About 34 Rapid Response Teams with five members in each group led by a veterinarian are involved in the culling with laboratory tests earlier confirming the dead birds had H5NI strains of the avian flu, which are highly infectious. The culling of an estimated 160,000 birds was being carried out since Thursday in a five km radius around the farm at Chenngmeirong near state capital Imphal from where the deaths were reported. Health officials said there were no immediate reports of humans...

delegation arrives in Beijing on Tuesday on a five-day fact-finding mission on food and drug safety amid a series of health scares about the "made in China" label. Following the mission, China and the United States would begin discussions to develop bilateral agreements on food and feed safety and on drug and medical device safety, the statement said. The United States stepped up inspections of imports from China after a chemical additive in pet food caused the death of pets there this...

Animal health officials killed about 300 chickens on the two farms, the paper said, quoting Myanmar's livestock breeding and veterinary department. Myanmar has detected a fresh outbreak of bird flu on two poultry farms south of the capital Yangon, state media said Sunday. It was the first fresh bird flu outbreak since June, but Myanmar so far has not reported any human cases of avian influenza. Experts fear the death toll could rise sharply if the virus were to mutate and become easily...

Jim Doyle highlighted this surge in organic agriculture during a grand opening Friday for Organic Valley's new distribution center in Cashton. Organic Valley is a farmer-owned co-op producer of organic milk, cheese, butter, eggs, juice, soy beverages, produce, and meats and has a membership of more than 900 family farms. Wisconsin also is in the top five states for organic corn, soybeans, oats, barley, rye and hay production, and in the top 10 for organically grown vegetables and flowers....

People are beginning to realize that farming "contractors" paid by the weight they can add onto the animals provided them--Less Feed--are just latter day sharecroppers with all the responsibility of farming and none of the benefits. If they appear to be legal, how do you know they're not undercover animal advocates with cameras who will make you an overnight animal abuse criminal on the internet? It's not like people are lining up for jobs with descriptions like "Remove dead animals from...