The members of the European Platform of exporters of bovine genetics (Exporters' Platform, ExPla) have agreed to a deepening of their cooperation at European level. At their meeting on 13 October 2010 in Brussels in the premises of ADT they decided that the ExPla will in future meet in two working groups, the one taking care of the export of live cattle, and the other of the trade in bovine semen and embryos.

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Zero-tolerance policy is putting the European livestock industry at risk and restricting consumers' freedom of choice

On 27 and 28 August, the German Agricultural Society (DLG) met in Kassel with representatives from the animal feed, agricultural, dairy and meat industries, as well as consumer representatives, government officials and scientists, to discuss the impact of the EU approval procedure for GMO constructs on the supply of feed protein and the prospects for the German and European livestock production industry.

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DLG Memorandum on zero tolerance for GMO's in English

PCV2 genotype definition creates exciting opportunities

The EU funded research consortium on Porcine Circovirus Diseases (PCVD) has recently proposed a new framework for international agreement on consistent naming for existing and future isolates of porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2), which will create significant opportunities for international research teams to compare and contrast findings. The methodology is based on the proportion of nucleotide sites at which two sequences being compared are different (p-distance). This value is found by dividing the number of nucleotide differences by the total number of nucleotides compared. The potential cut-off values to distinguish different genotypes are established through the construction of a p-distance/frequency histogram. 

The PCVD project management team, lead by Prof Gordon Allan, warned against complacency: Porcine Circovirus Diseases continue to be a major problem on many pig farms worldwide and although significant progress has been made in understanding the virus there are still gaps in our understanding which the virus continues to exploit. Virus elimination remains a distant dream but the excellent response to vaccination raises serious unanswered questions about the sub-clinical effects of the virus and the duration that these have been affecting pig production. The Framework 6 PCVD project has published its 2008 newsletter that updates on progress in a number of key areas of investigation into the interaction between PCV2 and pigs. The Consortium continues to make good progress as it draws this EU Framework 6 programme of research to a conclusion in early 2009.

Read the full press release: http://www.pcvd.org/documents/2008_07_PCVD_PR.pdf

The Control of Porcine Circovirus Diseases (PCVDs): Towards Improved Food Quality and Safety is EU Project No.: 513928 and has been funded through the Sixth Framework Programme under Priority SSP/5.4.6 (Priority 5. Food Quality and Safety. The project started in December 2004 is being delivered by a multidisciplinary consortium from academia and industry with a total of 15 partners from North America and the EU. Reports from all work packages in the project are now available in the results section of the project website www.pcvd.org.

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At its meeting on 26 April 2007 in Brussels, the COPA-COGECA Working Party on Breeding Cattle unanimously elected Mr Hans-Peter SCHONS as chairman of their group for a term of 2 years. The director of the German Animal Breeders Federation (ADT) takes over the mandate from M. Alain MALAFOSSE (UNCEIA, F), who was warmly thanked for having assumed with conviction and devotion the chairmanship of this group for 15 years.

For further information, please download COPA/COGECA's press release as from 26 april:  http://www.copa-cogeca.be/pdf/cdp_07_19_1e.pdf

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