Guest lecturer David Sherman compared the 20th century with the biblical story of Noah, who gathered animals and his family in a boat to save them from extinction. Avian influenza best illustrates the importance of the one health approach, with veterinarians, physicians, wildlife biologists, ecologists and epidemiologists all working together to address a complex problem, Sherman said. When you provide veterinarian service, you re improving food security and improved nutrition, and you can...

Robb expects the pork and poultry production to increase, while beef production will decrease. Chicken production is expected to remain profitable for several more months, while pork production is expected to draw red ink in the fourth quarter of 2007 and first quarter of 2008. Grimes said that fourth quarter slaughter would be about 4.7 percent higher than last year. Producers have experienced recent good success raising pigs. hog producers intend to have 2.964 million sows farrow during...

AVON PARK ? Shannon Peacock summed up in four words the reason small businesses may be hesitant about exporting their products: ?fear of the unknown. Shannon Peacock, plant manager of Bowsmith inc., stands before the irrigation tubing the company distributes nation wide and also internationally. Peacock?s fears were alleviated after he attended an exporting workshop earlier this month that was hosted by the Hardee County Economic Development Council, Hardee County Chamber of Commerce,...

More detailed information from registered producers will be gathered in private databases, such as those kept by state agencies, breed associations or commodity groups. With technology still in the infancy stage, it s ridiculous to try and implement that kind of program where the people paying the cost of it are not getting any kind of benefit. This entails not only hogs, cattle, sheep and poultry, but also more non-traditional species, such as elk, bison and horses, among others. A year...

India is hosting a meeting of health and agriculture ministers in New Delhi between December 4 and 6 to review global preparedness, based on studies of 146 countries, he said. It could take between four and six months to produce a vaccine that can counter the new strain of the virus, and in that time the first wave of the pandemic would spread around the world, possibly causing many deaths. GENEVA (Reuters) - Two or three years' hard work are still needed to ensure the world can cope with...