Stockyard Industries 54 King Street, Clifton QLD 4361 07 4697 3344 FUNKIMAT FEEDER www.stockyardindustries.com ww One of the biggest-selling nursery feeders in Australia! Feeder for pigs from 6-120kg • Available for weaners or finishers • Water and feed separated • Easy to clean and operate Phone: 07 4697 3344 • Fax 07 4697 3532 www.stockyardindustries.com www.porknews.com.au Vol 24. No. 2 February 2020 Australian Pork Newspaper PO Box 387 Cleveland 4163 Phone (07) 3286 1833 Fax (07) 3821 2637 Email [email protected]THE summer holiday period again provided a great chance to pro- mote Australian pork and give consumers compelling reasons to support Australian pig farmers. Of particular note was the way Australian pork and ham was so prominently marketed in major supermarket promotions leading up to Christmas, confirm- ing our product is at- tractive to both retailers and their customers. Our latest initiative, which has gone ‘live’ in recent weeks, show- cases how fantastic pork is as a convenient option for a weeknight dinner, especially when time is of the essence. The ‘Fancy a Quick- ie’ ad campaign has received a wonderful response and captures consumers’ attention with cheeky humour and a simple message. The ads sell pork as an attractive solu- tion for busy, working households looking for a stress-free option for a quick and easy dinner. This campaign is a great credit to the Aus- tralian Pork Limited Marketing team. Australian farm- ers and regional busi- nesses have also been buoyed by the incred- ible support com- ing from consumers who’ve backed the grassroots ‘Buy from the Bush’ campaign to help communities im- pacted by drought and bushfire. Farmers, including pork producers, have great support in main- stream Australia – in the cities and the media – especially when times are tough. The backing we’ve received from across the country has been emphatic and confirms extreme anti-farming campaigns by fringe ac- tivist groups are indeed out of touch with com- munity values. At the height of the summer’s fires and heatwaves, anti-meat campaigner People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals confirmed how increasingly des- perate and irrelevant it is by blaming the live- stock industry for the natural disasters. The PETA campaign claimed the bushfires were occurring because people “refuse to stop eating animals” and Australians “can help put out the flames by going vegan today”. Like we’ve seen be- fore when farmers have been hit by floods or fire, rural communities unite to respond to the animal welfare emer- gencies that invariably arise. Of course, PETA and its peers have again done absolutely nothing to assist the emergency animal welfare task at hand due to the bush- fires. If PETA and other an- ti-farming groups were genuinely interested in animal welfare, they’d be side-by-side with producers on the front- line of these fires, unit- ed by a genuine desire to help livestock and wildlife in need. While farmers have been generously donat- ing precious fodder and serving as volunteer firefighters, the only thing PETA has been serving this summer is its own dangerously skewed agenda. Our vigilance against anti-farming extrem- ism must continue on a number of fronts. In January, an activ- ist who pleaded guilty to trespassing onto a Queensland piggery and stealing six piglets walked away from court with 12 months’ proba- tion and a $300 fine. The activist subse- quently posted photos of herself with the pig- lets on social media. We continue to see wanton criminal activ- ity where these extrem- ists break into piggeries (farms where families live) and pose enormous risks to biosecurity and animal welfare. In the face of the Af- rican swine fever threat, on-farm biosecurity has never been more vital for our $5.3 billion in- dustry. But perhaps the most outrageous element to this particular crime is the stolen piglets were removed from the safe- ty and security of the piggery and exposed to unacceptable welfare threats. The piglets were sto- len before they’d even had their first milk, which obviously has a huge impact on their health and immune sys- tem development. Newborn piglets re- moved from the farm suffer greatly and a number invariably die. There must be real deterrents and punish- ments for this sort of criminal activism. APL is dedicated to protecting the safety of our members. Our industry must continue to highlight the need for tougher penalties for those who, under the disingenuous veil of animal welfare, put our livestock and industry at such great risk. Point of View by MARGO ANDRAE CEO New ad campaign a hit while trespass penalties amiss “I GUESS we could make it a quickie,” she says. Weeknight dinners can be a stressful prospect, but cheeky new ads have a hot tip for hungry, time-poor consumers. Australian Pork Lim- ited has launched its new advertising campaign, re- vealing pork is quick and easy to cook and keeping Australian Pork’s iconic cheeky tone. APL Marketing and Communications Man- ager Mitch Edwards said, “People are returning to work and it’s barbecue season, so it’s the perfect time to try a pork steak.” “The new ads are about a couple on a bus during the daily commute, some- thing many of us relate to, and that discussion we all have about dinner pros- pects. “We hope these ads will make people smile, but also show them a new way to cook and help them serve up a satisfying quickie.” The ads, which run across free-to-air TV, subscription TV, radio, social channels and on- line video, are light but education-focused. “Pork is versatile and easy to cook,” Mr Ed- wards said. “In this ad we’ve focused on cooking pork steaks with the 6-2-2 method. “That is, six minutes on one side, two on the other and then rest for two min- utes. “It’s quick, easy and set to gratify. “Our website pork.com. au has plenty of recipe inspiration to help you get some pork on your fork.” To see the ad, visit you tube/dj3U5GwFqLg or for pork steak recipe inspira- tion, head to pork.com. au The perfect weeknight quickie
Transcript
Stockyard Industries54 King Street,
Clifton QLD 4361
07 4697 3344
FUNKIMAT FEEDER
www.stockyardindustries.comww
One of the biggest-selling nursery feeders in Australia!Feeder for pigs from 6-120kg• Available for weaners or finishers• Water and feed separated• Easy to clean and operate
Vol 24. No. 2 February 2020 Australian Pork Newspaper PO Box 387 Cleveland 4163 Phone (07) 3286 1833 Fax (07) 3821 2637 Email [email protected]
THE summer holiday period again provided a great chance to pro-mote Australian pork and give consumers compelling reasons to support Australian pig farmers.
Of particular note was the way Australian pork and ham was so prominently marketed in major supermarket promotions leading up to Christmas, confirm-ing our product is at-tractive to both retailers and their customers.
Our latest initiative, which has gone ‘live’ in recent weeks, show-cases how fantastic pork is as a convenient option for a weeknight dinner, especially when time is of the essence.
The ‘Fancy a Quick-ie’ ad campaign has received a wonderful response and captures consumers’ attention with cheeky humour and a simple message.
The ads sell pork as an attractive solu-tion for busy, working households looking for a stress-free option for a quick and easy dinner.
This campaign is a great credit to the Aus-tralian Pork Limited Marketing team.
Australian farm-ers and regional busi-nesses have also been buoyed by the incred-ible support com-ing from consumers who’ve backed the grassroots ‘Buy from the Bush’ campaign to help communities im-pacted by drought and bushfire.
Farmers, including pork producers, have great support in main-stream Australia – in the cities and the media – especially when times are tough.
The backing we’ve received from across the country has been emphatic and confirms extreme anti-farming campaigns by fringe ac-tivist groups are indeed out of touch with com-munity values.
At the height of the summer’s fires and heatwaves, anti-meat campaigner People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals confirmed how increasingly des-perate and irrelevant it is by blaming the live-stock industry for the natural disasters.
The PETA campaign claimed the bushfires were occurring because people “refuse to stop eating animals” and Australians “can help put out the flames by going vegan today”.
Like we’ve seen be-fore when farmers have been hit by floods or fire, rural communities unite to respond to the
animal welfare emer-gencies that invariably arise.
Of course, PETA and its peers have again done absolutely nothing to assist the emergency animal welfare task at hand due to the bush-fires.
If PETA and other an-ti-farming groups were genuinely interested in animal welfare, they’d be side-by-side with producers on the front-line of these fires, unit-ed by a genuine desire to help livestock and wildlife in need.
While farmers have been generously donat-ing precious fodder and serving as volunteer firefighters, the only thing PETA has been serving this summer is its own dangerously skewed agenda.
Our vigilance against anti-farming extrem-ism must continue on a number of fronts.
In January, an activ-ist who pleaded guilty to trespassing onto a Queensland piggery and stealing six piglets walked away from court with 12 months’ proba-
tion and a $300 fine. The activist subse-
quently posted photos of herself with the pig-lets on social media.
We continue to see wanton criminal activ-ity where these extrem-ists break into piggeries (farms where families live) and pose enormous risks to biosecurity and animal welfare.
In the face of the Af-rican swine fever threat, on-farm biosecurity has never been more vital for our $5.3 billion in-dustry.
But perhaps the most outrageous element to this particular crime is the stolen piglets were removed from the safe-ty and security of the piggery and exposed to unacceptable welfare threats.
The piglets were sto-len before they’d even had their first milk, which obviously has a huge impact on their health and immune sys-tem development.
Newborn piglets re-moved from the farm suffer greatly and a number invariably die.
There must be real deterrents and punish-ments for this sort of criminal activism.
APL is dedicated to protecting the safety of our members.
Our industry must continue to highlight the need for tougher penalties for those who, under the disingenuous veil of animal welfare, put our livestock and industry at such great risk.
Point of Viewby MARGO ANDRAE CEO
New ad campaign a hit while trespass penalties amiss
“I GUESS we could make it a quickie,” she says.
Weeknight dinners can be a stressful prospect, but cheeky new ads have a hot tip for hungry, time-poor consumers.
Australian Pork Lim-ited has launched its new advertising campaign, re-vealing pork is quick and easy to cook and keeping Australian Pork’s iconic cheeky tone.
APL Marketing and Communications Man-ager Mitch Edwards said, “People are returning to work and it’s barbecue season, so it’s the perfect
time to try a pork steak.”“The new ads are about
a couple on a bus during the daily commute, some-thing many of us relate to, and that discussion we all have about dinner pros-pects.
“We hope these ads will make people smile, but also show them a new way to cook and help them serve up a satisfying quickie.”
The ads, which run across free-to-air TV, subscription TV, radio, social channels and on-line video, are light but education-focused.
“Pork is versatile and
easy to cook,” Mr Ed-wards said.
“In this ad we’ve focused on cooking pork steaks with the 6-2-2 method.
“That is, six minutes on one side, two on the other and then rest for two min-utes.
“It’s quick, easy and set to gratify.
“Our website pork.com.au has plenty of recipe inspiration to help you get some pork on your fork.”
To see the ad, visit youtube/dj3U5GwFqLg or for pork steak recipe inspira-tion, head to pork.com.au
Page 2 – Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2020 www.porknews.com.au
WITH the increasing accessibility and afford-ability of global travel, the number of Austral-ians travelling overseas almost doubled over the past 10 years to five mil-lion trips annually.
Australia has also en-joyed significant in-creases in international visitors, receiving 8.5 million visitors in 2018, which has positive im-pacts on our economy.
However, overseas air-line travel contributes to the rapid spread of virus-es and diseases globally, so increased diligence is required by everyone.
In relation to human disease, this is cur-rently being observed with the outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV acute res-piratory disease).
The coronavirus is like-ly to have originated from a seafood and poultry market in Wuhan, China, with details of the source or how frequent human to human transmission oc-curs still being worked through.
It is thought to be spread between people by respir-atory droplets in the air.
As at February 3, 2020, the nCoV has infected over 17,000 people and killed at least 360 people in China.
In comparison to nCoV, African swine fever af-fects all age groups of pigs and is more stable, more transmissible and harder to eradicate from the environment once it has been introduced.
So, it is important high levels of biosecurity and good personal hygiene are maintained – every-one has responsibility for this.
The new coronavi-rus outbreak has been declared by the World Health Organization as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
An expert at China’s National Health Com-mission, Zhong Nanshan, identified quarantine as the most effective way to stop the virus being transmitted – the Aus-tralian Government has arranged for Australian citizens and permanent residents in Wuhan to be housed in quarantine at Christmas Island for 14 days prior to returning to the Australian mainland.
It has also led to the Australian Government imposing travel restric-tions, self-isolation if people were in mainland China on or after Febru-ary 1, 2020 and advising visitors from mainland China who are not Aus-tralian citizens or perma-nent residents or their de-pendants that they cannot enter Australia.
Direct flights to Aus-tralia from China are also being cancelled and sus-pended.
I thought it may be in-teresting to provide some
comparison of the two viruses.
Unlike ASF, which has a DNA genome, nCoV has an RNA genome, which allows the virus to mutate and change, very similar to influenza vi-ruses.
The nCoV is geneti-cally and antigenically different to both porcine epidemic diarrhoea vi-rus (PEDv) and porcine deltacoronavirus, which Australia remains free from.
There is also no evi-dence that nCoV has come from pigs or infects pigs.
If this situation with coronavirus and the en-demic status of ASF in China is not enough for the Chinese authorities to deal with, a highly patho-genic strain of the H5N1 avian influenza has just been reported in China’s Hunan province, accord-ing to China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
It has been reported that nearly 18,000 chickens have been culled, with 4500 chickens dying from H5N1 avian influ-enza.
As advised by the WHO, H5N1 virus does not easily infect humans and being spread from person to person is unu-sual.
However, there is a risk for sporadic infection and small clusters of human cases due to human expo-sure to infected poultry or contaminated environ-ments.
All of this emphasises the critical importance of having high biosecurity practices in place – at the border, on-farm and by partners supporting pork businesses.
Australia is very fortu-nate to be free of many global pig viruses and diseases, including ASF.
This position is not taken for granted – we do have the strongest science-based biosecurity protocols in the world and our risk analyses fol-low WTO rules.
Our industry is being well supported by the Australian Government,
who announced addition-al biosecurity funding of $66.6 million to address the significant impacts of ASF on the Australian pork industry.
This funding is sup-porting more biosecurity officers post-border, six new detector dogs and two new 3D X-ray ma-chines in the internation-al mail centres in Sydney and Melbourne.
Further, the Govern-ment has provided $1.4 million over 3.5 years to Australian Pork Limited to support a national fe-ral pig co-ordinator posi-tion to develop a national action plan for feral pig management.
Industry is also repre-sented on the joint ASF task force groups that were set up in October 2019 to address policy gaps and provide recom-mendations to the Ani-mal Health Committee for their next meeting in March 2020.
The AUSVETPLAN for ASF will then be final-ised.
These task groups are: Operationalising ASF AUSVETPLAN; Permits and movements; Destruc-tion, disposal and decon-tamination; Processing; and Feral pigs.
A sincere thank you to all those who are in-volved – your expertise, contributions, ideas, time and support are greatly appreciated.
Continued attention and focus on your biosecurity protocols is still required so we don’t take the ‘ped-al off the metal’ in re-lation to preventing any exotic disease incursions entering the Australian pig herd.
Dr Jonathan Taylor from the Department of Agriculture told attend-ees at the ASF workshop in Kingaroy on January 31, 2020 that a national decision has been made in Timor Leste that ASF will not be eradicated and will be endemic – heeding that ‘the price of peace is eternal vigi-lance’.
APL is building our relationships with those working in feral pig man-
agement, including pig doggers, state agencies and research providers and these will be further enhanced once the na-tional feral pig co-ordi-nator commences.
Good biosecurity prac-tices rely on three key principles; physical seg-regation, cleaning (by removing contamination) and disinfection (to kill any remaining virus) and should be practised re-lentlessly.
If you, or anyone you know, are coming into contact with your pigs after recently returning from overseas travel, is feeling unwell or showing flu-like symptoms, please take the appropriate pre-cautions to keep your pigs safe.
These protocols should also be documented within your biosecurity management plan (that describes how you are preventing the introduc-tion and spread of pests, diseases, weeds and con-taminants on and from your property) and fol-lowed diligently by eve-ryone entering onto your farm, without exception.
Many parallels can also be drawn from the im-pact of travel restrictions that have been made in response to curtailing the spread of nCoV into Australia to pork busi-nesses in the event of an outbreak of ASF in Aus-tralia.
Many businesses al-ready experiencing sig-nificant financial stress due to the unprecedented severe bushfire season re-stricting visitor numbers during their peak season now also face additional pressures as a result of reduced international visitors.
How prepared is your business to survive an emergency animal dis-ease outbreak?
If you have not writ-ten your plan, I strongly urge you to have a look at resources that will walk you through a list to stim-ulate your thinking.
Download the 30-min-ute plan for piggeries at australianpork.com.au/30min-EADOP-pigs or visit farmbiosecurity.com.au /su r v iv ing-an-emergency-disease-out-break to download the full EAD risk manage-ment planning guide to assist you with preparing a risk management plan for an EAD outbreak.
It really is important to think through your plan and write it down during ‘peacetime’ so it is avail-able and ready to go if the
unthinkable occurs. If you have prepared
your business continuity plan, when did you last review it, test it and re-vise it?
The same question is al-so very relevant for your biosecurity plan.
If you don’t know where to start, please reach out and we are only too hap-py to assist with pointing you in the right direction.
Some factors to con-sider for preparing your business continuity plan include:
• Overnight closures of markets;
• Loss of supply con-tracts;
• Movement restrictions on livestock, products, feed, people and equip-ment;
• Implementing disease control activities requir-ing your time, equipment and other resources;
• Media and public scru-tiny;
• On-farm disposal plans – regulator feedback on proposed site selection;
• Disruptions to busi-nesses supplying inputs into your business;
• How you’ll deal with loss of income and/or staff;
• Cash flow issues;• Access to finance and
relationships with ac-countants and legal ser-vices;
• Stress management and mental health; and
• What your recovery plan would be.
Finally, industry con-sultations to inform the APIQP major review have now commenced.
APIQP certified pro-ducers, processors, trans-porters, retailers, govern-ment officers and envi-ronmental consultants are welcome to attend.
Antimicrobial resist-ance, biosecurity, audit frequency and a simpli-fied QA system for small producers were the key issues discussed at the first meeting.
Details of the face to face meetings being held in NSW, South Australia and Queensland are pro-vided below.
I encourage you all to participate and provide your input.
If you are unable to at-tend and want to provide your feedback, please email: [email protected] or call Tracey Edwards on 0410 824 288.
For further information, please do not hesitate to contact me on 0423 056 045 or [email protected]
07 3286 1833porknews.com.au
Pig IndustryCalendar of Events
2020
APIQ Stakeholder Communication Meetings – Australia FEB 10 – 2:30-4:30, Young NSWFEB 12 – 2:30-4:30, Auburn SAFEB 13 – 3:00-5:00, Murray Bridge SAFEB 18 – 3:00-5:00, Murgon QLDFEB 19 – 2:30-5:00, Toowoomba QLDFor more information, visit apiq.com.au/2019-apiq_-major-review or call Heather Channon 0423 056 045
FEB 12-13 – Missouri Pork Expo, Missouri, US www.mopork.com/events/missouri-pork-expo-2
MAR 31- APR 1 – London Swine Conference, Ontario, Canada www.londonswineconference.ca
How to supply event details: Send all details to Australian Pork Newspaper, PO Box 387, Cleveland, Qld 4163, call 07 3286 1833 fax: 07 3821 2637, email: [email protected]
All producers are encouraged to send in letters to be published in
APN, outlining any concerns or issues they may have with
the industry.
This is an open forum where you can cover any topic, whether for
Coronavirus and ASF – some interesting biosecurity parallels
by HEATHER CHANNONResearch and Innovation
General Manager
Date Venue Timing
Monday, February 10 Young Services Club, Young NSW 2:30-4:30 pm
Wednesday, February 12 The Rising Sun Hotel, Auburn SA 2:30-4:30 pm
Thursday, February 13 Rydges Pit Lane Hotel, Murray Bridge SA 3:00-5:00 pm
Tuesday, February 18 The Australian Hotel, Murgon QLD 3:00-5:00 pm
Wednesday, February 19 Platinum International Toowoomba QLD 2:30-5:00 pm
Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2020 – Page 3www.porknews.com.au
GRAIN & PROTEIN
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Page 4 – Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2020 www.porknews.com.au
WHILE electrical and carbon dioxide stunning of pigs will never please everyone, or the pigs for that matter, one apparent alternative is low atmos-pheric pressure stunning.
LAPS is where air is vacuumed out of a cham-ber containing pigs, ren-dering them unconscious due to lack of oxygen.
This hypoxia is a condi-tion in which the body or a region of the body is de-prived of adequate oxygen to the tissues.
It can be classified as generalised (affecting the whole body) or local (af-fecting a region of the body).
The RSPCA’s Animal Welfare Science Up-date, Issue 67 Jan 2020, cited a report published in ‘Animal Welfare’ last November, titled ‘Could low atmospheric pres-sure stunning (LAPS) be suitable for pig slaugh-ter? A review of the
available information’. The authors were Jenny
Bouwsema and Jeffrey Lines, Universities Fed-eration for Animal Wel-fare.
UK based and estab-lished in 1926, UFAW is an internationally recog-nised, independent, sci-entific and educational animal welfare charity concerned with improv-ing knowledge and un-derstanding of animals’ needs.
UFAW promotes high standards of welfare and practical, long-lasting solutions to welfare prob-lems for farm, companion, laboratory, captive wild animals and those we in-teract with in the wild.
The Bouwsema and Lines report abstract de-scribed LAPS as a slaugh-ter technique that may be less stressful for pigs (sus scrofa domestica) than current commercial stun-ning and slaughter meth-ods.
While the authors ac-knowledged there was no current published research on the use of LAPS for stunning adult pigs, there was a significant body of relevant experience from investigations into the ef-fects of low pressure and hypoxia on humans, hy-poxia for killing pigs and the use of LAPS for kill-ing piglets, poultry and rats.
In their paper, the ba-sic physics and biology of LAPS was briefly re-viewed and relevant expe-rience from research with humans, poultry, rats and piglets was presented.
On the basis of this in-formation, they proposed some initial parameters for LAPS trials with pigs and identified potential welfare issues and an ap-proach to achieve LAPS at a commercially viable speed.
While the effects of LAPS on pigs was pres-ently uncertain, evidence from research with hu-mans and other animals suggested that healthy, fasted pigs undergoing
LAPS were unlikely to suffer from air hunger or pain.
Any pigs suffering from upper respiratory tract disease, tooth decay or excess gas in the alimen-tary canal may, however, experience pain.
A killing cycle was like-ly to require nine to 14 minutes.
To implement LAPS in a commercial, high-throughput processing plant would require mul-tiple decompression cyl-inders.
The available evidence suggested LAPS could be commercially viable for pig slaughter and that for most pigs it would be less stressful than cur-rent commercial slaughter methods.
While the RSPCA ac-knowledges stunning with CO2 gas offers ben-efits over electric stun-ning, and that most pigs in Australia are stunned with CO2 gas, it believes potential alternatives such as those below should be investigated:
• Non-aversive (not un-pleasant and do not cause pain) gas mixtures such as argon, nitrogen, or nitrous oxide;
• A combination of ar-gon with CO2;
• Anaesthesia with non-aversive gases, followed by killing by CO2 or elec-trical methods; and
• Genetic selection for pigs that do not find CO2 painful.
According to RSPCA, recent studies revealed welfare issues with CO2 stunning, including:
• The gas is very un-pleasant for pigs (highly aversive);
• There is variability be-tween pigs’ responses to CO2;
• Pigs are not rendered unconscious immediately; and
• High concentrations of CO2 gas can cause sig-nificant pain and distress to pigs when inhaled (by causing acute respiratory distress).
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Whole herd protection against Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae. Now for your piglets and sows.
Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2020 – Page 5www.porknews.com.au
� 1800 426 142
DIRECT
APIAM ANIMAL HEALTH IS
CONTRIBUTING:
IN SUPPORT OF
2020 Australian
FOUNDATION
> 20% of all pig, feedlot and ProDairy veterinary consulting fees*
> 5% of all pig and sheep semen sales from Pork Storks Australia and Apiam Genetic Services*
> Medications and supplies
> $10 from every primary consult and dog/cat vaccination fee at all Apiam veterinary clinics^
> Veterinary staff to affected areas
^ At participating Apiam Animal Health clinics, Apiam Animal Health will donate $10 to Bushfire relief via the Fur Life Foundation between the 20 January – 29 February 2020. A primary consult is the first visit for a pet (not subsequent follow-up visits) and includes standard vaccination / check-up consults. * 20 January 2020 – 29 February 2020
Page 6 – Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2020 www.porknews.com.au
THE US and China signed a trade agreement on January 15 in Wash-ington in an attempt to settle some of the US complaints around Chi-na’s trade and investment practices.
There are some mean-ingful outcomes that will help address US President Donald Trump’s chief bug-bear in the bilateral trade relationship – China’s huge surplus in exports over im-ports.
In other areas where the US has expressed its dis-satisfaction, including in-tellectual property and technology protection, in-dustrial subsidies, and the role of state-owned enter-prises, there has been less progress.
To rectify the trade im-balance between these two great economies, China has committed to buying $US200 billion in addi-tional US products over the next two years.
This amount is broken down into specific sectors, with food and agricultural products accounting for $US32 billion.
To put this amount in perspective, reaching $32 billion in additional agri-food exports to China will require the US to more than double the value of its 2017 food and fibre exports to China.
This is a huge ask. Meeting such ambitious
targets means the US will expand the range of prod-ucts it exports to China.
To this end, China has made sweeping commit-ments under the agreement to accelerate import pro-tocol negotiations on live breeder cattle, potatoes, nectarines, blueberries, av-ocados, barley, alfalfa hay and more, as well as to restore the trade in chicken meat and greatly expand access for US beef and pork exporters.
China has also agreed to allow or improve access for products it has banned or restricted in the past, in-cluding HGP-treated beef and genetically modified organisms.
This represents a major liberalisation of the Chi-nese agricultural import market, potentially set-
ting a precedent for other exporters (including Aus-tralia) to expand their own access in future.
Interestingly, China has also agreed to review its ban on the importation of meat containing ractopa-mine (Paylean) residues.
On this front, China has produced quite extensive research to support its posi-tion on beta-agonists and most observers expect a re-view does not mean China is on the verge of setting a minimum residue limit on ractopamine.
But we will be watching closely.
Another notable commit-ment within the agreement is this: “the Parties intend to promote co-operative activities within the Global African Swine Fever Re-search Alliance to share publicly available scientific knowledge and information to contribute to the progres-sive control and eradication of African swine fever.”
Producers everywhere should be pleased to see closer co-operation be-tween these two leading powers on combatting the ASF challenge.
What does it all mean for Australia’s pork protocol and market access ambi-tions in China?
Unfortunately, the deal is likely to push our proto-col further into the back-ground.
Chinese officials respon-sible for negotiation of ac-cess protocols will have their hands full in meet-ing the requirements of the US deal for the foreseeable future.
Even if we envisage an improvement in the politi-cal environment, the Chi-nese resourcing and prior-itisation of protocol work would suggest we have a while to wait yet.
Not good news on that front.
On the flipside, we expect to see considerable diver-sion of US pork exports away from markets where they compete with Austral-ian, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, and into the China mainland market, where – unlike Australian red meat exporters – we have nothing to lose.
So, in terms of Australia’s competitiveness in estab-lished export markets, the US-China deal should be a positive.
To capitalise on this and other opportunities in over-seas markets, Australian Pork Limited continues to work with producers and supply chain partners in setting a new international strategy for the industry.
A series of workshops is being held to determine where our priorities should be and how we should ex-ecute them.
If you would like to contribute to this process, please get in touch with me at andrew.robertson@aus tralianpork.com.au or call 02 6270 8888 to discuss.
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THE last time we cre-ated a new marketing approach was the ‘Get Some Pork on Your Fork’ cheeky advertis-ing campaign back in 2010.
Now it’s 2020 and time to dust off the imagina-tion and try something we haven’t tried before.
Every week, about four million kilograms of imported pork lands on our shores.
That’s about $17 mil-lion worth and you all know the impact that’s had on you and the Aus-tralian pig industry.
Unfortunately, most people are still shocked to learn that the major-ity of the ham and bacon they’re buying is made from imported pork.
They simply don’t know.
To help counter that, we’ve just kicked off a new advertising cam-paign in Adelaide.
Set to be officially launched on February 10 at PorkStar Adelaide, the new ads aim to raise consumer awareness.
We’re trying to get them to buy Australian ham particularly, but most people think they are, so we’re going back
a step to educate them and hopefully change their behaviour.
That’s why the first phase of the campaign focuses on raising awareness, while the second will focus on helping them choose Australian ham.
This is a project Julia Unwin has been work-ing on with our insights team since mid-2018.
They’ve made sure the foundations of the cam-paign are strong.
It has involved re-search, which showed consumers had no idea their ham and bacon might not be made from 100 percent Australian pork.
The team is aiming to maintain the number of packs of ham and bacon bought in total, just to
make more of them Aus-tralian meat.
The ads created hope-fully do just that and in a light-hearted way that is both entertaining but educational and will motivate consumers to change their behaviour.
The ads are being rolled out on television and radio in metropoli-tan Adelaide.
You may recall we did something similar with the 6-2-2 campaign.
We’ll be closely watch-ing to see how this cam-paign is received and we hope to roll it out nation-ally in the future.
Of course, this is also an area that can be con-sidered contentious.
In the past, APL has been reluctant to com-municate the amount of imported pork in ham
and bacon due to fear around the risk of dam-age to the entire cat-egory.
Throughout 2019, we have communicated broadly with industry and have been working closely with stakeholders.
We have also taken a great deal of legal ad-vice for all television and radio scripts prior to airing.
The campaign is set to run for five months.
In that time, we’re also working with retailers, foodservice outlets and using PR and media en-gagement to further am-plify this trial in South Australia.
We’re looking forward to hearing what Ad-elaide consumers think of the new ads.
We will also have a new Facebook page: Aussie Bacon and Ham.
This will be a new communication tool to help us respond to consumers looking for recipe inspiration, tips, tricks and where to buy, particularly in South Australia.
The campaign will of-ficially launch on Febru-ary 10.
New ham promotion for a new decade
Marketing Mattersby PETER HAYDON
General Manager Marketing
US-China trade deal: what does it mean for Australian pork?
Policyby ANDREW ROBERTSONPolicy Manager – Trade and
Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2020 – Page 7www.porknews.com.au
THE week prior to writ-ing this article, I had the opportunity to par-ticipate in the CPH Pig seminar.
CPH Pig is the ‘Cen-tre for research in pig production and health’ at the University of Copen-hagen, which serves as the platform for greater efforts in national and international research, innovation, regulatory services, training and education.
The centre aims to en-sure collaboration be-tween the university and industry representa-tives such as technology groups, SEGES and au-thorities in order to de-liver research outcomes relevant to industry.
Currently directed by Jens Peter Nielsen, pro-fessor at the Depart-ment of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, the re-search themes are centred around welfare, produc-tion, genetics, health and antimicrobial resistance.
The seminar is a unique opportunity for students, scientists and other spe-cialists within pig pro-duction to acquire know-ledge within pig research and innovation.
Over 160 representa-tives of European pig production attended, representing regulatory
bodies, service providers, feed and pharmaceutical companies, students and researchers.
This year was the sev-enth seminar, with the program including the latest research outcomes on weaning diets, swine influenza, reduction of antibiotic use, improved piglet health, major pig research projects and the one-health consortium – the latter being what I am going to focus on for the rest of the article.
The Danish Veterinary Consortium has very re-cently (January 2020) be-come fully operational, with the beginning of the Consortium starting as a partial implementation in January 2019.
It is a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen and the State Serum Institute for the performance of the
veterinary public ser-vice agreement under the Danish Ministry of Envi-ronment and Food.
Essentially, it has been established to provide research, consultancy services, diagnosis and laboratory analyses in connection with the monitoring and control of about 80 different live-stock diseases.
The Consortium’s pub-lic sector consultancy
includes everything from disease surveillance and handling of specific emergency tasks, includ-ing suspected disease outbreaks to assistance in the form of risk assess-ments, research projects and questions from the Minister.
What makes this col-laboration so interesting is their ‘one health’ ap-proach to the Consortium – meaning they have an ‘integrated preparedness for threats against human or animal health’.
The Danish authorities and research bodies be-lieve the prevention and control of diseases is best done as a collabora-tion between veterinar-ians, medical doctors, biologists and other spe-cialists due to the close interaction between peo-ple, animals, food and
the environment. The majority of their
research projects look into notifiable diseases, in particular those that would have a significant impact on the Danish economy.
Their research and con-sultancy aim to develop relevant tools to support the Danish Veterinary and Food Administra-tion’s decision-making process with a focus on endemic, exotic and no-tifiable animal diseases – including early warn-ing signs for infections in mammals, poultry and wildlife.
Though Denmark is free from serious infec-tious livestock diseases, the Consortium aims to keep all Danish veteri-narians aware of and able to react to any possibility of the disease presence,
with up-to-date informa-tion provided to the Dan-ish veterinary network as the information becomes available.
The Danish Veterinary Consortium is further-more a part of a large international network and has entered into agree-ments on research and de-velopment projects with a number of the world’s leading laboratories and universities.
Over 20 pig industry re-search projects are under-way at the Consortium, but some of the most rel-evant include:
• African swine fever vaccine development;
• Foot and mouth dis-ease vaccine develop-ment;
• Consequences of con-trol strategies for ASF in the pig and wild boar populations – the influ-
ence of bloodsucking flies, environment and feed;
• The identification and characterisation of antimicrobial resistance of clinical and zoonotic relevance in Danish pig production; and
• Identify viral and host factors that increase the chance of a strain of swine influenza to pro-gress to human replica-tion and transmission (prediction of and prepar-ing for the next ‘H1N1’ outbreak).
Though only at par-tial implementation, the Danish Veterinary Con-sortium has already been successful in its first year – it will be interesting to watch its development and the outcomes of their research, which could have an international in-fluence.
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THE European Food Safety Authority has published its latest annual update on the presence of African swine fever in the Eu-ropean Union.
During the period covered by the re-port (November 2018 to October 2019), Czechia became offi-cially ASF-free.
The disease was, however, confirmed as present in Slovakia, meaning there contin-ues to be nine affected countries in the EU.
In 2019, the area of the EU affected by ASF expanded pro-gressively, moving mainly in a southwest-ern direction.
The report shows all phases of the epidemic are now represented in the EU: areas recently affected following ei-ther an isolated intro-duction or geographic expansion from af-fected areas; affected areas that are expand-ing; areas where ASF infection has been present for some time, including areas where ASF seems to be fad-ing out; and non-af-fected areas.
The situation varies substantially between member states due to multiple influences in-cluding the structure of domestic pig produc-tion (in particular, the proportion of backyard holdings), geographi-
cal conditions and the characteristics of the wild boar population.
Backyard (non-com-mercial) farms present particular challenges for an ASF eradication program, such as un-controlled movements of pigs and people, poor biosecurity and the identification of holdings.
For this year’s report, a case study was con-ducted in Romania to identify the particular factors that contribute to the spread of the disease in these non-commercial holdings.
The report also:• Describes seasonal
fluctuations in the de-tection of ASF-posi-tive samples since the disease was first de-tected in the EU;
• Reviews the meas-ures applied by the af-fected member states for controlling the spread of ASF in wild boar;
• Assesses the effec-tiveness of artificial or natural boundaries in controlling spread, with a particular focus on the combination of control measures that have been applied in Belgium; and
• Based on the latest science and epidemio-logical data, assesses measures for manag-ing wild boar popula-tions in different geo-graphical areas of the EU.
ASF spreading slowly in EU – EFSA report
Staying ahead of the next disease challenge in Denmark
Page 8 – Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2020 www.porknews.com.au
SOONER or later, Aus-tralia will be asked about its surveillance for an-timicrobial resistance at the trade negotiating table.
Better that we are ready.Pork producers world-
wide and their vets have become accustomed to us-ing antimicrobial drugs to control and treat disease.
Now they must adjust not only to a diminishing array of medicines and attack from various sec-tors for the perceived risk to human AMR risks but also to new trade require-ments in relation to AMR.
Global policymakers in this space are grappling with highly sensitive trade interests.
On one side of the nego-tiating table are the food-importing countries.
The European Union, Japan, Singapore, China, Korea and now the UK are among the leaders of this group.
On the other side are the food-exporting countries: the US, Canada, Austral-ia, Brazil and New Zea-land among others.
All these countries have signed up to the World Health Organization AMR goals, but they have competing interests.
The exporting countries contest some of the AMR ‘evidence’.
Other countries just can-not move at the same pace.
Even now, negotiators in the Australian – EU free trade agreement are work-ing through antimicrobial stewardship issues.
Codex, the global ‘Food Code’, is also investing in AMR matters.
Codex is a collection of standards, guidelines and codes of practice that governments may use to ensure food safety, quality and fair trade.
When the standards are followed, consumers can trust the safety and qual-
ity of the products they buy, and importers can trust that the food they ordered will meet their specifications.
Global trade of food products in real terms has doubled over the past 20 years.
Developing countries have played a very impor-tant role in this expansion as exports of agricultural products from low-income countries have grown by over 150 percent since 2002.
Food products (fruits, nuts, coffee and tea) ac-count for almost 40 per-cent of the total exports from low-income coun-tries.
This suggests a high de-pendency on the export of just a few agricultural commodities.
It increases the risk of economic damage in cases of product rejection from poor countries at the borders of importing countries.
At the same time, trade concerns are often raised by World Trade Organi-zation members with re-gard either to rejections/detentions at the borders or legislation that creates obstacles to trade.
Food producers are al-
ready under pressure as consumers learn about the use of antimicrobials in food production and more so when the full impact of AMR on micro-organ-isms in the food chain and on micro-organisms that naturally live in people is better understood.
Governments will be ex-pected to respond.
The Codex Committee on Food Hygiene drafts the basic provisions on food hygiene applicable to all food and now they are addressing microbiologi-cal hazards.
A taskforce has been as-sembled and it is revising Codex to contain food-borne AMR as well as developing the guidelines on surveillance of AMR.
It involves human and animal health and the en-vironment.
As things stand, there is no standardised data available on the global use of antimicrobials in livestock and only 42 countries have a system to collect this data.
It’s a long-term project but it will happen.
Better for Australia to get it right early and se-cure the high-value mar-kets. Ross Cutler
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THE Australian Gov-ernment is working to ensure our farming future by investing $5 million to bring kids and farms closer to-gether.
Minister for Agricul-ture Bridget McKenzie said kids were increas-ingly removed from di-rectly experiencing life on the land, which was a barrier to choosing agriculture as a career and allowed myths to perpetuate.
“Australian agricul-ture has a bright and prosperous future, so we need to place a high value on edu-cating young people about where – and how – their food and fibre is produced,” Minister McKenzie said.
“That’s why we are delivering on an elec-tion commitment and investing up to $5 mil-lion towards the Kids To Farms program, which is all about bringing farms and kids closer together.
“I don’t want kids to think cotton is made from animals or that yogurt grows on trees.
“We need to think now about the farm-ers of tomorrow and how important it is for kids to have a greater understanding of the mighty contribution agriculture makes to Australia’s way of life, regional communities and the economy.
“This new program will encourage young
people to better under-stand and get excited about agriculture, in-cluding the many ca-reer opportunities it offers.
“Our future work-force will operate drones, use satellite technology and deploy precision agriculture techniques.
“We need more op-portunities for young people to engage di-rectly with agriculture, to see their food and fi-bre growing, and hear first-hand about our increasingly innova-tive industry that sus-tains our land as well as feeding and clothing the world.”
State Farming Or-ganisations are the eligible applicants for grants to deliver Kids To Farms, which is part of the Australian Government’s $10 mil-lion Educating Kids About Agriculture election commitment.
Consortia applica-tions are welcome and interested parties should contact their State Farming Organi-sation to express their interest in partnering on projects.
Grant applications opened on January 30, 2020 and close Febru-ary 26, 2020.
Details about the program and how to apply are available on the Community Grants Hub at communi tygrants.gov.au
Food for thought: teaching our farmers of tomorrow
Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2020 – Page 9www.porknews.com.au
MORE than 90 pork producers, service and product suppliers and government agencies at-tended an African swine fever seminar held in Kingaroy on January 31.
The highly informative and interactive seminar was an initiative of the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisher-ies under the co-ordina-tion of DAF Pork Exten-sion Officer Sara Willis.
Senator Susan McDon-ald also attended the sem-inar to further build her knowledge of ASF and better understand the key issues facing the industry.
Pork Queensland Inc was pleased to assist in chairing the event, which was financially supported by the following compa-nies: Novus, DSM, Jefo Australia, BEC Feed Sol-utions, Biomin, AusPac Ingredients and Zamira Australia.
Topics included: 1. An overview of ASF,
the AUSVETPLAN and compensation arrange-ments under EADRA.
2. Australian Govern-ment plans and activities around border control.
3. Government’s re-sponse to a detection.
4. Methods of destruc-tion and disposal.
5. The role of Australian Pork Limited as the lead industry body.
6. Movement controls that would be applied, in-cluding transport proto-cols for pigs.
7. Minimum standards for on-farm biosecurity and emergency prepared-ness.
8. Feral pig control op-tions and the role of the Australian Pig Doggers and Hunters Association in managing ASF.
The seminar was part of the preparedness being offered by industry and government agencies to ensure all sectors under-stand how to prevent the entry of this devastating virus into Australia and implement the best con-trol measures if required.
With ASF established in Timor Leste and now confirmed in Indonesia it is so important our border control measures are fully adopted.
Participants at the semi-nar were informed on what was being done at all points of entry and what industry needs to have adopted to limit or prevent entry to their operations.
Queensland and Federal government Biosecurity officers provided a wealth of knowledge on all as-pects across prevention and control measures that would be implemented should an incursion occur.
Industry leaders also provided the audience with practical steps and interventions being im-plemented within their respective businesses, al-lowing producers to con-sider their application on their own farms.
The bottom line of the seminar was all parties need to work together and prevention through en-hanced biosecurity meas-ures is the key.
PQI urged pig farmers
and industry stakeholders to take up membership and support the state pig farming organisation pro-viding representation at all levels of government.
Contact president John Coward on 0407 622 166 for membership applica-tions.
Membership fee is only $300 per annum for pro-ducers with more than 300 sows or $150 for those with less than 300 sows.
Suppliers can also sup-port PQI with associate membership at only $200 per annum.
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Kingaroy ASF seminar speakers with Senator Susan McDonald from north Queensland.
The threat of African swine fever
LOWER interest rates on Regional Investment Corporation loans is welcomed good news for farmers, NFF CEO Tony Mahar said.
“Farmers across the coun-try continue to be severely challenged by the unprece-dented drought conditions,” Mr Mahar said.
“Access to low-interest loans allows farmers to maintain valuable breed-ing stock and remain in business while the drought continues.
“And, when the rains fi-nally do fall, RIC funds will play an important role in helping farm busi-nesses recover and restore productivity.”
Mr Mahar said the Gov-ernment’s recent decision, announced by Ministers Littleproud and Corman was timely.
“The reduction of the already low RIC loan in-terest rates to 2.11 percent for Farm Business Loans and 1.65 percent for Wa-ter Infrastructure Loans is prudent,” he said.
“Interest payments can
be a significant cost bur-den for farmers and rep-resent substantial pressure during what are already incredibly tough times.”
The rate cut is in addi-tion to two years’ interest and repayment free and a three-year interest-only period on RIC loans of up to $2 million.
Mr Mahar acknow-ledged the Federal Gov-ernment’s ongoing action to assist farmers to man-age through the current drought.
“The priority must continue to be on ensur-ing RIC loans and other drought and bushfire sup-port measures are made available to farmers as soon as possible,” he said.
“What farmers need now is cash in their pock-ets.
“They can’t afford for their access to support to be tied up in red tape and bureaucracy.
“Time lags of weeks or even months are not in the best interests of farmers or the communities that rely on them.”
Interest rate cut welcomed by farmers during tough times
Page 10 – Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2020 www.porknews.com.au
APIAM Animal Health has announced the ap-pointment of Dr Tom Harrison and Dr Sarah Jenkin as joint business managers of the Apiam companies that service the Australian pig indus-try.
Apiam provides the Aus-tralian pig industry with a fully integrated and com-prehensive service model that encompasses the entire swine production system, with veterinary and technical services through Portec Veterinary Services (WA) and Chris Richards & Associates (eastern Australia), artifi-cial insemination services through Pork Storks Aus-tralia and diagnostic ser-vices and bespoke vaccine solutions from recently acquired ACE Laboratory Services.
Dr Sarah Jenkin joined the Apiam vet team in 2010.
Sarah graduated with a veterinary degree from Massey University, and in 2018 was awarded a Mas-ter of Veterinary Studies in Epidemiology.
In her role as a senior swine veterinary consult-ant, Sarah has a special interest in improving re-production performance, data analysis of produc-tion patterns of disease and extensive experience in boar stud health and management.
With her role as an APIQ auditor for sev-en years, Sarah is well known throughout the in-dustry for her knowledge of quality systems across production methods and boar studs.
Dr Tom Harrison graduated from Charles Sturt University in 2013, progressing directly into rural veterinary practice, initially in the Goulburn Valley and then in the
United Kingdom. Tom joined the Apiam
vet team in 2017 where he provides veterinary and production advice to some of Australia’s high-est-performing produc-tion systems.
His special interests include development of high-performance pro-duction teams through benchmarking production performance and focusing on high-return activities such as day one pig care and gilt management.
Both Tom and Sarah will continue to provide these leading services to Apiam clients in conjunc-tion with their new roles.
Dr Chris Richards, in announcing the new ap-pointments, said both Sarah and Tom had wide-ranging experience and dedicated industry knowledge across all the pig businesses, ensuring Apiam will continue to provide world-class ser-vices to clients and con-tinue to be at the forefront of bringing new technol-ogies to industry.
Dr Richards said he was also proud of the fact these appointments are aligned with Apiam’s succession planning pro-gram, which rewards long-term employees who demonstrate the integrity, skill develop-ment and leadership qualities required to guide the success of the company into the future.
“The global swine world is currently being challenged on a number of fronts, and having Tom and Sarah lead our swine team will ensure we con-tinue to be at the fore-front of pig veterinary and production advice, and continue to invest in technologies to ensure our clients have sustain-able production systems,”
Dr Richards said.New team members
strengthen services and customer focus
Apiam Animal Health has also welcomed the ar-rival of three key mem-bers within the Apiam Swine Team: Dr Bri Fre-drich, Dr Ruel Pagoto and Sam Custodio.
“The new staff members bring a wealth of know-ledge and experience across Australian and in-ternational pig markets to the Apiam Swine Team, providing exciting devel-opment opportunities that will further strengthen the services we provide to our clients,” Dr Richards said.
Dr Fredrich and Dr Pagoto provide additional veterinary expertise to the Apiam Swine Team.
Previously employed by one of the largest swine integrators in the US, Dr Fredrich brings a fresh perspective backed by ex-tensive hands-on experi-ence to the Apiam Swine Team.
Dr Fredrich graduated as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Uni-versity of Tennessee in 2016.
In the US she provided veterinary oversight to 55,000 sows and their wean-to-market grow-outs.
With a special interest in day one pig care, farrow-ing house management, mycoplasma elimination and biosecurity, Dr Fre-drich said she was looking forward to providing in-sight to Apiam clients into larger production system practices as well as a fresh approach to everyday pro-tocols.
Dr Fredrich was direct-ly involved in the recent ASF outbreak simulation exercise undertaken by the US pig industry.
This brings valuable ex-perience to our industry as we continue to imple-ment best practice bio-security and develop the industry response to an ASF incursion.
Dr Pagoto brings 20 years’ experience in pig-gery and poultry produc-tion.
First in the Philippines, where he graduated with a veterinary degree, and upon arrival in Australia where he gained criti-cal experience in pig and poultry production under local conditions.
Attaining another DVM at the University of Ad-elaide in 2014, Dr Pagoto broadened his experience working as a swine tech-nical vet for Boehringer Ingelheim.
Joining the Apiam team in 2019, Dr Pagoto’s key focus areas have been respiratory disease, vet-erinary pathology and in-ternal medicine.
Sam Custodio, the new Swine, Business Account Manager, will focus on improving client engage-ment and Apiam’s client value proposition.
Mr Custodio has ex-
tensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry with Boehringer Ingel-heim where he managed the swine team.
His first-hand experi-ence across Australia’s swine production systems provides valuable insight into the industry and how best Apiam can support clients.
In introducing the three new members of the Swine Team, Dr Rich-ards said he was looking forward to them building strong client relationships as they work to evolve, improve and grow the ser-vices Apiam delivers.
The new appointments join an experienced Swine Team at Apiam with ex-tensive skills across all aspects of swine veteri-nary, reproduction and production.
The Apiam team is com-mitted to assisting pro-ducers to produce sustain-able production systems with extensive experience in reducing antimicrobial use, biosecurity systems, welfare systems and ap-plying new and emerging technologies to pork pro-duction systems.
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Apiam Animal Health enters new era through key appointments to Swine Team
GERMANY and Po-land are discussing new action to prevent the spread of African swine fever in wild boars in Poland close to the German border, including border fences and increased hunting of the animals.
Poland recorded 55 outbreaks of African swine fever in wild boars in December, the World Organisation for Animal Health said.
The disease was found only 30km from Germany, one of Eu-rope’s major pork ex-porters.
Asian countries in-cluding China regular-ly impose import bans on pork from regions where the disease has been discovered, caus-ing huge loss of busi-ness for meat export-ers.
Wild boars are spreading ASF and there are fears in-fected animals could bring the disease into Germany, threatening Germany’s huge pork exports to China.
Germany’s Agri-culture Minister Julia Kloeckner and Polish Agriculture Minis-ter Jan Krzysztof Ar-
danowski met in Ber-lin and agreed on new measures to jointly contain the ASF out-break in Poland and prevent it spreading to Germany, the German Agriculture Ministry said.
“Discussions include setting up a fenced cor-ridor along the border to prevent infected wild boar moving into Germany,” the minis-try said.
The two countries will discuss whether Germany’s civil de-fence force should help setting up fencing.
German regional state governments in Brandenburg and Saxony have already started building fences along the Polish bor-der in an attempt to stop infected wild boar roaming into Germany.
The two ministers also agreed to prepare a joint statement about “a drastic reduction in the wild boar density, for example through shooting as an effective preventative measure”.
Germany has already relaxed some restric-tions on wild boar hunting.
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Germany and Poland discuss new action to stop spread of African swine fever
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WITH demand for its hams and small-goods powering ahead, D’Orsogna’s Palmyra, Western Australia head-quarters and its new state-of-the-art $66 million facility at Mel-bourne, Victoria, are operating at close to maximum capacity.
Managing director Greig Smith said having established such a signifi-cant production base on the east coast had not on-ly complemented produc-tion at Palmyra, but had quickly built and grown new markets in its first six months.
“While D’Orsogna has long been one of the most-recognised brands at Woolworths, Coles and Metcash and across major foodservice busi-nesses, we’re now see-ing substantial growth in some exciting new mar-kets and from our val-ued traditional base,” Mr Smith said.
“This reflects not only our regularly refreshed product offerings, in terms of protein make-up and packaging, but also the stimulus and genuine
sense of excitement for our valued staff, custom-ers and consumers gen-erated by our new Mel-bourne facility.”
The 11,000sq m factory at Merrifield Business Park 30km north of Mel-bourne features 8500sq m of rooftop solar panels, comprising 2816 x 370W QCELL solar panels with 34 Fronius inverters, which will generate 1mW of power while reducing carbon emissions and saving close to $8 million over the 25-year life of the system.
D’Orsogna’s solar sys-tem, supplied and in-stalled by Cherry Energy Solutions, was financially supported by an Environ-mental Upgrade Agree-ment from Hume City Council and the Sustain-able Australia Fund, the first in the region.
While acknowledging the importance of invest-ing in such a sustainable clean energy system, Mr Smith said the real work of the business happened under the roof on the fac-tory floor.
“Of course we’ve also been very focused on sus-
tainability and productiv-ity on the factory floor, with various investments in resource use and envi-ronmental technologies, including automatic dos-ing of cleaning chemicals and water-saving equip-ment, for example.”
While all on-site cold rooms and chillers are computer controlled and energy efficient, where additional chilled stor-age is needed, typically at peak production times such as pre-Christmas, D’Orsogna only partners with those chilled stor-age providers that have their own energy efficient chilled storage facilities.
Other technologies at the new facility include computerised production monitoring systems, ro-botic picking and packing equipment and finished good scanning and inven-tory management systems to maximise yields, pro-duction efficiencies and customer service.
Global searches were conducted for the best available equipment with, for example, next-genera-tion slicers sourced from Germany.
About 70 percent of the floor space is allocated to production, including raw meat lines, smokehouses, chillers and cartoning.
The location was cho-sen to maximise access to arterial links and other essential services in Mer-rifield Business Park and the surrounding indus-trial precinct, as well as
proximity to major mar-kets within Victoria, as well as NSW, ACT, Tas-mania, South Australia and Queensland.
“Essentially, the new facility offers the D’Orsogna business addi-tional production capac-ity that will future-proof the business for years to come,” Mr Smith said.
D’Orsogna powering ahead with state-of-the art facility
D’Orsogna managing director Greig Smith.
NOMINATIONS for the National Energy Efficiency Awards 2020: Best Agricultur-al Energy Efficiency Project Award are now open, and energy-effi-cient farmers deliver-ing spark-savvy pro-jects are encouraged to nominate.
The new award, launched by the Queens-land Farmers’ Federa-tion in partnership with the Energy Efficiency Council, recognises the vital importance of ag-riculture to our economy and celebrates the inno-vation taking place on Australian farms.
QFF CEO Dr Georgina Davis said the award was
a great opportunity for energy efficiency pro-jects delivered ‘behind the farmgate’ to be cel-ebrated for their positive approach to energy man-agement.
“On-farm energy ef-ficiency projects allow farmers to realise energy savings and productivity improvements while re-ducing their carbon foot-print,” Dr Davis said.
“With significant en-ergy savings available from irrigation pump and lighting replace-ments, hot water system and air-conditioning up-grades, and the imple-mentation of renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaic and
bioenergy, farmers con-tinue to embrace inno-vative energy use and management.
“Energy is such an in-tegral part of running a farm business, so Aus-tralian farmers dem-onstrating leadership and catalysing change in energy efficiency
by implementing new technologies, reducing energy use and deliver-ing energy savings are encouraged to apply.”
The winners of the Na-tional Energy Efficiency Awards 2020, including 10 other categories cel-ebrating various other projects, sectors and
energy-efficiency cham-pions, will be unveiled at a gala dinner on Tues-day, May 26, 2020 at the Pullman Melbourne on the Park.
For more information about the Best Agricul-tural Energy Efficiency Project Award and to ap-ply, visit eec.org.au
Farmers encouraged to apply for energy efficiency award
Page 14 – Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2020 www.porknews.com.au
Farrowing and weaner crates, growers and baconer pens. Feed hopper with stainless steel trough.
Farrowing flooring with a 10mm gap; weaners flooring with a 12mm gap; and growers flooring with a 15mm gap.
NATIONAL Farmers’ Federation president Fio-na Simson recently took part in the first meeting of the Federal Govern-ment’s National Drought and North Queensland Flood Response and Recovery Agency Advi-sory Board, led by Shane Stone, in Orange, NSW.
The meeting coincided with an announcement of further support for local governments and schools by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Drought Minister David Little-proud.
Ms Simson said the NFF’s representation as a member on the Advi-sory Board was focused on ensuring the ongoing needs of both farmers and communities managing drought were met, and to ensure Australia was bet-ter prepared for the next drought.
“The worst drought con-ditions in 100 years con-tinue to impact vast areas of Australia,” Ms Simson said.
“Recent rainfall was welcomed and has pro-vided relief in some areas, but this moisture will rap-idly disappear as we head into more record tempera-tures with no follow-up rain on the horizon.
“We need regular and significant rainfall before this drought looks any-thing like being over.
“Even when the rains do come, the recovery period will extend over years for many farming busi-nesses.”
The Government re-cently expanded the Drought Communities Programme, providing 52 additional councils with up to $1 million.
“We know the hardship of drought extends way beyond the farmgate,” Ms Simson said.
“Money for local gov-ernments to invest in pro-jects and programs that individual councils deem appropriate has the po-tential to create jobs and provide a morale boost for communities.”
The NFF also wel-comed the Government’s announcement of an ad-ditional $10 million for non-government schools to help keep kids impact-ed by drought, in school.
“Continuity of access to education and social op-portunities is important for regional and remote students,” Ms Simson said.
“Many children in our drought-affected rural areas attend school away from home because of the tyranny of distance.
“This imposes a con-siderable cost on a farm-ing family’s dwindling budget.
“It’s our strong hope this money for non-gov-ernment schools will be
directed to school fee re-lief to ensure children’s all-important education is not disrupted.”
Ms Simson said the NFF continued to call for direct support measures for farm-ers managing drought.
“The enduring impact of this drought on the land-scape and on farmers’ fi-nancial positions cannot be overstated,” she said.
“Recently, with an audi-ence of the Prime Minis-ter, Minister Littleproud and Mr Stone, I urged the Government to continue its focus on supporting ru-ral Australia through this drought.
“The priority is to ad-dress the immediate cash flow needs of farmers, to keep people employed on farm and in our towns and to develop a plan for recovery.
“The NFF continues to advocate for local govern-ment rate relief and help with payroll expenses for farming businesses to keep people in jobs for when the rain does come.
“The NFF notes some states have provided pay-roll tax, stamp duty and water rates relief to fire-affected residents.
“These types of meas-ures are immediate and material.
“They help reduce the stress of seemingly never-ending bills when there’s no income to cover them.”
NFF welcomes additional drought relief measures
THE German state of Brandenburg has erected about 120km of electric fencing to prevent wild boars in-fected with African swine fever from stray-ing across the border from Poland and in-fecting its pig herd.
Hans-Christian Dan-iels doesn’t think the barrier will work.
“It looks rather inevi-table that swine fever will come,” Daniels said, whose farm near Tauche, close to the Pol-ish border, has 11,000 pigs.
“This could cause a dramatic fall in prices.”
ASF, which has led to the deaths of a quar-ter of the world’s pigs in China and roiled the global meat industry, is dangerously close to Germany, Europe’s larg-est pork producer.
A case of the viral dis-ease was discovered in a wild boar in Poland just 12km from the German border last month.
A confirmed case in Germany could prompt an import ban, ending the boom times for local pig farmers, who have seen exports to China,
the world’s biggest con-sumer of pork, jump due to outbreaks of ASF in Asia.
It could also have knock-on effects in the Netherlands and Den-mark, where the main suppliers of piglets for Germany are based.
Farmers such as Dan-iels have taken strict steps to ward off the disease but the biggest risk factor is from wild boars that roam the fields and forests along the German-Polish bor-der feeding on nuts and acorns.
They have already facilitated the infec-tion of about 10 coun-tries in eastern Europe, with Poland recording 55 outbreaks of ASF in wild boars in December alone.
Anja Semmele of the Brandenburg Hunting Association said, “We do not know exactly how many wild boar we have in Brandenburg, but their numbers have been increasing in re-cent years.”
“Our region is some-thing of a paradise for wild boar, with a mix of forests and farming.
“They run very quick-ly and hunters need a good level of marks-manship to hit and kill the animal humanely.”Potentially large losses
ASF has been spread-ing across eastern Eu-rope but is doing the greatest damage in Asia and has devastated pig farms in China in the past year, reshaping global meat trade and raising prices.
China’s pork output has slumped to a 16-year low as herds were culled to stamp out the disease, leading to a surge in im-ports of pork, beef and chicken to fill the gap.
Germany’s pork ex-ports to China rose 43 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of 2019 and it was Ger-many’s single-biggest foreign market.
Asian countries, in-cluding China, regularly impose import bans on pork from regions where ASF has been discovered and Ger-man pig farmers could face huge losses from both the drop in exports and costs arising from methods to combat the disease if it is found in
Germany, said farmers’ association DBV.
DBV Secretary Gen-eral Bernhard Kruesken said: “It is difficult to estimate how high the damage will be for Ger-man pig farmers, but we estimate at least a triple-digit million euro sum.”
Any export ban on German pork would also have knock-on ef-fects for other European countries.
Thomas Sanchez, a policy advisor with re-sponsibility for pigmeat at EU farmers’ group Copa Cogeca said the main suppliers of piglets for Germany in the EU are Denmark and the Netherlands.
“That means there will be effects in the Dutch and Danish markets quite immediately.”
To help deal with the threat of ASF, German and Polish agriculture ministries are consider-ing creating a fenced corridor on both sides of their border and a ‘drastic’ reduction in wild boar numbers by relaxing rules on shoot-ing them.
The Brandenburg fence was built in De-cember and is designed to be temporary.
Another fence is being built in the border state of Saxony.
Gabriel Hesse of Brandenburg’s state health and consumer protection ministry said, “We have found no signs that the fence has been broken through by wild boars and no sick boars have been found along the fence.”
“There are hopes that the fence is effective, but these animals are remarkably strong.”
Germany establishes emergency measures as swine fever draws closer
Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2020 – Page 15www.porknews.com.au
A FOOD processing facility discharges the plant’s effluent into a wastewater treatment lagoon system for the reduction of BOD, phos-phorus, ammonia and TSS prior to discharging to the local wastewater treatment plant.
The facility discharges about 285,000kl/day with BODs about 350mg/l.
The lagoon is very large [195m x 75m] with an op-erating depth of 2.7m to 3m with sufficient reten-tion time for biological processes.
A hanging curtain baffle provides an area of qui-escence on the discharge side to reduce TSS and divides the lagoon.
The lagoon was origi-nally equipped with five 11kW high-speed float-ing impeller-type aerators and three 15kW draft tube surface aerators for a total of 100kW of connected power.
While these aerators were able to mix and re-circulate liquids in the lagoon, they were not capable of adequately in-fluencing the biological treatment for organic re-ductions to include nitri-fication.
Additionally, there was an increasing sludge accu-mulation of almost 1m of varying thickness (great-er than 3 percent solids) throughout the lagoon.
In this configuration, the facility was not able to
meet their discharge per-mit limits issued.
As a result of not com-plying with their dis-charge permit, the facility was being charged.
They began to look for alternative treatment solu-tions to bring the facility into compliance, as sur-charges were approaching $70,000 a year.
Due to the depth of the sludge (2m below the sur-face air/liquid interface) the existing units and the floating surface aerators were not effectively resus-pending the sludge for di-gestion, but rather allowed the sludge to accumulate on the bottom.
The bottom 560mm of sludge was >3 percent sol-ids while the next 300mm was a slurry varying be-tween 1 to 3 percent sol-ids.
The sludge was occu-pying 25 percent of the lagoon’s total volume.
Hydro Innovations’ venturi aeration repre-sentative looked at the dissolved oxygen require-ments and determined that four medium-sized venturi aerators would be required for this lagoon, since the BOD loadings were not significantly high.
The plant proceeded with the recommendation.Energy savings
In the first year, two venturi aerators brought the facility into compli-ance.
Phase two (adding a fur-ther two) was then imple-mented.
This involved the addi-tion of two Model VA-600 venturi aerators and two Gorman-Rupp Model 84A52-B direct-coupled pumps with 15kW TEFC motors.
With all four venturi aerators operating at the same time, the eight sur-face aerators could be dis-continued.
Therefore, there were energy savings due to less operating power (52kW v 100kW).
This is a ‘saving’ of 48kW x 24 hours, which equals 1152kW per day.
At 10c/kWh, this is a $115.20 saving per day, $3404 a month or $42,048 per annum. Results
With all four venturi aerator systems in opera-tion, the facility complies their discharge permit.
BOD levels average 35, TSS 70, ammonia <1mg/l, phosphorus <3mg/l, ni-trate <1mg/l.
Because the venturi aer-ator is consistently strip-ping the carbon dioxide generated by the aerobic bacteria, the pH is buff-ered non-chemically.
The facility’s discharge pH averages 8.0 without the addition of alkalinity.
The sludge blanket has been reduced to almost zero on the aerobically treated side of the baf-fle, while in the quiescent zone there is only an aver-age of 100mm of sludge with <3 percent solids.
Because of the unique suction piping and dis-charge configuration, there is better mixing and equalisation of the con-tents of the lagoon.
This installation also has a subsurface discharge of the Venturi Aerator treat-ed liquids, which allows the entrained ‘macro-bub-bles’ to rise like a diffuser, but unlike a diffuser there is a high Reynolds num-ber associated with the high degree of turbulence
in the discharge piping, which increases oxygen transfer.
By pushing out the ‘en-trained’ micro-bubbles horizontally, they travel a greater distance (up to 30m) than the rise of a bub-ble from a diffuser (in this case it would be only 2.7m).
This subsurface dis-charge is ideal where there is not a requirement for CO2 stripping to raise pH.
For more information, contact Hydro Innova-tions on 02 9898 1800 or [email protected]
Aerator conversion nets lower energy costs, eliminates surcharges and enhances lagoon performance
NEW research dem-onstrates that certain B-cell proteins pro-vide pigs with long-lasting immunity to food and mouth dis-ease.
According to a re-cently published ab-stract in Transbound-ary and Emerging Diseases, research-ers have been able to isolate the synthetic protein B2T(mal) and demonstrate its ability to elicit B- and T-cell specific immune re-
sponses in pigs. In trials, two doses
of B2T(mal) elicited an immune response that gave pigs relia-ble protection against type O foot and mouth disease virus chal-lenges.
After injection, the pigs retained immu-nity to FMDV chal-lenges for up to 136 days (19-20 weeks).
Read the origi-nal abstract at onlinel ibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/tbed.13497
Page 16 – Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2020 www.porknews.com.au
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