New report: over half the world's raptors have declining populations

BirdLife

International

A ferruginous? hawk in Manitoba, Canada.
A PinP photo.

We interview our Chief Scientist, Stuart Butchart, about a newly published paper: State of the World’s Raptors: What threats this iconic group of birds face, and what we can do to help. More here.

Another hurricane is about to batter our coast. Trump is complicit.

The Washington Post

Hurricane Florence. A NASA photo.

With depressingly ironic timing, the Trump administration has recently announced a plan to roll back federal rules on methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is the main component in natural gas. When it comes to extreme weather, Mr. Trump is complicit. More here.

Global hunger continues to rise, new UN report says

World Food Programme

A woman receives food rations at a refugee camp in Kenya. Kate Holt/AusAID

Progress made in the past decade has been reversed, with climate extremes such as droughts and floods identified as a main cause. More here.

A Season of Smoke

Please also read: "Time to Wake up & Smell the Smoke!"

ASF - a deadly hog disease - has now been confirmed on Romania’s largest pig farm: 140,000 pigs culled

PIG PROGRESS

The virus was confirmed on the farm, which consists of 3 adjacent properties in the southern county of Braila, Romania after water samples were sent to the authorities. Story here.
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In Hogs We Trust - a critique of Manitoba's runaway hog industry.
Part 111 - From Malaysia to Manitoba - the global magnitude of livestock diseases.

Wildfires make their own weather, and that matters for fire management

ScienceNews

A wildfire on the Ashcroft reserve in B.C, 2017. Shawn Cahill.

New prediction tools zero in on how blazes throw embers and make weather that fans the flames. Story here.

No record yields for potatoes on the Canadian Prairies this year!

Western Producer

A potato harvester at work in southern Manitoba. A PinP photo.

The hot, dry weather Western Canada experienced this summer, is blamed. Story here.

One of the biggest tsunamis ever recorded was set off three years ago by a melting glacier

The Washington Post

A rare and extreme tsunami ripped across an Alaskan fjord three years ago after 180 million tons of mountain rock fell into the water, driving a devastating wave that stripped shorelines of trees and reached heights greater than 600 feet, a large team of scientists documented on Thursday. The October 2015 cataclysm in Taan Fiord in southeastern Alaska appears to have been the fourth-highest tsunami recorded in the past century, and its origins — linked to the retreat of a glacier — suggest that it’s the kind of event we may see more often because of a warming climate.The new study even bluntly calls it a “hazard occasioned by climate change.” Story here.

Drug-resistant microbes could threaten future global economy, low income countries in particular

Journal Club

A microbiologist examines the growth of a bacterial culture. 
A U.S. Food & Drug Administration photo. 

Antimicrobial resistance is not only a major public health threat, but also an economic one, according to researchers at The World Bank. Their new study, published in the journal World Development, suggests that an increase in drug-resistant microbes could cause millions more people to fall into extreme poverty within the next few decades. “Nobody has estimated the poverty effects before,” says study author Karen Thierfelder, an economics professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and consultant for The World Bank. “We’d like to make more people aware of the problem.” More here.

Also Read: "In Hogs We Trust."  

A critique of Manitoba’s “runaway” hog industry.

Part 1 - Antibiotic Overuse.

Worries Deepen That Another Deadly Hog Disease May Arrive in Canada

African Swine Fever in China Prompts Call for Review of Biosecurity on Canadian Farms

 Farmscape for September 4, 2018

African Swine Fever has now been reported over a vast area in China. 

A PinP photo.

In light of this, Manitoba Pork is encouraging pork producers to reevaluate biosecurity. 

The virus affects pigs of all ages causing high mortality and, while it doesn't affect humans and isn't considered a food safety risk, it is highly transmissible, it is trade limiting and it is federally reportable.

 Jenelle Hamblin, the Manager of Swine Health Programs with Manitoba Pork, says the world is a smaller place than it once was with people and products moving in short amounts of time for many reasons.

Clip-Jenelle Hamblin-Manitoba Pork:

 As a sector we need to be normally aware of the people that are coming onto our premises and where they've been prior to coming but, in the case such as this, it's important to consider any overseas travel that may have occurred.

African swine fever has been found to live in products for many months therefore we also have to keep in mind any pork products that could potentially be coming into North America.

It would be a really good idea to review your biosecurity protocols with your veterinarian and your staff, talking about overseas travel of anyone coming onto your farm including staff, family members, any contracted workers or even going as far as considering exchange students if that's something your family participates in.

As well the food from other parts of the world.

Things that we could do to prevent bringing anything onto our premises is not bringing back food from overseas or not accepting gifts of food from overseas or from people coming from overseas and also never bringing any types of food scraps into your barn.

Also you could take a look at your feed ingredients and where they are originally being sourced from.

Lastly keeping on top of the developments that are happing in China in regards to African Swine Fever and being aware of what's happening in the sector.

Hamblin acknowledges containing the virus in China will be a challenge due to the varying range of biosecurity in place.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork.

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Please also read: 

In Hogs We Trust - A critique of Manitoba's runaway hog industry:
 Part 111 - The magnitude of livestock diseases, worldwide.

'It’s not if, it’s when': the deadly pig disease spreading around the world

The Guardian

Swine fever has made its way into China, home to half the world’s pigs. Farmers in Estonia are already counting the cost. Story here.
The images below show piglets with "PED," another deadly disease of hogs which has been 
rampant in North America (& Manitoba) in recent years. Photos by Manitoba Pork.

Related:

Officials Worry Yet Another Lethal Pig Disease May be Headed to Canada.

In Hogs We Trust Part 111 - The magnitude of livestock diseases, worldwide.