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This file photo shows a rack of blood samples being tested for bovine tuberculosis in New Zealand dairy cattle. (Lakeview_Images/iStock/Getty Images)
Livestock

More bovine TB cases found in Saskatchewan herd

Herd now depopulated, one separate contact herd identified

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Corrected, July 14 — Postmortem testing of a Saskatchewan cattle herd culled after turning up three confirmed cases of bovine tuberculosis (TB) has yielded six more cases. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), which is tasked with testing the infected herd, said Thursday that as of July 12, a total of eight cases of bovine […] Read more
Turkeys. (Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)
Livestock

Canada books first month in 19 without bird flu outbreak

Eight commercial poultry farms remain active sites

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June 2023 appears set to be Canada’s first month without a new highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak in poultry or other domesticated birds since the disease returned to this country in late 2021. Canada has booked 322 outbreaks in domestic birds in the past 19 months, of which 31 were detected so far in 2023. […] Read more
A 3-D illustration of Bacillus anthracis bacteria. (Dr_Microbe/iStock/Getty Images)
Livestock

Anthrax kills southeastern Saskatchewan sheep

Spores forced up by changes in soil moisture

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Dramatic shifts in soil moisture are again bringing anthrax spores to the surface on the Prairies, this time in a southeastern Saskatchewan sheep pasture. Lab results on Wednesday confirmed anthrax as the cause of death of one animal in a flock of sheep in the R.M. of South Qu’Appelle, about 50 km east of Regina, […] Read more
Minks at a farm near Soroe in Denmark on Nov. 5, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen)
Livestock

Minks, staff positive for COVID-19 at B.C. mink farm

Coronavirus found in eight workers, five mink so far

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A mink farm in southwestern British Columbia’s Fraser Valley is now under provincial veterinary quarantine and its staff self-isolating after several animals and workers tested positive for COVID-19. Fraser Valley Health, the regional health authority for the area, on Sunday declared an outbreak at the farm after eight workers tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus […] Read more
An image created by Nexu Science Communication, together with Trinity College in Dublin, shows a model structurally representative of a betacoronavirus, the type of virus linked to COVID-19. (Nexu Science Communication via Reuters)
Markets

Mexico to stop sending workers to Canadian farms hit by COVID-19

Assurances of worker safety sought, FARMS says

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Mexico City | Reuters — Mexico will stop sending temporary workers to Canadian farms that have registered a coronavirus outbreak and that do not have proper worker protections, Mexico’s labour ministry said on Tuesday, although it will not completely suspend the program. The decision came after a coronavirus outbreak in Ontario hit at least 17 […] Read more
File photo of Smithfield Foods’ pork plant at Sioux Falls, S.D. on April 16, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)
Livestock, Markets

U.S. meatpacking workers often absent after plants ordered to reopen

"There's still so many risks"

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Chicago/Washington | Reuters — Smithfield Foods is missing about a third of its employees at a South Dakota pork plant because they are quarantined or afraid to return to work after a severe coronavirus outbreak, according to the workers’ union. Tyson Foods was forced to briefly close its Storm Lake, Iowa plant — a month […] Read more
Workers in the JBS beef plant at Brooks, Alta. appear in a screen shot from a 2018 corporate video. (JBS Canada video screengrab via YouTube)
Livestock

As meat plant infections rise, Canada lets packers choose when to close

Beef plants at heart of Alberta's largest COVID-19 community outbreaks

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Winnipeg | Reuters — In Cargill’s High River, Alta. plant, supplier of more than one-third of Canada’s beef, 391 workers were sick with COVID-19 when the company suspended operations, according to provincial health officials. But Maple Leaf Foods decided to idle a poultry plant for eight days, in Brampton, Ont., after just three workers were […] Read more
This file photo shows a rack of blood samples being tested for bovine tuberculosis in New Zealand dairy cattle. (Lakeview_Images/iStock/Getty Images)
Livestock

On-farm tests wrap up in bovine TB probe

CFIA investigation turns up just four positive B.C. cattle

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The “trace-in” phase of Canada’s latest bovine tuberculosis (TB) investigation has ended with just four cattle from one British Columbia herd testing positive for the disease. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency last week announced all on-farm testing has been completed in its probe, which dates back to November 2018 when lab tests confirmed TB in […] Read more
Clubroot galls on a canola plant. (Video screengrab from Canola Council of Canada via YouTube)
Crops

Clubroot able to beat resistant canola reaches Manitoba

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A strain of clubroot able to club the roots of some resistant canola varieties has made its way east to Manitoba. Manitoba’s agriculture department reported Friday that clubroot pathotype 3A — a strain that can “overcome some first-generation sources of genetic resistance” in commercial canola — has been positively identified in the south-central rural municipality […] Read more
(Shadowinternet/E+/Getty Images)
Livestock

Alberta’s PED outbreak so far held to one spot

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The probe into Alberta’s first-ever outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea hasn’t yet shown any paths by which the PED virus might have got to the farm — nor any new cases anywhere else in the province. The provincial government on Jan. 7 confirmed the first case of PED to appear in hogs in Alberta, at […] Read more

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