EDITORIAL 1 We have experienced fairly significant downward price variations over the past few months. These declines have hit our income hard and some producers, especially young farmers, are particularly affected. This isn’t the first time we have seen such large price decreases. As in previous years, the current downward spiral stems from two main factors: falling world prices and larger quantities of surplus SNF resulting from high butter demand, which has remained strong for nearly two years. Even though we do not participate actively in international trade, some of our milk classes, particularly the special classes that have seen their sales grow in the past few months, are directly influenced by world prices. The price of skim milk powder has dropped by nearly half in the past year due to a decline in world demand. Protein concentrate imports are a serious problem, but they are not the main cause of falling prices in the past few months. The improper classification of products by the Canada Border Services Agency has hurt us for several years. Are these fluctuations and lower prices going to last? Average monthly prices are expected to remain essentially unchanged until the end of the year. This means no significant improvement or additional sustained decline. The situation may start to improve in early 2016, after butter stock replenishing targets have been met. The other factor we have to watch, and which may help, is the trend of world prices. Between 12% and 20% of our components are paid according to global benchmarks. In the meantime, we have made specific requests to the CDC to find solutions to the problem of rising structural surpluses and to account quickly for falling prices when adjusting the price of milk. As for protein concentrates, we have been facing this problem for several years. We even succeeded in having them reclassified so that they are subject to over- quota tariffs. Unfortunately, this decision was overturned in 2005 by the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, following a complaint by the manufacturer, and the CITT ruling was upheld in 2006 before the Federal Court of Appeal. Despite these reversals, this issue must be resolved. Negotiations finally began this summer between representatives of both producers and processors to find a mutually beneficial solution. This will be possible if everyone cooperates. In our approach, it will be important to clearly show our solidarity and remain united. As a producer said recently, by working together as a team, we can change things. Chairman Why has the price of milk plummeted, and when will it end? The price of milk OCTOBER 2015 LE PRODUCTEUR DE LAIT QUÉBÉCOIS 1
Transcript
E D I T O R I A L
11
We have experienced fairly signifi cant downward price variations over the past few months. These declines have hit our income hard and some producers, especially young farmers, are particularly affected.
This isn’t the fi rst time we have seen such large price decreases. As in previous years, the current downward spiral stems from two main factors: falling world prices and larger quantities of surplus SNF resulting from high butter demand, which has remained strong for nearly two years.
Even though we do not participate actively in international trade, some of our milk classes, particularly the special classes that have seen their sales grow in the past few months, are directly infl uenced by world prices. The price of skim milk powder has dropped by nearly half in the past year due to a decline in world demand.
Protein concentrate imports are a serious problem, but they are not the main cause of falling prices in the past few months. The improper classifi cation of products by the Canada Border Services Agency has hurt us for several years.
Are these fl uctuations and lower prices going to last?Average monthly prices are expected to remain essentially unchanged until the end
of the year. This means no signifi cant improvement or additional sustained decline. The situation may start to improve in early 2016, after butter stock replenishing
targets have been met. The other factor we have to watch, and which may help, is the trend of world prices. Between 12% and 20% of our components are paid according to global benchmarks.
In the meantime, we have made specifi c requests to the CDC to fi nd solutions to the problem of rising structural surpluses and to account quickly for falling prices when adjusting the price of milk.
As for protein concentrates, we have been facing this problem for several years. We even succeeded in having them reclassifi ed so that they are subject to over-quota tariffs. Unfortunately, this decision was overturned in 2005 by the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, following a complaint by the manufacturer, and the CITT ruling was upheld in 2006 before the Federal Court of Appeal.
Despite these reversals, this issue must be resolved. Negotiations fi nally began this summer between representatives of both producers and processors to fi nd a mutually benefi cial solution. This will be possible if everyone cooperates.
In our approach, it will be important to clearly show our solidarity and remain united. As a producer said recently, by working together as a team, we can change things.
Chairman
Why has the price
of milk plummeted,
and when will it end?
The price of milk
OCTOBER 2015 LE PRODUCTEUR DE LAIT QUÉBÉCOIS 1
A N I M A L H E A L T H
NEW TREATMENT OPTION ON THE HORIZON
An antibiotic to treat intramammary infections
By FRANÇOIS MALOUIN, ÉRIC MARSAULT, DANIEL LAFONTAINE, professors, VÉRONIQUE BELLEY, masters degree student, CÉLINE STER, visiting lecturer at the Université de Sherbrooke; PIERRE LACASSE, researcher, Dairy and Swine Research and Development Centre of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Sherbrooke, and HÉLÈNE POIRIER, agronomist and transfer officer, Canadian Bovine Mastitis and Milk Quality Research Network (CBMMQRN).
OCTOBER 2015 LE PRODUCTEUR DE LAIT QUÉBÉCOIS2
The development of new antibiotics to effectively treat intramammary
infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is the
subject of a new study led by François Malouin, professor at
the Université de Sherbrooke, and a member of the Canadian Bovine
Mastitis and Milk Quality Research Network (CBMMQRN).
riboswitch (RNA regulator) found in Staph. aureus bacteria. Their work consists of studying the riboswitch’s molecular structure and developing substances that will bind with the RNA target.
ANTICIPATED EFFECT The antibacterial activity of the
new compounds will be tested on S. aureus and coagulase-negative staph-ylococci (CNS). The S. aureus and CNS strains will be provided by the Strain Library, a vast collection of bacte-rial cultures developed and stored by the CBMMQRN for research pur-poses in Canada and abroad. Professor Malouin’s research team will deter-mine the minimum inhibitory concen-tration (MIC) of their new compounds. The MIC is the lowest concentration of an antibiotic that will inhibit the growth of a micro-organism after a 24-hour incubation period. In addition to determining the MIC, they will establish the new compounds’ bacte-ricidal speed and scope, the objective being to kill 99.9% of bacteria.
S. aureus is a major cause of con-tagious mastitis among dairy cattle. In North America, its main impact is to cause sub-clinical infections that increase the somatic cell count (CSC) of milk and decrease production, with negative economic consequences.
PRECURSOR OF NEW TREATMENT Professor Malouin and his research
team had identifi ed a new target in a previous research project conducted with the financial support of the CBMMQRN. Called the riboswitch, this target made it possible to attack the specifi c bacteria containing it, such as S. aureus. This discovery had led the researchers to discover a new class of antibiotics that attack the riboswitch. After the initial discovery, Malouin and his team developed PC1, a prototype of this new class of antibiotics. Based on a new chemical structure and using a mode of action unknown up to then, this antibiotic proved to be effective against bovine mastitis. Indeed, in vitro and in vivo studies of intramammary infection in mice and cows demon-
strated that PC1 was both safe and effective. Financial assistance from the second Dairy Research Cluster enabled the research group to begin a new project last spring that builds on this earlier work.
ENHANCEMENT OF THE ANTIBIOTIC MOLECULEWith the help of two research asso-
ciates, Dr. Céline Ster and Dr. Éric Brouillette, and Master’s student Véronique Belley, the team is seeking to identify at least two new antibiotic compounds derived from PC1, and test them to ensure that they can be safely given to cows. Effi cacy tests will also be performed during field trials conducted with the support of the pharmaceutical industry. At the Université de Sherbrooke, professors Éric Marsault and Daniel Lafontaine, two other members of the team, are already working on PC1 derivatives that are more stable and potentially more effective than the initial mol-ecule. They are developing the new antibiotic compounds by closely ana-lyzing the PC1 target, the guanine
OCTOBER 2015 LE PRODUCTEUR DE LAIT QUÉBÉCOIS 3
SUBSTANCES WILL BE CLOSELY MONITORED…The next phase of the project will
assess the safety of the antibiotic compounds that prove to be the most promising, based on the mice model, by in vivo testing on dairy cows. This will be performed at the Dairy and Swine Research and Development Centre farm in Sherbrooke, with the assistance of Dr. Pierre Lacasse, also a CBMMQRN member.
For each selected compound, four healthy cows, in mid-lactation and free of bacterial pathogens in all four quarters, will be given a different dose of the antibiotic in each quarter. The body temperature and amount of red-ness and swelling in the udder will be measured before the injection, and then over the next 72 hours. During this same time period, the researchers will measure the milk output of each quarter along with the somatic cell count and other inflammatory indica-tors. The milk samples will be kept frozen in order to subsequently ana-lyze the quantity of residual compo-nents in each quarter. Blood samples will also be taken to monitor the pas-sage of milk components into the cows’ blood stream.
CLEAR INTEREST IN THE PROJECT’S OUTCOMESThe results of this project have
already sparked the interest of the pharmaceutical industry. The Natural
new treatment option that does not become resistant to antibiotics. This is an increasingly important concern in the public and animal health sectors.
This project is supported by a financial contribution from the Dairy Research Cluster (Dairy Farmers of Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian Dairy Network and the Canadian Dairy Commission).Elanco Animal Health Canada and the NSERC provided additional financial support. n
Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Elanco Animal Health Canada, a division of Eli Lilly, fully support the continuation of this project for another three years.
A patent application has been filed for the previously identified PC1 antimicrobial compound and deriva-tives thereof. Professor Malouin, his research team and their collabora-tors are convinced they can develop other safe and effective compounds from this novel class of antibiotics. Another of their goals is to identify a
Véronique Belley (Master’s student) and Charles Isabelle (research internee) working with Professor Malouin on developing a new antibiotic molecule at the Université de Sherbrooke.
For input on articles, obtain information, ask questions or make suggestions on the content of your magazine, please contact
LE PRODUCTEUR DE LAIT QUÉBÉCOIS at450 679-0530 # 8306
The fi xed price for August 2015 is the ceiling price for this month. A quota quantity of 1,184.9 b.f./day was offered for sale at the fi xed price. Of this quantity, an amount of 1.0 b.f./day was allotted to producers benefi ting from the Start-up Assistance Program and producers holding less then 12 kg, in accordance with the quota regulation.
Fixed Price: $25,000.00
$/kg b.f./day $/kg b.f./day $/kg b.f./day
Nova Scotia 25,000.00 ceiling Prince Edward Island 25,000.00 ceilingNew Brunswick 24,000.00 ceiling
Alberta 36,825.00Saskatchewan 29,000.00British Columbia 44,000.00
Statistics are also available on the Fédération des producteurs de lait du Québec’s Web site at the following address: http://www.lait.org/en/the-milk-economy/some-fi gures.php
Centralized Quota Sale System
Number Quantity in kg b.f./dayTotal offers to sell 86 1,184.9Offers to sell participating in the distribution 86 1,184.9Successfull offers to sell participating in the distribution 86 1,184.9Net quantity sold by the reserve 0.6Total offers to buy 1,663 9,528.4Offers to buy participating in the distribution 1,661 9,525.4Successfull offers to buy participating in the distribution 1,661 1,184.3
1st step distribution by iteration = 0.4 kg BF/day2nd step distribution by prorata = 6.04% Portion of quantities satisfi ed = 12.43%
