June 28, 2007

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Your fast-track guide to reports in this issue:

• Irish set development targets
• Eating quality proposed as a research priority
• African Swine Fever source traced
• Forecasts for extra pigmeat
• Moves on welfare standards
• PRRS blamed for price rise
• Korea introduces grading plan
• USA starts emissions survey
• Philippines prepares to sell to Singapore
• Latin American disease status changes
• Europe checks animal proteins
• Integrators and processors
• Shows and seminars
• People in the news
• Updates on companies
• Data in brief
• Latest job opportunities
• Send us your news
  
  

Irish set development targets
International competitiveness, market returns, profitability and return on investment lead the drivers of change in Ireland’s pig industry, say advisory and research staff from the pig production development unit of Irish agri-food agency Teagasc. Proposing a strategy to take the national sector forward for the period 2007-2015, they identify other drivers as: food safety; environmental legislation; animal welfare legislation; the need to adopt new technology rapidly; and, a requirement to recruit highly skilled personnel and retain them.

The proposed development plan, prepared after widespread consultation, foresees no expansion of the national herd from its present level of 150 000 sows in a total inventory of 1.7-1.8 million pigs. There would still be about 500 commercial units — currently, Ireland has 320 farrow-to-finish enterprises in addition to 50 piglet-producing herds and 100 finishing-only sites. However, compared with Ireland’s net slaughterings of 2.66 million pigs in 2006, the plan sets an output target of 3.6 million pigs/year.

Producers must reassess their breeding programmes, gilt management and sow feeding strategies to achieve a minimum of 12 piglets born alive per litter so that average productivity is raised to 24 pigs per sow/year, the project team remarks. Efficiency levels have fallen substantially behind those of other countries in the last decade, especially in relation to litter size and pig growth rates. This is at least partly attributable to the loss of staff to more remunerative sectors outside farming and an increased reliance on untrained foreign workers.

Average slaughter weights have already risen significantly so a further increase would be only small, from 100kg to 105kg (equivalent to a carcase weight increase from 76kg to 80kg). Purchasing and feeding practices adopted by producers in Ireland are called partly responsible for the fact that local feed costs per kilogram carcase are higher at present than in any of the main pigmeat-producing countries of the European Union. Per year, the industry uses 600 000 tons of purchased compounds and 325 000 tons of farm-mixed feeds. Feed price per ton is called uncompetitive due to high manufacturing and delivery costs as well as more costly imported ingredients.

The plan document says feed industry costs in Ireland should be benchmarked internally and against best practice internationally. Producers should demand independent evaluation of the cost-benefit before including expensive ingredients and additives in diets. Pig units should reassess their feeding programmes with a view to using less of the expensive creep, link and weaner diets for young pigs and there should be the cost-benefit of using feeds with a high nutrient specification for weaned and finishing pigs and for lactating sows should be independently evaluated.

Eating quality proposed as a research priority
According to the development project team in Ireland, Irish pig producers in 2007 face a crisis of confidence arising from a combination of new legislation (environment and welfare), low return on investment, low profitability and a shortage of skilled labour. While the main strengths of the national industry include its specialised units and health status, the main weaknesses are feed price and transport costs while the main threats come from environmental regulations, the shortage of skilled labour  — and the herd health problems of PRRS and PMWS that have had such a serious impact on production and profitability in recent years.

At the same time, the team points to opportunities in the exports that currently account for about 60% of production and were worth €250 million in 2006. There is also a significant home market, since pigmeat represents about 40% of per capita meat consumption in Ireland, with poultry about 30% and beef 20%. Investment in pig research and development should include the quality of Irish pigmeat with specific reference to the perception of dryness/lack of juiciness, salt levels, boar taint and overall eating quality.

African Swine Fever source traced
Outbreak of African swine fever in the Black Sea eastern European country of Gerogia during June has been called northern Europe’s first occurrence of the disease, but the second example in a year of an exotic animal disease emerging in Europe (following the mid-2006 arrival of a previously unseen bluetongue virus spread to European ruminants by biting midges). After an undiagnosed increase in mortality rates on some pig units since April, African swine fever was confirmed as the cause in mid-June when Georgia’s agriculture ministry reported 11 further episodes and said that about 20 000 pigs had been slaughtered. By its estimate, the disease had spread to 60% of the country’s pig population. A joint European Union-United Nations-OIE expert mission was deployed immediately to Georgia and Russian veterinary control service Rosselkhoznadzor offered its help in containing the outbreak.

African swine fever virus can be spread between animals by biting-type flies and by bites from infected ticks, in areas where these are present. Genetic fingerprinting at an official OIE reference laboratory at the Institute for Animal Health in the UK pointed to the entry of ASF into Georgia as having been tick-borne, involving movement over an exceptionally long distance. The source of the infection in fact originated from the eastern side of southern Africa, an area
including Mozambique, Zambia and the island of Madagascar.

ASF is endemic in many African countries. In east and southern Africa, warthogs and bushpigs are the natural hosts of the virus. These species, which transmit the virus through a species of soft tick, do not show signs of the disease. Although ASF has occurred in various southern European countries since 1957, it was eradicated everywhere apart from Sardinia where it has remained endemic since its introduction in 1982.

Forecasts for extra pigmeat
Expect global meat output in 2007 to rise by 2.3% to almost 283 million tonnes, says a June 2007 meat market assessment from the FAO agrifoods agency of the United Nations.  Around two-thirds of the expansion will involve China and the rest of Asia, within the context of high economic growth is supporting the rise in per capita consumption.

Positive producer returns in pigmeat over the past few years have led to an expansion of the sector in many countries. However, the recent surges in feed prices are set to reduce the growth in global production to just over 3% in 2007, to a new high of 110.7 million tons.

Accompanying Tables show FAO’s forecasts fore all meats and the breakdown by country for pigmeat.
The world’s top countries for pork production are identified in a special report in the July/Agust issue of Pig International, which also contains a review of sow numbers by country. The issue additionally presents our annual Buyer’s Guide to international suppliers of products and services for pig production.

Moves on welfare standards
A university centre in New Zealand has been named to work with world animal health organisation OIE on developing international guidelines and standards for animal welfare in farm animals, including pigs. Massey University’s site becomes the only OIE collaborating centre dedicated entirely to animal welfare science and related bioethical analysis and the first such centre recognised in New Zealand. Co-directors are Professor David Mellor and Professor Kevin Stafford.

British animal protection society RSPCA has announced its development of a new system to assess the physical condition and behaviour of farm animals through focusing on key indicators of their health and welfare. Systems for pigs, dairy cattle and laying hens are already undergoing field trials at farms belonging to the society’s Freedom Food higher-welfare food labeling and assurance scheme. The eventual aim is that RSPCA farm livestock officers will use the new assessment procedure while conducting spot-checks on Freedom Food scheme members. They would use the prevalence and nature of the various indicators seen during a farm visit, to understand what might need to be changed in the animals’ environment or management in order to improve their welfare.

PRRS blamed for Chinese price rise
Local and national government authorities in China have blamed pig disease PRRS for causing a short supply of pigmeat that led to high pork prices this year in several parts of the country.  Retail price comparisons found an increase of 20-30% for pork products in less than a month. State Council members ruled that the rise was excessive for consumers even if it meant higher incomes for producers. The council also called on the rail transport ministry to give priority to transporting pigs so that supplies could be more evenly distributed. There was also a suggestion of offering subsidies to producers who added more sows to their herd.

PRRS has particular affected southern provinces of China, with a highly virulent form that appeared in the middle of 2006. Official sources indicated that at least 45 000 pigs had been infected in the first 5 months of 2007, with almost 19 000 pigs dying and another 6000 culled.

China’s agriculture ministry has established a central monitoring system for PRRS and has banned the sale, transport and processing of pigs that have died from the disease. Producers also have been ordered to raise biosecurity levels. The next step is the launch of a government-backed nationwide scheme valued at US$36.5 million to vaccinate pigs against PRRS. A new vaccine to cope with the more virulent virus has been developed and licensed to 12 factories for production. It will be offered to producers free of charge. Two companies in Zhejiang and Sichuan provinces produced the first batches in mid-June for dispatch to the regions most affected or most at risk as major pork-producing areas.

Korea introduces grading plan
A new pork grading scheme for use in meat stores is being introduced in the Korean Republic. Instead of the former system of allocating an approximate retail grade to the meat according to size and quality, the new scheme will take account of the thickness of the fat and 6 other factors including colour of lean and of fat and the degree of marbling.

Government officials say pork will sell at local retail butcher shops in different grades and prices like beef. But while beef is retailed in 5 quality grades, there will be 4 grades (1+, 1, 2 and 3) for pigmeat as from July this year. These will be allocated by authorised graders. The old grading system had questioned on the basis that some meat was denied a high grade despite being of good quality, simply because it was not considered suitable in size.

USA starts emissions survey
US governmental environment agency EPA has started a 2-year study costing US$14.6 million to investigate air emissions from American livestock feeding units. Researchers from Purdue University and 7 other collaborating universities will measure levels of hydrogen sulphide, particulate matter, ammonia, nitrous oxide, volatile organic compounds and other gases from facilities producing pigs or poultry and also from dairy herds.

This first-ever nationwide emissions study by the agency follows a recognition that it did not have enough data to determine the compliance of animal feeding operations with existing air-emissions requirements. A framework for farmers to participate in a monitoring study had been established by the signing of over 2600 voluntary consent agreements representing approximately 14 000 units involved in pig, dairy, egg or broiler production. EPA intends to use the data from the monitoring study to develop an improved method for estimating emissions from individual farm operations.

Philippines prepares to sell to Singapore
Fresh and frozen pork from the Philippines may soon be exported to Singapore under a proposed new agreement between the countries. Reports from Manila say negotiations at government level could be completed in July, with the first shipments following soon afterwards. Philippines department of agriculture forecasts show a 3.5% growth rate for the national pork sector in 2007 as the trade in meat products increases not only with Singapore, but also with Russia, Japan, Mexico, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and other Asian countries.

Export opportunities have increased with the acceptance by the 75th annual general meeting of OIE that the Philippines can be declared officially as free of foot-and-mouth disease. Some parts of the country such as Visayas and Mindanao have had FMD-free status for more than a decade, but they were joined in this last year by Luzon and now also by Masbate and Palawan. The agriculture department aims to apply for similar status on behalf of remaining areas by January of next year.

Also reported from the Philippines is the expansion there of activities by China’s largest feed manufacturing group, New Hope, which will build mills in 3 regions of the country. New Hope already has a US$11 million feedmill in the Philippines and will soon complete a second at a cost of US$7 million.

Latin American disease status changes
Meanwhile, changes in foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) status have been published by OIE for places in Latin America. The Brazilian state of Santa Catarina has been declared an FMD-free zone without vaccination, as has the Amazonian east of Peru. Declared a free zone with vaccination is the south-west of Colombia. The whole of Paraguay is defined as FMD-free with vaccination, except for a 15km-wide buffer strip along the border with Argentina.

The Mexican state of Nayarit has been added by the APHIS service of the US department of agriculture to its list of regions considered to be free of classical swine fever (CSF). But certification of origin will be needed on any exports of pork to the USA because Nayarit is regarded as adjacent to regions that are still  infected. The export possibilities are small anyway, says USDA. Nayarit in 2004 contained only 34 commercial pig units with a total inventory of just 30 634 pigs.

Europe checks animal proteins
By-product usage in European Union animal feeds is under review again after an advisory group told the European Commission that feedmills in EU states should be allowed to make more use of the 16 million tons of animal by-products generated annually. Although within-species recycling is ruled out because of fears that it would be called cannibalism and material of ruminant origin will remain banned on BSE grounds, there is support for the view that poultry meals could be included safely in pig diets and pig-origin meals fed to poultry. A research programme involving 12 institutes and costing €1.7 million has been started to look into opportunities and possible repercussions.

Integrators and processors
Japanese feed and food manufacturer Nosan is becoming a consolidated subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation, which is forming an integrated feed-to-food structure for the meat market. Nosan has four mills making some 2.33 million tons of feed per year.

Smithfield Foods Inc in USA reported sales of US$3.1 billion from continuing operations for its latest financial quarter, against US$2.7 billion a year ago.
Substantially improved margins in both packaged meats and fresh pork produced considerable gains in the pork segment. Europe-based Groupe Smithfield continued its strong earnings performance and Poland was profitable versus a loss last year. Romania experienced a modest loss due to lower volume levels.

Meat trading company Unitemp in Bulgaria has opened a new factory for cutting and deboning chilled pork and beef in Bulgaria's second city of Plovdiv. The high-tech plant will produce for both the domestic market and export.

Scan AB, meat processor HKScan Group's operations in Sweden, is to launch a programme to save between €18 million and €22 million. The two-year efficiency programme is designed to improve competition strengths and turn around an unsatisfactory financial performance. The planned efficiency programme includes investment to modernise production techniques and work practices at plants. Scan's business will be reorganised into two profit centres: Meat Business and Processed Meat and Convenience Food Business.

Maple Leaf Foods of Canada will close its secondary processing facility in Etobicoke, Ontario at the end of October 2007. The plant is nearly 50 years old and was part of the Schneider Foods acquisition. It produces value-added red meat products, primarily for foodservice customers across Canada. Maple Leaf will be consolidating these operations into its recently acquired facility in Brampton, Ontario.

Swift & Company, the world’s third-largest processor of fresh beef and pork products, is being sold for some US$1.4 billion to J&F Participações of Brazil. J&F owns 77% of Brazilian beef processor JBS. Swift’s operations in the USA include a hog division with slaughtering capacity rated at over 40 000 pigs/day.

Spanish pork  product manufacturer Campofrío is to build a new processing plant at Burgos. The company is reported to be investing €12 million in the project. It will be located near the slaughterhouse Carnes Selectas, also owned by Campofrío, which will supply the new plant with 80 000 tons of pork per year.

Shows and seminars
Brisbane in Queensland, Australia, will be the location for the 11th biennial conference of the Australasian Pig Science Association being held 25th-28th November 2007.

Third edition of VIV Russia in Moscow received 6645 trade visitors compared with 5421 in 2005. The show had 202 international and 122 Russian exhibitors.

Alltech’s annual international feed symposium was told by company president Dr Pearse Lyons that the future of the animal feed industry would depend on specific focus areas such as integrating distillery by-products into diets, control over mycotoxin impact and alternative approaches to supplying dietary protein.

A total of 34 565 people attended the 19th annual World Pork Expo in the USA, some 10% more than the 2006 attendance. The number of international visitors was estimated at 2300, from 50 countries. There were 450 companies on 1000 exhibit booths.

Career opportunities in European agriculture will be highlighted at a conference to be held as part of the Agritechnica farm machinery show to be held in Hannover, Germany, 13th-17th November. Organisers DLG expect around 1500 young farmers and students from across Europe to attend, plus up to 5000 from Germany.

Agri Vision 2007 business conference organised in the Netherlands by Nutreco in association with Rabobank was attended by around 340 leaders of agribusiness leaders from over 30 countries. At an InnoVision meeting of agro-economic experts and scientists representing North and South America, Asia and Europe, defined priorities for research as including the identification of new natural feed additives to improve feed digestion and contribute to animal health and welfare, as well as optimising the nutrition of animals in relation to their genetic characteristics

People in the news
Dr  Carlos Peralta has been appointed commercial director of JSR Genetics, with responsibility for developing the sales of pig genetic programmes in the UK and international markets. He joined JSR in 2006 as business manager for the Americas. Also announced by the breeder is that its Genepacker 90 animals have been chosen to stock a doubling in size to 240 sows for the pig research unit at Harper Adams University College in the UK.

AB Vista, international feed ingredients arm of AB Agri (Associated British Agriculture) in the UK, has appointed Dr Mike Bedford to become responsible for  R&D programmes in enzymes and yeast. MY Tan joins the company to develop commercial activities in the Asia-Pacific region, working with sister company AB Enzymes and based at their Singapore office. Dieter Suida takes responsibility for building the business in Latin American markets, working with AB Brazil and AB Enzymes from a Brazil base.

Canada-based pig breeder Genesus has appointed Howard Xigen Xu as official agent for mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao. The company calculates that this Greater China region contains almost 50% of the world’s pig inventory and its production is growing at a rate of approximately 20 million pigs per year.

BASF has appointed Niall McStay as business director for its nutrition business serving the food, beverage, animal feed and petfood industries in North America. He was most recently the company’s North American business director for animal nutrition.

Nicolaj Noergaard has been named director designate of the Dansk Svineproduktion (Danish Pig Production) arm of the Danish Meat Association, to succeed Orla Grøn Pedersen who retires at the end of 2007.

Michiel Westerhof DVM has become the manager of the service and development department of Netherlands-based breeding company Topigs, part of Dutch organisation Pigture Group. Also reported by Topigs are 2006 results for 768 herds with its genetics in the Netherlands, representing almost 290 000 sows in total. Sows weaned on average 25.7 pigs per year (up from 25.1 in 2005), with litters averaging 12.5 live-born and 10.9 weaned per litter. The 10% best farms achieved 28.6 weaned per sow/year from litters of 13.2 born alive and 11.7 weaned.

Amino acids and trace minerals specialist Novus International Inc in the USA has promoted Dr Giovanni Gasperoni to executive vice president of marketing and sales.

Dr Jill Thomson has been elected the new president of the Pig Veterinary Society,  a specialist division of the British Veterinary Association with approximately 330 members representing all sectors of the pig industry. She is veterinary centre
manager at the SAC Edinburgh disease surveillance centre in Scotland.

Anitox has appointed Spain-based feed hygiene team of Pau Prió Batalla as agent in Spain, Portugal and Morocco for its bacteriological and mould control products.

Updates on companies
Euribrid breeding company’s sale by Nutreco Holding to Hendrix Genetics has been completed at a selling price of €47.5 million. Separately, Nutreco has reached an agreement to buy Maple Leaf Animal Nutrition in Canada from Maple Leaf Foods. With sales of approximately C$650 million per year, the Canadian unit has 18 feedmills in Canada and in New York State, USA. Nutreco also has increased its shareholding in Mexican feed premix company Tenusa Trouw Nutrition Mexico from 60% to 100%. Activities will be integrated with those of BASF Mexico bought previously by the group.

Hamlet Protein A/S of Denmark is expanding its production facilities in Horsens, Denmark, to support the international roll-out of protein product HP200, launched in Denmark two years ago for use in pig starter diets. A 52% shareholding in has been acquired by Danish equity investment fund Polaris, in a move described as providing further finance for plans to double the company’s turnover over the next five years while also starting a succession process to establish its future ownership.

Divasa-Farmavic Group in Spain (DFV) has adopted a new logo with the growth of subsidiaries in Portugal, Hungary, Mexico, Ecuador and Venezuela and the recently created subsidiary in Argentina, says a company announcement.

An extruded pellet developed at a petfood plant was introduced this month for young pigs by US feed company Purina Mills, exhibiting at the World Pork Expo in the USA. Nutritionists at Land O'Lakes Purina Feed said the Healthy Edge pig starter pellet had been trialled at the company’s LongView Animal Nutrition Center in Missouri and at university and farm sites. Its soft-moist form improved feed intake and feed conversion rates by pigs weaned at 12-15 pounds (5.5-7kg) liveweight. Compared with the use of regular pellets, there was an increase in palatability and the feed helped to support the pigs’ immuno-competence for maximum performance.

Pfizer Animal Health reports European licensing approval for the use of Draxxin as a long-acting single injection to prevent respiratory disease in pigs. Adding to its existing treatment indication, the new claim is called the first of its kind in Europe and opens up a new category in the marketplace, that of ‘Injectables labelled for prevention’.

Ag-Tek division of Kane Enterprises, USA, has become the agent in North America for the TU Masterline range of syringe and drench applicators from Trade Unlimited, Netherlands.

Lallemand Animal Nutrition in France notes that its organic selenium yeast product Alkosel 397 made from specific strain 397 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been authorised by the European Union authorities for use in all animal species. The authorisation was published in the EU’s official journal in June.

Nutraferma has been started as a joint venture in the USA between Korean biotechnology firm Genebiotech and American feed ingredient companies Nutra-Flo Protein and Biotech Products, utilising Korean technology and a solid state fermentation technique to manufacture animal feeds from soybeans and other plant-origin products. It is building an US$8.76 soy fermentation facility called the first of its kind in the USA, due to begin production in early 2008.

British compounder BOCM Pauls has bought the pig and poultry feeds division of Cranswick Mill Ltd based in north-east England. The business will operate as Cranswick Mill, a division of BOCM Pauls, and will support the compounder’s exports of piglet starter feeds.

Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health GmbH is sponsoring a European PCV-2 research award after establishing its North American counterpart in 2006. Three prizes of €25 000 will be awarded annually for the best research proposals in the field of applied immunological PCV-2 research. For the 2007 award, research proposals must be submitted in writing by mid-September 2007.

Danisco Animal Nutrition has published claims in the UK that cost savings achieved through the use of phytase in pig and poultry feeds can be increased from US$3.50 to at least US$5 per metric ton by using a new-generation enzyme product instead of a traditional version. The claims referred to new data from international trials of using microbial phytase product Phyzyme XP in feeds for laying hens and pigs.

Scandinavian fertiliser giant Yara International has acquired the 30.5% of shares in Kemira GrowHow held by the Finnish government and is launching a mandatory offer for the remaining shares in the fertiliser-and-feeds company in Finland.

Data in brief
Denmark in April 2007 had a 7.8% annual increase for on-farm inventory, at 13.6 million pigs.

Germany saw an 8% rise in its pigmeat output in the first quarter of 2007 as a record 13.1 million pigs were slaughtered. The number of domestic pigs slaughtered rose by 6% while slaughterings of imported pigs rose by 28%.

European Union exported 423 000 tons of pork products to other countries in the first quarter of 2007, said the European Commission. Some 28% of this volume went to Russia. Fresh and frozen pork accounted for 197 000 tons, live pigs the equivalent of almost 8000 tons.

Romania’s pig slaughterings in 2006 yielded 618 000 tons liveweight, on final figures from the national statistics institute, up from 605 000 tons in 2005.

Ukraine’s state statistics committee reports that there were 8.37 million pigs on farms in Ukraine in June 2007, up from 7.63 million in mid-2006. 

USA exports of pork in the period January-April 2007 were valued at US$985 million, of which US$384 came from sales to Japan. The 39% share taken by Japanese customers compared with 15% for Mexico and 14% for Canada.

EU-25 industrial feed production of about 143.2 million tons in 2006 included some 47.2 million tons of pig feeds, according to European feed federation Fefac.

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