The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) plans to launch a new approach to its testing for harmful levels of chemical residues in meat, poultry, and egg products. Through its National Residue Program (NRP), FSIS tests for the presence of chemical compounds, including approved (legal) and unapproved (illegal) veterinary drugs, pesticides, hormones, and environmental contaminants that may appear in meat, poultry, and egg products. The new, modern, high-efficiency methods that FSIS has announced will conserve resources and provide useful and reliable results while enabling the Agency to analyze each sample for more chemical compounds than previously possible.

An ambitious effort to sequence the genomes of 100,000 infectious microorganisms and speed diagnosis of foodborne illnesses has been launched by the University of California – Davis, Agilent Technologies and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Professor Bart Weimer of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine serves as director of the 100K Genome Project and co-director of the recently established BGI@UC Davis facility, where the sequencing will be done. Other collaborators include the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the USDA. The new five-year microbial pathogen project focuses on making the food supply safer for consumers.

U.S. pork exports in May were up 3 percent in volume (186,809 metric tons) from a year ago and 9 percent higher in value ($524.3 million). Through the first five months of the year, pork exports exceeded last year’s record pace by 6 percent in volume (968,485 metric tons) and 15 percent in value ($2.7 billion). Although May was the strongest month so far this year for U.S. beef exports, volume (95,221 metric tons) was down 13 percent compared to May 2011 and stood 10 percent lower (456,343 metric tons) through the first five months of the year.

The Scoular Company has acquired two grain-handling facilities in Weiser, Idaho, from Weiser Feed and Storage, Inc. Terms of the transaction were not announced.Kevin Thompson, who oversees Scoular’s facilities in Idaho and Utah, says the goal is to make the transition from Weiser to Scoular as easy as possible.  “Operations in Weiser will be much the same as they were before. Most importantly, Kevin Jones will be staying on to manage the facility under Scoular ownership. We’re excited to welcome Kevin and the Weiser Feed employees to Scoular.”

Accurate selection tools in the beef industry help both seedstock and commercial operators breed for traits that will add the most profit to their product.

The dry summer has many area corn producers disappointed and concerned that their corn crop may meet their production expectations according to Tim Schnakenberg, an agronomy specialist with University of Missouri Extension.

“The corn crop is deteriorating rapidly in areas that have missed key rains and producers are looking at alternatives, especially for their later planted corn,” said Schnakenberg.

Ohio growers may find that although alfalfa can weather the current extreme heat and drought conditions from a quality standpoint, there will be less alfalfa overall because of the lack of moisture the region continues to experience, an Ohio State University Extension educator said.

The first Dairy Cattle Welfare Symposium, hosted by the University of Guelph and its Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare, invites dairy producers, researchers, veterinarians and other industry professionals from all over the world to this unique and important event for the dairy industry.