Virginia Veterinarian, Beef Producer Takes Reins as NCBA Chief Veterinarian
After spending 27 years practicing veterinary medicine, one year as a congressional fellow and more than 11 years managing her family’s cow-calf operation, Kathy Simmons, D.V.M., started a new role today, May 7, 2012, as chief veterinarian for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). Simmons will focus on animal care and health regulatory issues both domestically and internationally. Simmons studied biology and biochemistry at Virginia Tech University before earning a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech in 1984.
National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn., 5/7/2012

Producers Urged to Participate in Online Survey on Beef Cattle Code of Practice
Beef producers and those with an interest in animal care and welfare are encouraged to share their views in an online survey on the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Beef Cattle.

Codes of Practice are national guidelines for the care and handling of farm animals. The confidential survey from the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) focuses on awareness and use of the Code, created in 1991, within the beef production sector. The input gathered from the survey will help formulate an updated Code that assures all stakeholders that production methods in Canada's beef production industry are keeping pace with scientific advancement, practicality and consumer expectations.

The survey is being conducted at www.nfacc.ca/codes-of-practice/beef-cattle. Producer input is critical to updating the Code of Practice and to ensure the process reflects stakeholders at all levels and across all types of cattle.
Canadian Cattlemen’s Associaiton, 5/7/12

Links Between Animal Health And Food Safety Studied
The head of Purdue University's Department of Animal Sciences was on a team of experts who examined the relationship between the health of agricultural animals and consumers' increasing demand for safe food. The report will be released Monday (May 7) in Washington, D.C. Alan Mathew co-wrote ''Healthy Animals Make Confident Consumers'' with five other members of a task force organized by the nonprofit Council for Agricultural Science and Technology.
Drovers Cattle Network, 5/5/2012

New Import Measures for Horses Entering Canada from the United States
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is implementing new import measures to protect Canadian livestock from an outbreak of vesicular stomatitis reported in New Mexico, United States. Effective immediately, horses originating from the state of New Mexico will not be permitted to enter Canada. Canadian horses returning from New Mexico will be allowed entry into Canada if additional import requirements are met. In addition, all horses entering Canada from the United States must be accompanied by official US documents certifying that they have not been in New Mexico within the previous 21 days.
Homesteading Today, 5/4/2012

Protecting Beef from BSE Fallout
The checkoff’s issues-management team has been working diligently to maintain consumer confidence in the safety of beef in the wake of USDA’s recent announcement of our country’s fourth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), in a dairy cow from California. The checkoff worked with veterinarian and cattle producer Tom Talbot, and Dr. Guy Loneragan, epidemiologist and professor of food safety and public health at Texas Tech University, to talk with media and ensure factual balance in media stories. Efforts also include updating BSEInfo.org with the announcement, fact sheets, media contacts, and related statements and resources from various industry organizations. In fact, BSEInfo.org hosted nearly 5,000 visitors- including a host of international visitors - between late Tuesday and late Wednesday - 95 percent of whom were unique visitors to the site. The team also used social media networks and activated more than 3,000 graduates of the checkoff’s Masters of Beef Advocacy program to push out reassuring messages and Tweets. The checkoff also worked closely with state beef councils and other influencers, including retailers and foodservice groups, to re-iterate the facts about BSE and the overriding message that beef is safe.
Checking In on the Check-off, Cattlemen’s Beef Board, 5/4/12

Bolstering Responses to LFTB
In addition to BSE informational efforts, the checkoff’s issues-management team continues to bolster response efforts related to Lean Finely Textured Beef (what the media referred to as ''pink slime'') through assets like the assessment of the potential economic fallout from devaluing Lean Finely Textured Beef, conducted for the checkoff by Iowa State University. The checkoff also helped field a consumer reaction survey to gain insight about consumers’ reactions. Those insights suggest that ''pink slime'' is not top of mind with consumers in unaided questions. Additional work continues on other potential issues, as well, including transglutaminase (what some media call ''meat glue''). Visit ExploreBeef.org for fact sheets and more.
Checking In on the Check-off, Cattlemen’s Beef Board, 5/4/12

Big Changes Ahead for Antibiotics
As of last month, the use of antibiotics on farms is forever changed. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released its final version of Guidance 209, which will implement two significant changes in how antibiotics are used on the farm. Specifically, FDA is zeroing in on the subtherapeutic applications of antibiotics that are ''medically important'' to humans. That covers about half of the feed-grade antimicrobials used today, estimates Rich Carnevale, DVM, Animal Health Institute’s vice president of regulatory, scientific and international affairs.
Pork Network, 5/3/2012

Statement from Canada's Chief Veterinary Officer: Canada's Scrapie Control Measures Critical to Animal Health and the Livestock Industry
Recent media attention has focussed on scrapie and Canada's approach to managing this livestock disease. As public discussion around this issue continues, it's important to emphasize that scrapie is internationally recognized as a serious disease that demands science-based control measures. This is why all suspected cases of the disease must be reported to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), which is responsible for notifying the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) when cases are confirmed. The significant animal health and economic implications of scrapie are another important reason that Canada instituted a scrapie eradication program in concert with industry in 2005.
Marketwire, 5/3/2012