USDA has confirmed the presence of 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus in a pig sample collected at the Minnesota State Fair. The National Pork Producers Council notes, despite this development, pork is safe to eat and handle and that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flu viruses cannot be transmitted through food, including pork. Pigs, like people, …
Celebrate National Eat Together Week with Pork!
Last week, the National Pork Board kicked off National Eat Dinner Together Week, in conjunction with Feeding America—the national organization that supports our nation’s food banks. For every recipe on the pork website that is printed or downloaded—they donated five pounds of pork to the nation’s food banks! The goal of this week was to promote pork nutrition information and …
Get it Right – Call it H1N1
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack yesterday urged reporters to “get it right” and call it H1N1. “The job of the media is to get it right and not necessarily to get it convenient,” said Vilsack. “Some media outlets have been responsive and sensitive to this, but there’s really not been a concerted effort by the media to do a good …
Novus Knows Pigs
One of the key targets for Novus International is the swine industry and to talk to us about it was Dr. Felipe Navarro. He started out asking each of us what our definition of “sustainable” is. He got a lot of different definitions. He has found that when talking about the subject it’s important to know how most of his …
PIC Helps Hog Producers Improve Performance
There are still hog producers in business in Iowa and they are more dedicated than ever to producing a quality product for consumers at the best price possible. That was my take away from a meeting I attended this week in Washington, IA to gather some audio, photos and video for our friends at PIC International to use for some …
Proud to be an Omnivore
While in North Carolina for the Boehringer Ingelheim Swine Health Seminar over the weekend, I had some of the best pork I have ever eaten. The hotel served up a fresh whole hog with a tasty vinegar sauce that was fabulous. The best thing about the airport in Charlotte (which I spent an inordinate amount of time in on Sunday) …
Swine Seminar Synopsis
We have had a couple of comments asking if the Boehringer Ingelheim Swine Health Seminar presentations will be available for those who were not able to attend, and the answer is yes. Ned Arthur (pictured here at work) with Truffle Media Networks was at the event taking photos and video and doing interviews, all of which will be posted along …
#oink to Support America’s Pork Producers
The Twitterverse is oinking this morning as thousands of tweets are being posted with the #oink hashtag to show support for American pork producers who have been hurt by the incorrect labeling of H1N1 virus. Of course you’ve got your typical wackos using the opportunity to promote their vegan agenda or some website they want to promote that has nothing …
Precision Ag for Swine Production
Livestock producers could take a cue from their crop brethren and adopt some precision technology to be more efficient. That advice comes from ag economist and swine industry specialist Dennis DiPietre, who spoke at the Boehringer Ingelheim swine health seminar in North Carolina on Friday. “It’s a really interesting road map what has been going on with precision agriculture techniques,” …
Oral Fluid Testing for Hogs
Testing saliva for human diseases has been around for as long as a century, but it was only about a decade ago that someone thought it might work for livestock as well. The swine industry is getting very close to being able to detect the presence of disease in a herd using a rope that pigs can chew on and …