American Meat Institute elects 2013-14 officers

The American Meat Institute (AMI) has elected the six officers who will guide the organization through the next year. The election was held at AMI's board of directors meeting in Chicago.
Elected to the chairmanship for 2013-2014 is Greg Benedict, president and chief operating officer of American Foods Group. Benedict has been in the industry more than 30 years. He began his career in 1980 with Rosen's Diversified Inc. In 2005, Rosen's Diversified Inc. merged its meat processing companies with American Foods Group Inc. to create American Foods Group.
David McDonald, president of OSI Group, has been elected to serve as the vice-chair. McDonald has had a variety roles at OSI Group, starting there as an intern 25 years ago.
Gary Jacobson, chief operating officer of Indiana Packers Corporation, will serve as the treasurer. Jacobson joined Indiana Packers Corporation in 1993 as plant manager and has served as vice president of operations and executive vice president. Prior to joining Indiana Packers Corporation, Jacobson held positions with Dubuque Packing Company/FDL Foods and Armour & Company.
Mike Townsley, president of Bob Evans Farms Food Products Division, is a new incoming officer and will serve as secretary. Townsley joined Bob Evans Farms as president and chief operating officer of Owens Foods, then Owens Country Sausage in 2003, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bob Evans Farms since 1987.
J. Patrick Boyle was re-elected by the AMI membership to serve as the institute's president and CEO through January 2014 and current AMI executive vice president James Hodges was elected to serve as interim president and CEO starting February 1, 2014.
Four new directors were elected to the AMI board of directors. The new members will serve a three-year term. They are: Sara Lilygren, executive vice president of corporate affairs, Tyson Foods; Andre Nogueira, CEO, JBS USA; John Richardson, president, Sugar Creek Packing; and Sam Rovit, executive vice president, Kraft Foods Group/Oscar Mayer.
Lilygren, Nogueira and Rovit will also join AMI's executive committee along with Einar Einarsson, Marel; Bill Morgan, Johnsonville Sausage; and Ed Sanchez, Lopez Foods.

Spanish Reference Swine Database collaboration announced

The Spanish Reference Swine Database (BDPorc) is a platform for assessing the various technical aspects of Spanish swine production and development of research for the sector.
Director-General of Agricultural Production and Markets from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment (MAGRAMA), Carlos Cabanas, the director of the National Association of Pork Producers (ANPROGAPOR), and Miguel Ángel Higuera, and IRTA CEO, Josep M. Monfort, have agreed to promote and collaborate on the BDPorc database.
Initially, it was conceived to place information and elements in the hands of the pig sector as an aid for decision-making during the planning of productive strategies.
Currently,BDporc   has collected over 30 percent of the Spanish breeding census. This year, a Technical-Economical BDporc   also has been launched, with information on production costs and economic margins, and recently, the Iberian Spanish Reference Database (BDporc Ibérico) was created, gathering to date the data of over 20,000 breeders.
Over the last 20 years, BDporc, managed by IRTA, has allowed the pig industry to have knowledge and assess the situation regarding their exploitations in comparison to the reference standards in the sector, receive detailed quarterly reports, and access e-BDPorc, the online   tool that offers immediate, safe, and regular access, to updated information on a series of advanced tools for automatically analyzing data and systematic comparison with the reference values.

K-State’s Swine Day to emphasize pig disease prevention, management

Kansas State University's annual Swine Day will focus on ways to improve net returns for swine producers, with a special emphasis on pig disease prevention and management with two prominent Kansas veterinarians discussing porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV). PEDV was first discovered in the United States in the spring of 2013.
The event, scheduled for November 21 at the K-State Alumni Center in Manhattan, includes a technology trade show, which starts at 8 a.m., with the program starting at 9:45 a.m. K-State faculty members will provide updates on current swine production research occurring at the university. A poster session also will be held that allows attendees to talk one-on-one with graduate students who conducted some of the research.
Presentations include: "Recent Disease Challenge to our Industry - Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea" by Steve Henry, veterinarian at Abilene Animal Hospital and Dick Hesse, professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology at K-State; and "Recent On-Farm and Commercial Feed Mill Innovations to Improve Whole Herd Feed Efficiency" by Charles Stark, K-State associate professor of Grain Science and Industry.
The day ends with a tour of the O.H. Kruse Feed Technology Innovation Center Feed Mill and a reception featuring K-State ice cream.
The fee to attend is $25 if paid by Nov. 9 and $35 after that date. The fee includes swine day presentation materials, lunch and the closing reception. More information is available online or by calling 785-532-1267. 

US broiler eggs set in a trend of weekly decline

The number of broiler eggs set in commercial hatcheries in the United States declined for the fourth consecutive week, according to the UDSA's September 25 Broiler Hatchery report. Despite the recent decline in broiler eggs set, the number of eggs set is still up 1 percent when compared to the corresponding week of 2012.
About 191 million broiler eggs were set during the week ending September 21, nearly a 2 percent drop when compared to the week ending September 14, and a 6 percent decline from the 202 million broiler eggs set during the week ending August 24. The number of broiler eggs set has declined each week since August 24, with the biggest drop taking place during the week ending September 7, when the egg numbers went from 200 million to 195 million.
The report showed more stability for the number of broiler chicks placed. An estimated 165 million chicks were placed during the week ending September 21, down 1 million from the week ending September 14 but up nearly 1 million from the week ending August 21. Chicks placed during the most recent reporting period were up 3 million from the comparable week of 2012.

USDA details keeping pigs healthy in video blog

USDA researchers are working to find pig vaccines to help them resist deadly and costly diseases according to its latest video blog. Even though modern pork producers are trying to raise pigs in a bio-secure environment viruses and bacteria still find a way to infect healthy herds, according to Dr. Joan Lunney, Research Scientist, USDA ARS.
"Viruses and bacteria can come in on trucks, on your shoes and they can come in with a new shipment of pigs that come from a growing out facility," comments Dr. Lunney. "And so we always have to worry about when that virus comes in; what do we do about it.
The USDA is looking to make pigs immune to diseases leading to healthier animals that can get to market sooner.
"To be able to design more effective vaccines, to identify pigs that are healthier, that respond to stress appropriately, that have a better well-being," says Dr. Lunney. "To able to know what their immune response is, and to ask whether genetically some of them may be better responders to vaccines, we call them vaccine-ready pigs.
"For pig breeders and producers, they well know that once you have a disease, many times you have production losses, and with PRRS we know there's a $642 million production loss per year in the United States alone," she says. 

USPOULTRY research program celebrates 50 years of achievement

U.S. Poultry & Egg Association is celebrating 50 years of achievement in research for the poultry and egg industry.  USPOULTRY's research program was implemented 50 years ago in response to the need of the poultry industry for research directed toward solving the most important problems facing the industry.
During the early years of the development and organization of the U.S. poultry industry, one of the most limiting factors to success was the widespread incidence of disease in broiler, breeder, layer, and turkey flocks. As farms grew larger and production intensified, new diseases appeared for which control measures did not exist. The poultry industry desperately needed research to be conducted, which could find solutions to some of these disease problems. Over these past five decades, USPOULTRY's research program has advanced in size, scope, and organization to become an indispensable asset of the U.S. poultry industry and has helped the industry overcome many of the hurdles which initially impaired the industry's development and success.
"As a researcher and professor, the funds provided by the USPOULTRY research program have been invaluable to my work on infectious proventriculitis of broilers. Without the program's funding, the research I have conducted would not have been made possible," said Dr. James Guy, professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University. Dr. Guy is the first recipient of the Dr. Charles Beard Research Excellence Award, a USPOULTRY award named for Dr. Charles Beard, former director of the Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory and former vice president of research at USPOULTRY.
"The impact of the USPOULTRY research program has been very significant. Many of the great advances in disease control, nutrition, poultry production, genetics, animal welfare, food safety, and environmental management in the poultry industry have come about as a direct result of research funded by USPOULTRY," commented Dr. John Glisson, director of research programs at USPOULTRY.

Tyson Foods, World Vision partner to fight hunger in Tanzania

Tyson Foods andWorld Vision have formed a partnership to bring vital assistance to small family farmers in northern Tanzania through a new initiative called the Tyson Foods Fellows program. The collaboration will integrate Tyson Foods' technical knowledge about
chicken production with World Vision's Secure the Future Tanzania initiative to help small-holder farmers build more resilient livelihoods.
As part of their participation in the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, Tyson Foods and World Vision outlined their plans to educate thousands of farmers in the Babati region of the country about best agricultural practices. According to the latest World Food Programme research, more than 40 percent of the Tanzanian population, including many children, lives with chronic food deficits.
"I've been to Tanzania and know it's a beautiful country with hard-working people, but I've also seen the devastating hunger there and need for agricultural improvements," said Donnie Smith, president and CEO of Tyson Foods. "Our initiative isn't about just giving the people of Tanzania money or food, it's about sharing our knowledge and helping them create for themselves a sustainable source of food so they can lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty. We believe it's the best way to help give them a hunger-free world and to provide well for their children."
Tyson Foods will send selected employees to Tanzania to teach local farmers how to raise chickens sustainably for food and income. Teachings will include such basics as best breed selection, keeping water clean, best feed choices, housing and disease management, as well as processing, transportation and marketing. World Vision estimates that the project will help educate 2,700 farmers about sustainable chicken production and directly benefit the lives of more than 10,000 Tanzanians. By continuing to share best practices with other Secure the Future participants, World Vision will extend this education to 6,000 additional households, indirectly impacting more than 24,000 individuals.
"Nearly 40 percent of the people in Tanzania don't have enough to eat and face food shortages and malnutrition. Yet, the country is full of hard-working small-holder farmers who simply need information and expertise to turn their fields into a rich harvest," said Richard Stearns, president of World Vision US. "That's why we are excited to partner with Tyson. By sharing the knowledge of one of the great food producers in the world, farmers in Tanzania will be able to build the foundation for a sustainable source of food. That's what makes the Secure the Future initiative more than a handout. It is about developing the capacity of local farmers to feed their country and grow their economy."
This is not Tyson Foods' first relief project in Africa. More than four years ago, the company provided technical support to people in northern Rwanda to build and operate an egg farm. The farm began operations in 2010 and is producing eggs for local markets as well as providing a protein source for school children.
"This new project with World Vision will expand our hunger-relief efforts in Africa and empower people living with limited resources, as well as engaging Tyson Team Members to give back in this very meaningful way," said Dave Juenger of Tyson Foods' subsidiary,
Cobb-Vantress, Inc., and adviser for the Tyson Foods Fellows initiative. "And that's what it's all about--making a real difference around the world."