Have cattle? A project through the Ontario Veterinary College and supported by the Ontario Animal Health Network Bovine Group is looking for your manure. Well, more specifically, a project led by Dr. Jessica Gordon of OVC is looking to assess gastrointestinal parasite loads in grazing cattle. The project is open to Ontario producers with grazing… Read More
Most by now are aware of the risk of Lyme disease, a bacterial diseased transmitted through deer ticks. But a relatively new tick has been found with increasing frequency in Canada — and the fallout of its bite is also serious. A bite from the Lone Star tick — named for the single white dot… Read More
The Alberta Lamb Producers (ALP) says that a positive, classical scrapie result was confirmed by a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) laboratory on a sheep from a farm in Alberta on June 21. The sheep was tested due to clinical signs consistent with scrapie, the producer group says, and because the sheep lived on multiple… Read More
Lameness is the dairy industry’s leading and most visible animal welfare concern. It’s also among the top three health challenges, along with mastitis and reproductive problems. Veterinarian Dr. Laura Solano, dairy cattle extension specialist at Calgary, Alberta-based Farm Animal Care Associates, says that despite the negative impacts to lameness, studies show that 15 to 30… Read More
Earlier this year, the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) informed the government it would no longer be carrying out animal welfare law enforcement. The announcement has spurred the need for an overhaul of Ontario’s Ontario Animal Protection Act, but also left a gap between the current set up and the… Read More
First introduced to Canada in the 1980s as a diversification option, wild hog populations outside of farmed production have been steadily climbing. Wild hogs that escaped from farms or were released from enclosures when businesses shut down have done very well in Saskatchewan — so well that it’s estimated descendants of those original hogs now… Read More
The Canadian Pork Council (CPC) confirms that pork from one Canadian pork establishment have been temporarily suspended after Chinese officials . say a shipment of frozen pork products tested positive for the presence of Ractopamine. This makes three Canadian pork processors currently blocked from shipping to China. The first two sites — one in Quebec… Read More
Yet another undercover animal abuse video rolled out last week, filmed months ago by animal rights “activists,” and released just as tweets and photos celebrating June as Dairy Month began. In the same week, mainstream media published several stories following up on what many farmers had brought forward at the Standing Committee on Agriculture: that… Read More
Often prescribed for curing thrush and other fungal infections of humans and a common ingredient in foot and hoof treatments for livestock, Health Canada has come out and said gentian violet increases the risk of cancer and is urging everyone — farmers included — to stop using any products that include the ingredient. Following a… Read More
U.S.-based Fair Oaks Farms dairy is under fire this week after an animal rights group circulated a video showing abuse of dairy calves at the dairy. Fair Oaks is a supplier of Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk brand. Owner Dr. Mike McCloskey posted a video statement on the company’s web page. In it, McCloskey apologizes for the… Read More
A flock of chickens in the southeast corner of Manitoba has contracted a confirmed case of infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT), an acute herpes viral respiratory tract infection of chickens, turkeys, and pheasants, that may result in severe production losses and mortality as high as 85%. ILT is on the list of four notifiable diseases at the… Read More
Within a month of announcing its collaboration with the University of Saskatchewan, Canadian tech startup Transport Genie Ltd., is set to conduct field trials of its smart sensors in Switzerland. The company announced this week that it is working with Swiss-based integrated poultry company Prodavi SA. Starting in June, Transport Genie sensors will be installed… Read More
Earlier this year, the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) announced it would no longer carry out enforcement of Ontario’s animal welfare laws. The announcement has spurred Ontario’s government to evaluate how animal welfare enforcement is handled in the province and will shape new animal welfare legislation. As part of that… Read More
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced it will be implementing a surveillance plan in an effort to be prepared when it comes to African swine fever (ASF). The program will function in full force spring of 2019. ASF is a highly contagious and deadly disease affecting both domestic and feral (wild) pigs. It… Read More
Corn, wheat, barley — you know starch is an essential component of cattle diets, but do you know why? Is wheat an easy swap out for barley in a ration? Is it worth buying steam-flaked corn? In this episode of the Beef School, Karen Beauchemin, with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at Lethbridge, lays out what… Read More