Archive

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
THE SAFETY of divers working in all sectors of the fish farming industry is being increased because of new dive tables designed in Australia. Trials of the new tables in Tasmania have shown a 50-fold reduction in the number of cases of decompression illness, or “the bends.”…

BY MARK ROWE
THAI canneries are looking to invest in re-exporting north American wild salmon as a means of boosting revenue. Companies are planning to promote exports of wild salmon, which have been processed in Thailand in favour of farmed salmon, usually supplied from Norway, Chile and Scotland.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
AUSTRALIAN marine scientists have discovered that oils in southern hemisphere fish tend to have a higher percentage of highly polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids than those carried by their northern cousins. The high levels have been found in canned tuna as well as fresh fish and the good news for fish farmers is that this applies equally to both wild stocks and farmed species.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
THE IRISH GOVERNMENT is about to launch a pig-tracing system to help prevent the spread of Aujeszky’s disease.

All pigs travelling to abattoirs will be identified with a slap mark and will be tagged during all other movements, under the National Pig Identification and Tracing System (NPITS).…

BY MARK ROWE
AN OUTBREAK of a highly contagious poultry virus has led to the death and precautionary slaughter of 2.8 million chickens in the Indonesian province of West Java, devastating the region’s chicken suppliers. This herpes virus sparks the cancer-causing Marek’s disease and infected birds have a loss in appetite, are lethargic and have a high body temperature.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has underlined its optimism about European beef production, predicting in its report on “Prospects for Agricultural Markets: 2002-2009 that it was set to return to “more normal” levels. The Commission says that this will result from increased prices and the end of livestock destruction schemes by March 2002 (except in the UK).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A TEMPORARY European Parliament committee set up to consider last year’s Foot and Mouth Disease crisis has been told by experts that “the jury is still out” on the effectiveness of vaccination. MEP’s heard that as there was still no commercially available, foolproof means of distinguishing between vaccinated and infected animals, vaccination can harm disease controls.…

BY RICHARD HURST
SOUTH Africa’s Eastern Cape sheep farmers are coming under increasing threat from stock theft, with the resulting financial losses hitting the industry. The theft and slaughter of the sheep has started to drive farmers in the region away from sheep to cattle.…

BY MARK ROWE
CHINESE scientists have successfully cloned an endangered species of high quality cattle. The clone calf, named Boeve, was born in April and is from a breed of beef cattle from the northern Hebei province. The cell nucleus containing genetic materials was taken from the ovary and ear of a six-month-old cow.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation is about to embark on key discussions in its agriculture negotiations where diplomats will attempt to firm up broad proposals made last year, to allow detailed horse-trading to start next March. This month (June) discussions will focus on export subsidies and competition and in September on market access and domestic support.…