Archive
International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.
NEW COMMISSIONERS
BY ALAN OSBORN
IF the Danish agriculture minister Mariann Fischer Boel succeeds in winning the farm portfolio in the new European Commission, for which she has been nominated by the new president Senhor Jose Manuel Barroso, she may well rank as the most outspokenly reformist politician to have held the post.…
OSTRICH BAN
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has banned the import of ostrich meat, meat products, live birds and eggs from South Africa. This follows the outbreak of bird flu in two ostrich farms in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. The ban will last until January 2005.…
EFSA - FUNGUS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has called for improved monitoring of feeding-stuffs to establish safe levels of exposure for the fungus zearalenone for all livestock. EFSA is concerned that the fungus – found in maize, soybeans, cereals, straw and hay – could reduce fertility in exposed farm animals, especially female pigs.…
NORWAY DEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NORWEGIAN government will open an annual duty free import quota of 2,360 tonnes for consignments of bonefat, bone oil and neat’s foot oil from the European Union (EU), as part of a limited trade deal negotiated with the European Commission.…
GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS - SPAIN
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has added five additional traditional Iberian meat products to the European Union’s (EU) register of protected geographical indications. They are Spanish beef lines Ternera de Navarre, Carne de Vacuno del País Vasco and Carne de Cantabria and veal Carne de la Sierra de Guadarrama veal, plus Portuguese sausages Farinheira de Estremoz e Borba.…
USA BIRD FLU RISK
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE OFFICE International des Épizooties (OIE) has reported USA claims of now being completely free of bird flu. The country’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service says the outbreak in Texas in April in a non-commercial flock and two live bird markets has been “completely eradicated”.…
BSE RISKS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE RISK that American cattle are infected with BSE is high, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has concluded, and without changes to US rendering or feeding practice, “the probability of cattle to be (pre-clinically or clinically) infected with BSE persistently increases”.…
HUNGARY - GM
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE HUNGARIAN government has come under pressure from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to lift a national ban on cultivating an EU-approved GM maize (MON 810). EFSA has concluded there is “no new scientific evidence (risking) human health and the environment” to justify the ban.…
PODGER MOVES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
GEOFFREY Podger, the European Food Safety Authority’s first executive director, will quit his post for a new job as chief executive of Britain’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in November. The move has sparked a row with the European Commission, which wants the right to nominate candidates to the post – this is being resisted by EFSA.…
RUSSIA BIRD FLU
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked all EU member states to immediately ban imports of feathers and live birds from Russia and Kazakhstan because of confirmed outbreaks of bird flu.…