Predators that feed on infected birds have previously tested positive for HPAI in the U.S.

The goat lived on the same property as a poultry flock that tested positive for the disease, North Dakota State University (NDSU) said in an article on its website this month.

“While we don’t envision this zoonotic transmission to be commonplace, good biosecurity protocols separating livestock from poultry/waterfowl is a good production practice to reduce the potential spread of HPAI to our small ruminants during the spring migration of wild birds,” said Travis Hoffman, sheep specialist with NDSU Extension.

The goat shared the same pasture and water source as the poultry.

NDSU said that while there’s little information on HPAI infection in ruminants, it appears that in some species animals with compromised or immature immune systems are at great risk of infection. In the Minnesota case, only young goats were affected.

Limiting livestock’s exposure to potentially-infected poultry is the first line of defense against infection, NDSU said.

Avian influenza has spread among poultry flocks around the world to devastating effect. A strain of the disease has also been shown to have killed sea mammals in South America.

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The regulatory proposal would address what the agency calls “gaps” in the current system, including:

• adding goats and cervids as animal species that share diseases with other regulated livestock, and therefore subject to traceability requirements,
• shortening the time period allowed to report an event to better support an efficient response to disease outbreaks,
• adding a requirement to provide information about the geographical location of sites where animals are located, and
• requiring the reporting of domestic movements of livestock.

CFIA is asking producers who own sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, bison or farmed cervids or are involved with livestock production or handling, to share their feedback during the consultation period, which opened Saturday and runs to June 16.

Some affected livestock groups are already making moves in anticipation of the new rules.

The Canadian Sheep Federation (CSF) AgroLedger, a digital traceability program, launched a pilot program in July 2022 for early adopters before its sector-wide release.

The CFS-funded program was made available at no cost to Canadian sheep producers to bring them in line with the government regulatory amendments.

“We understand that all the users, farmers included, are going to face a lot more work in terms of meeting regulations. The ultimate goal here is to make that easier, less complex, less work wherever possible for producers,” CFS executive director Corlena Patterson said at the time.

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Details are still pending, but the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) announced Aug. 12 it has started work on a “Hay West” initiative to get surplus hay “to those struggling in the West.”

A similar program ran in 2002 in similar circumstances, the CFA said, noting that 10 years later, when the situation was reversed, farmers in the West sent hay east to help farms stricken with drought in that region.

“We have our staff as well as a third party working towards determining how much of a hay surplus is available, and are looking to work with the railways and the government to help these farmers that are in dire need of feed for their animals,” CFA president Mary Robinson said in a release.

CFA said it will provide more information on the Hay West initiative as “details become available” and will work with government and stakeholders “to ensure that farmers are supported and surplus hay reaches those that need it.”

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) on Thursday pledged $50,000 toward the CFA’s initiative — plus another $50,000 toward the Northwestern Livestock Emergency Assistance Initiative managed by Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO).

The plan for the Northwestern Livestock Emergency Assistance Initiative, BFO said, is “to help protect and maintain the breeding herd while we await the completion of the federal-provincial AgriRecovery assessment” toward further assistance for the region.

BFO has also received provincial funding for the initiative, which it said will go to help deliver emergency feed relief to all impacted livestock farmers in the Rainy River and Kenora districts.

Eligible beef, dairy, sheep and goat producers must be residents of either of those districts, have a valid Ontario farm premises ID number and farm business registration number.

Eligible growers also must be able to “attest to experiencing an immediate livestock feed shortage as a result of the extreme dry conditions of the 2021 growing season.”

Producers in all four western provinces and northwestern Ontario are awaiting full assessments toward federal/provincial AgriRecovery drought relief.

The Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and federal governments have already pledged funding for AgriRecovery in affected areas. The British Columbia government is also working on an AgriRecovery assessment but hasn’t yet announced its funding for the program. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Ford on Friday announced a major cabinet shuffle, dropping Hardeman, the long-time MPP for Oxford, from the cabinet table and naming Lisa Thompson as minister for agriculture, food and rural affairs.

Thompson, who until Friday was Ford’s minister of government and consumer services, has been MPP for the western Ontario riding of Huron-Bruce since 2011. She previously served as minister of education (2018-19) and in opposition critic portfolios such as international trade (2017-18) and environment (2014-17).

Thompson lives on a family farm near Teeswater, about 100 km northwest of Kitchener, where she and her husband raise purebred Boer goats. She served as general manager for the Ontario Dairy Goat Co-operative before entering provincial politics.

Thompson’s resume also includes a degree in economics and study in the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program at the University of Guelph, plus certification from the George Morris Centre executive development program at U of G’s Ontario Agricultural College. She also previously chaired the Ontario 4-H Foundation and served as vice-chair for Ontario Agri-Food Education Inc.

Thompson “understands the need of rural communities and farmers, and we know she will look for new ways of supporting and helping grow farm businesses and rural economies,” Grain Farmers of Ontario chair Brendan Byrne said in a separate release Friday.

“With COVID disruptions, trade disputes, volatile markets and high levels of business risk for farmers, Ontario agriculture needs a strong voice and advocate who understands farmers and farming businesses,” GFO CEO Crosby Devitt said in the same release.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture on Friday also hailed Thompson’s appointment. As government and consumer services minister, she was a “key partner” in addressing concerns with the provincial Not-for-Profit Corporations Act and its “potential negative impacts on (OFA’s) democratic structure,” the organization said.

Thompson “has a valuable understanding of farm and rural issues and has a direct connection to those communities,” OFA president Peggy Brekveld said in a separate release.

Ford’s shuffled cabinet includes himself and 23 ministers plus five associate ministers.

“As we continue our work to rebuild and support Ontario’s health system, our renewed team is well positioned to deliver on the priorities that matter to Ontarians, including getting more people back to work, making life more affordable, supporting businesses and job creators and building transit infrastructure,” he said Friday.

Hardeman, the MPP for Oxford since 1995, served stints as then-premier Mike Harris’ agriculture minister (1999-2001), the Tories’ opposition agriculture critic (2003-05, 2008-14), and Ford’s ag minister from mid-2018 up until Friday.

Before entering provincial politics, Hardeman owned and operated Hardeman Feed at Salford, Ont., east of London, from 1966 to 1995 and chaired the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) in 1993 and 1994.

“We engaged regularly with Minister Hardeman over the past few years and wholeheartedly appreciate his passion for agriculture and his desire to see our dynamic industry grow, innovate and move forward,” OFA’s Brekveld said Friday.

Other appointments in Friday’s shuffle of interest to farmers include Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP Dave Piccini as environment and conservation minister and Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford as natural resources minister.

Rickford’s portfolio now involves a “merged role” also including northern development, mines and forestry, and he remains minister for Indigenous affairs. “This new northern- and economic-focused ministry will enhance development potential and sustainability in the north,” the government said Friday.

Energy, meanwhile, will become a separate ministry handled by Todd Smith, MPP for Bay of Quinte. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Airlines can still choose which other species to allow on board, but the rules issued on Wednesday largely resolve years of disputes with passengers who falsely claim pets as “emotional support animals,” which may travel in the cabin with little oversight.

Under existing rules, airlines were required to recognize with limited exceptions emotional support animals as service animals. Now they can classify them as pets.

Legally protected service animals are now limited to dogs trained to perform tasks for a person who may be visually impaired or have psychiatric or other disabilities, and airlines do not have to allow “emotional support animals.”

Airlines charge as much as US$175 to transport pets, a good reason to claim pets as emotional support animals. As recently as 2017, U.S. carriers transported 751,000 of them.

Species such as horses, cats and capuchin monkeys will not get service animal status from U.S. regulators, but airlines may recognize them as service animals if they choose. Airlines may still not refuse a service animal based solely on breed or generalized physical type.

Airlines for America, an industry trade group, said the rule “will protect the traveling public and airline crew members from untrained animals in the cabin.”

U.S. carriers including Southwest, Delta, United and American Airlines in recent years have limited emotional support animals in cabins to largely dogs and cats after passengers boarded with exotic pets such as monkeys, pigs and birds that could pose a safety risk.

Spirit Airlines told regulators it had lost “millions of dollars in pet carriage fees from passengers fraudulently claiming their ‘house pets are service or support animals.'”

In 2018, Delta noted some passengers “attempted to fly with comfort turkeys, gliding possums known as sugar gliders, snakes” and spiders. That year, American Airlines said it would not allow a wide variety of creatures on flights as support animals including goats, ferrets, hedgehogs, amphibians and reptiles.

The new rules will take effect 30 days after publication in the federal register.

— David Shepardson reports on the U.S. transportation sector for Reuters from Washington, D.C.

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The warring sides blamed each other for the attack on the open-air weekly cattle market in Sangin district, where hundreds of villagers from neighbouring districts had gathered to trade sheep and goats.

A spokesman for Helmand’s governor said several rockets fired by Taliban insurgents landed close to the cattle market, killing 23 civilians, including children.

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, said the Afghan army fired several rounds of mortar bombs on civilian houses and the cattle market, killing dozens of villagers.

Khushakyar, who goes by a single name, said he was trying to sell a calf when the rockets hit the market. He said his two nephews were killed and his son was wounded.

“I saw around 20 bodies on the ground,” he said, adding that dozens were wounded and “livestock lay dead next to men.”

Some residents of Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold, said the shelling occurred during fierce clashes between Taliban militants and government security forces in residential areas surrounding the market.

There has been an uptick in violence by the Taliban against the Afghan government, even though the insurgents, fighting to reintroduce strict Islamic law after being ousted from power in 2001, signed a troop withdrawal agreement with the United States in February designed to lead to peace negotiations with the Afghan government.

More than 500 civilians were killed and 760 others wounded because of fighting in Afghanistan in the first three months of 2020, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in late April.

— Reporting by Zainullah Stanekzai in Helmand and Abdul Qadir Sediqi in Kabul; writing by Rupam Jain.

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The proposed new rules are aimed at preventing passengers from falsely claiming their pets are service animals aboard U.S. airline flights.

Airlines have long complained passengers have been able to exploit the designation by bringing their pets and other exotic creatures on board with limited oversight and without adequate training.

Federal law allows passengers with disabilities to travel with service animals.

U.S. airlines including Southwest, Delta, United and American Airlines have moved to limit emotional support animals in cabins to largely dogs and cats after a growing number of passengers were bringing a wide variety of exotic pets such as monkeys, pigs and various birds that could pose a safety risk. Airlines in recent years reported a big jump in travelers bringing animals aboard.

A trade group representing major U.S. airlines praised the proposal, saying it would ensure “only dogs trained to perform specific tasks for individuals with disabilities are allowed onboard aircraft.”

The department said the proposal “is intended to ensure a safe and accessible air transportation system” and will be open for public comment.

It also wants comment on whether it should allow miniature horses to serve as service animals. The department is not proposing to allow airlines to bar service dogs on the basis of breed or type.

Spirit Airlines told regulators it lost “millions of dollars in pet carriage fees from passengers fraudulently claiming their ‘house pets are service or support animals.'”

Delta noted in 2018 that some passengers “attempted to fly with comfort turkeys, gliding possums known as sugar gliders, snakes” and spiders, while American Airlines in 2018 said it would not allow a wide variety of creatures on flights as support animals including goats, ferrets, hedgehogs, amphibians and reptiles.

The administration’s proposal would consider “a psychiatric service animal” like any other service animal and require the same training and treatment as others.

Airlines could require passengers to submit a completed U.S. Transportation form as a condition of transportation, which could potentially subject them to criminal or civil penalties if passengers made false statements.

Airlines would be able to require forms developed by the Transportation Department attesting to a service animal’s good behaviour, certifying the service animal’s good health, “and if taking a long flight attesting that the service animal has the ability to either not relieve itself, or can relieve itself in a sanitary manner.”

— David Shepardson reports on U.S. aviation and automotive policy for Reuters from Washington, D.C.

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Canada’s biggest dairy co-operative had announced in September last year it would close the former Fromagerie Damafro plant at Saint-Damase, Que. in April this year, but delayed those plans pending talks with the Producteurs de lait de chevre du Quebec.

The company, in a release Monday, said it has “concluded the talks begun a year ago” with the goat producer group. Agropur said a “good-faith effort was made to find a solution but none can be implemented.”

Agropur said Monday it will accept goats’ milk at the plant until the end of December as agreed with the PLCQ, but now plans to shut the plant permanently in March 2020.

Details of talks with the PLCQ weren’t mentioned in Monday’s release. Agropur said a “confidentiality agreement signed by both parties prevents them from publicly disclosing the options that were discussed.”

However, PLCQ president Christian Dube was quoted Wednesday by La Terre de chez nous, the ag news arm of Quebec’s Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA), as saying the producer group didn’t know much about what alternatives the company was considering.

Dube, for one, told La Terre he has now begun to cancel expansion plans at his farm, not far from the St-Damase plant, and that PLCQ members would now see if they could arrange contracts to supply goat dairy processors elsewhere.

Agropur bought Fromagerie Damafro in 2013 for an undisclosed sum from the Bonnet family of cheesemakers, who came to Quebec from the Brie region of France. Damafro had been billed as a leading processor of goats’ milk in both Quebec and Canada since 2005.

In 2018, however, Agropur said “major investments” would be needed to keep the St-Damase plant open. It also cited “inability to reach a long-term agreement with the plant’s employees” as well as “the need to honour commitments to customers.”

Mario Maisonneuve, president of the plant’s TUAC (Travailleurs et Travailleuses unis de l’alimentation et du commerce) Local 1991-P, said in 2018 there was “no doubt” Agropur favoured closing the St-Damase plant before bargaining had even begun. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The new Johne’s disease (JD) test reduces waiting times for a diagnosis from three months to one week, decreasing the risk of further disease spread and reducing stress on affected producers.

The test, known as the High-Throughput-Johne’s assay (HT-J), was developed by researchers from the University of Sydney and the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI).

The research was part of a five-year, $6.4 million JD project led by Sydney University’s Professor Richard Whittington and funded by the MLA Donor Company in partnership with Animal Health Australia.

“This test is the culmination of at least a decade of very difficult research here and elsewhere,” he said.

“Most animals become infected with JD in the first one to 12 months of life, but don’t show signs of disease for years.

“They only shed minuscule amounts of bacteria in their faeces, which makes it very hard to detect, but they are capable of infecting other animals and other properties if sold.

“The challenge for us has been to try and detect the smallest quantity of JD bacteria in faecal samples.”

• From the Alberta Farmer website: Vaccine being developed to combat ‘insidious’ and widespread Johne’s disease

After being approved by the sub-committee on Animal Health Laboratory Standards, the HT-J test underwent a trial by fire when Bovine JD was discovered in North Queensland in November 2012.

Intensive use of the new test revealed weaknesses, including the delivery of inconclusive results, which prompted industry-wide collaboration from researchers and laboratory technicians to quickly refine the HT-J.

MLA’s Animal Health and Biosecurity project manager, Dr Johann Schröder, said the test allowed affected producers to more quickly adopt corrective/remedial management strategies.

“The more quickly you can get a JD diagnosis, the more quickly you can stop further spread of the disease,” Johann said.

“It also reduces stress on producers – they no longer have to wait three months to find out if their property is affected or not.”

Richard emphasised that the new DNA test removed the delays associated with the culture test, but was not foolproof.

“Producers must work closely with their relevant veterinary services to interpret test results at a herd/flock level, and then properly deal with Johne’s disease,” he said.

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A number of studies have been done on grazing behaviour. Dr. Fred Provenza, professor emeritus at Utah State University, has been observing and researching grazing for 50 years. He has studied animal behaviour and consulted with stockmen and land managers around the world.

He recently spent time in Australia and Tasmania. “Some vineyard owners there want to train sheep to not eat the vines. This would be beneficial, to use sheep to eat the forage around the vines but not the vines. These vineyards have a mix of grasses and forbs in the understory and it is very expensive to mow. We are working with them to use sheep to clip and fertilize vineyards. They already graze the vineyards when vines are dormant, but they’d like to graze them during the growing season,” says Provenza. There are ways to train sheep to leave the vines alone, based on research he and his colleagues have done.

• More from the Canadian Cattlemen: The grazing plan

It started with goats

When he was in graduate school at Utah State University, he and his wife did a study project in southern Utah. “The goal was to use goats to prune shrub blackbrush during winter to stimulate new growth — which is much higher in nutrients than unbrowsed plants. We were able to show that browsing would stimulate new growth. But the goats wouldn’t eat the new growth. This spurred my interest in grazing habits. We weren’t sure why the goats refused to eat the new growth even though it was the most nutritious,” he says.

“We found that ‘secondary compounds’ were present in high levels in the new growth compared to old growth. These compounds were condensed tannins; the bark was about 70 per cent condensed tannins. It was a little bitter, but it wasn’t the taste that deterred the goats. They avoided it because of what happened once the tannins got in their bodies,” says Provenza.

“At first we thought they innately knew to avoid the new growth, but we found out later that they did try it — and learned to avoid it after the first bad experience. They were learning, and really quickly. Unless a person was there, the first day when they were sampling the new growth, you’d never see them eating it,” he explains.

“We worked with chemists and obtained extracts of different compounds in the new growth. We’d put the extracts on pellets to see if the goats would avoid it. They didn’t avoid any of the compounds we tried until we finally got to the condensed tannin. We offered them pellets with the tannin on it. That first day, every one of them ate all the pellets. We were stunned, because we’d thought for sure this was the ingredient they were avoiding. So we decided to try it again the next day.”

The second day, the goats wouldn’t touch it. “We realized they were learning to avoid it, based on the consequences after the food got into the body — giving them indigestion. This was a huge discovery, because up until then people hadn’t made the connection. We all thought it was just taste, and that the animals innately know it’s not good for them, based on taste. This study taught us — and enabled us to train sheep to avoid eating vines in vineyards — that it’s the body feedback from cells and organs that changes the animal’s desire to eat foods,” he says. Feedback is how cells influence the body to eat what the cells need to thrive.

Healthy biodiversity

“We studied this topic for many years, looking at primary compounds (energy, protein, minerals) and secondary compounds (phenolics, terpenes and alkaloids), with relationships between the two. This led to insights into relationships amongst all the different compounds in foods, and to our realization that biodiversity is important for health through nutrition — for all creatures, including humans. All plants have different kinds of phytochemicals, the secondary compounds. There are thousands of compounds in each of those classes. All plants produce them,” says Provenza.

“When we started to study this, the main research was at poisonous plant labs, looking at a pyrrolizidine alkaloid or one of the 23 alkaloids in larkspur, which were viewed as toxins. But what we were not considering was that in small doses these can have health benefits,” he explains.

When there are many different plants on a landscape, animals learn to mix their diet and eat only a little of each. “The compounds that have an adverse effect if animals eat too much, or cause them to reach a point they don’t want any more — ensure that only a little is eaten. So the animals mix and match and eat many different things,” he says. This ensures a varied and healthy diet, containing all the different things they need.

In nature, grazing animals move over the landscape in herds, eating a variety of plants and moving on. Mob grazing simulates this, and helps promote plant diversity because all the plants are allowed to fully grow and mature before cattle come back to that part of the pasture. Favourite species are not repeatedly grazed and weakened.

“Frequent movement helps cattle learn to mix their diet. In nature, animals are always moving. It is healthy for them (and for the land and plants) to move across the landscape and encounter/utilize different foods. Movement helps them escape predators and also means parasites can’t build up,” says Provenza.

“If we can encourage movement — to new pastures — this is healthiest. There are many benefits that come from eating a variety of plants. Pasture-finished animals also provide healthy meat. Their bodies have phytochemical complexity.

Learning from Mom and nature

The culture we grow up in shapes us. “In our studies we’ve done a lot of work with wild and domestic animals, showing that you can change the culture/habits of animals. We try to observe how natural systems work, and get back in sync with this,” says Provenza.

Ranchers can utilize natural tendencies of grazing animals for better management, and can also change their habits if necessary — such as training lazy pasture cattle to climb up out of riparian areas in a range situation and use more of the upland areas for grazing. It’s all part of the culture they learn, regarding the foods they eat and places they go. Calves learn habits from their mothers. If you train the cows to utilize a range more efficiently and effectively, the calves will develop those same good habits.

“This is where we can have a positive influence. We all get into habits that are not the best, and sometimes need to be retrained.” Cattle that haven’t had to climb hills and work for their feed, or depend on someone bringing feed to them, are reluctant to change unless someone shows them another way. Cattle, just like people, quickly take the easy way if we pamper them too much and kill their creativity.

“With good stockmanship we can change the culture of a cattle herd from bottom dwellers to ambitious animals that live in the uplands. Once you change the culture you don’t have to do much, because the cows teach their offspring. The first year is the toughest, and by the third year you have the job done,” he says. When you keep replacement heifers, they already know good habits, learning from their mothers.

“For better land management, we can use cattle grazing and stockmanship, as well as strategic supplements that help cattle use plants like sagebrush. In our work we’ve used cattle and sheep for sagebrush control rather than herbicides or mechanical treatments. If we implement livestock into the system, they become a part of rejuvenating their own landscape,” says Provenza.

“We found that late fall and winter is a perfect time for grazing sagebrush. The deterrent compounds — terpenes — are at low concentration at that time, and it’s easier for the animals to utilize sage as part of their diet. Ranchers can strategically supplement cattle out on rangeland, moving them across the landscape. This creates mosaics and patches of changed vegetation. You can’t change thousands of acres all at once, but you can work at it gradually to rejuvenate the landscape, by integrating livestock into the management system,” he explains.

“We had good success in trials with sheep and cattle. Some ranchers in Oregon are now using these principles to cut winter feed costs. They don’t spend time trying to get rid of sagebrush, but use it as a forage resource.” This keeps it in balance with the rest of the ecosystem, by grazing it.

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