sheep sectors as well as cats and […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
