Per capita meat consumption, now a record, to dip in 2025
The U.S. appetite for meat continues to grow. Ten years ago, Americans consumed an average of 200 pounds of meat per person annually. This year, it will be a record 227.6 pounds, thanks to larger pork and poultry supplies, before ebbing next year.
Colorado workers are first since 2022 to catch bird flu from poultry
A total of five workers — two more than initially reported — contracted mild cases of bird flu while culling infected chickens with the viral disease on an egg farm, said Colorado public health officials. They were the first poultry workers known to have contracted bird flu since May 2022; four dairy farmworkers have been diagnosed with the disease, which is also spread by cows, since April, including one in Colorado.
Bird flu infects dairy herd in Iowa, 10th state to be hit
A dairy herd in northwestern Iowa is infected with the H5N1 avian flu virus, said state agriculture secretary Mike Naig on Wednesday. He called on dairy and poultry farmers to “harden their biosecurity defenses” against the virus.
USDA proposes base pay rule for poultry-grower contracts
Poultry processors would be barred from making deductions from the base prices that they list in contracts with growers under a rule proposed by the Agriculture Department on Monday. The USDA said the proposal aims to curb abuses of the so-called tournament system that determines a farmer's revenue and processors' demands for growers to make additional investments in their facilities.
USDA is testing ground beef for bird flu virus
Agriculture Department scientists are conducting three beef safety studies following the first-ever discovery of bird flu in dairy cows a month ago, said a USDA spokesperson on Monday. The studies include tests of ground beef purchased at grocery stores in states with infected herds.
USDA mandates bird flu tests of dairy cows before transport
Dairy farmers will be required to test their cattle for the H5N1 bird flu virus before shipping them across state lines, announced Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Wednesday as the government tries to prevent the spread of the disease and learn more about how it is transmitted. The virus, a lethal threat to poultry, has moved from cow to cow, herd to herd, and cow to poultry, and has appeared in cows with no symptoms.
USDA assesses vaccine to protect cattle from bird flu virus
The Agriculture Department said its research agency “has begun to assess the potential to develop an effective vaccine” against the H5N1 bird flu virus in cattle, although it warned that it is too early to say how long the process would take. The virus has so far infected 29 dairy herds in eight states, though there have been no detections in commercial beef herds since the disease was identified in cattle in late March.
USDA has spent $1 billion fighting bird flu
Since bird flu outbreaks began nearly two years ago, the USDA has spent slightly more than $1 billion to compensate farmers for lost flocks and to suppress the spread of the viral disease, said a spokesperson for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on Monday. The largest outlay was $715 million to producers, growers, and integrators in indemnities for depopulated birds and eggs.
With new outbreaks, bird flu toll nears 59 million fowls
Ending a five-month hiatus, highly pathogenic avian influenza was confirmed in commercial flocks in two states — turkey farms in Utah and South Dakota — said the Agriculture Department. Some 58.97 million birds, mostly egg-laying chickens and turkeys being raised for human consumption, have died in bird flu outbreaks that began in February 2022.
Upside Foods announces commercial-scale plant
Upside Foods, one of two companies approved to market cell-cultured meat in the United States, will locate its first commercial-scale plant in a suburb north of Chicago, said CEO Uma Valeti on Thursday. The 187,000-square-foot facility would begin with the production of ground cultivated chicken, with plans to expand to other species and whole-textured products in the future.
India reduces import tariffs on U.S. turkey and duck meat
In the second breakthrough in three months, India said on the sidelines of the G20 summit meeting that it would reduce import duties on frozen U.S. turkey and duck meat. Lower tariffs will give U.S. exports a chance to win sales in the rapidly growing market, said U.S. poultry groups, while calling for India to open its market further.
White House competition checklist cites livestock marketing, ocean shipping
In a summary of achievements, the White House pointed on Monday to progress toward increased competition, including action on livestock marketing, consumer right-to-repair and ocean shipping rates. It said President Biden would "highlight progress we need to continue to make to promote competition and protect consumers" in the State of the Union speech on Tuesday, with so-called junk fees as an area for action.
Bird flu losses now on par with worst U.S. animal disease event
In nine months, nationwide outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza have killed 50.12 million birds in domestic flocks, said USDA data on Wednesday. Losses from HPAI and the culling of infected flocks are now on par with the 2014-15 bird flu outbreak, which the USDA has described as the most significant animal disease event in U.S. history.
More than 47 million birds lost to avian influenza
Bird flu was discovered in a backyard flock in the Albuquerque area, making New Mexico the 42nd state where the viral disease has been confirmed this year, said the Agriculture Department on Thursday.
Europe reports biggest bird flu epidemic ever
Bird flu cases have been reported from the Arctic islands of northern Norway to southern Portugal this year in the largest epidemic yet seen in Europe of the disease, said the E.U. food safety agency on Monday. The virus that causes highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was unusually persistent during the summer and the risk of disease among flocks would increase with autumn migratory season, it said.
Poultry exports face potential risks from avian influenza
The risk of another outbreak of avian influenza this fall remains elevated and the stakes for poultry producers couldn’t be higher, with U.S. poultry exports expected to reach record levels in 2022, said a report Tuesday from CoBank's Knowledge Exchange.
Antitrust settlement requires poultry processors to reform tournament system
Two large poultry processors agreed to guarantee a base payment to the farmers who raise their birds, a fundamental reform of the so-called tournament system that pits growers against each other for income, said the Justice Department on Monday. The reform was part of a proposed consent decree that would order the processors, Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms, plus Cargill Inc to pay $84.8 million in restitution for conspiring to hold down wages paid to processing plant workers.
Colorado infections push HPAI losses above 40 million birds
More than 40 million birds in domestic flocks, mostly chickens and turkeys, have died in the worst outbreak of bird flu since the 2014-15 epidemic, according to USDA data released on Monday. The outbreaks, which have killed 6 percent of the egg-laying hens in the country, were blamed for an Eastertime spike in egg prices.