While animal meat continues to dominate the market, plant-based meat alternatives are on the rise, in part because people believe they’re healthier and safer. But if you share that belief, then, according to scientists with the USDA Agricultural Research Service, you should hold your horses – and your grills – a little because faith in the inherent safety of plant-based products might be misplaced. 

• Contrary to popular belief, plant-based meats are actually ultra-processed and packed with che...

Proper virus classification is necessary for the swine industry to ensure we can track nearby viruses' lineages and update vaccination and biosecurity protocols as needed. In this episode with Dr. Kim VanderWaal, we discuss classification processes today and new technology available that may help increase the accuracy of proper classification.

What you will learn:

1. Classifying PRRS virus strains

2. RFLPs

3. Lineages of strains

4. Understanding the epidemiology

5. Alternative clas...

Vitamins can sometimes be overlooked due to their cheap and easy inclusion in swine diets. With stabilization issues under certain conditions, we tend to put more in the diet than is required, but how much extra is everyone adding? In this episode with Dr. Jamil Faccin, we talk about his survey of many large swine facilities in the United States and how he compared their vitamin inclusion levels to see what the averages may tell us.

Meet the guest: Dr. Jamil Faccin graduated in Veterinar...

PRRS virus continues to create new variants, what a surprise… However, as unfortunate as it is, we need to tract the spread and transmission of these new variants to best keep our herds healthy. In this episode, Dr. Clayton Johnson talks with Dr. Mariana Kikuti about her work tracking a novel PRRSV 1C variant across many farms in the Midwest and what its presence could mean for many farms in the US.

Meet the guest: 

Dr. Mariana Kikuti is a veterinary doctor with a Masters of public hea...

Europe’s campaign against the African Swine Fever (ASF) has been extended for the third year. 

• The program is run in partnership with local authorities in eighteen European countries.

The executive director of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Bernhard Url, says that ASF is spreading at an alarming rate, is a global issue, and needs to be tackled by everyone, together.

• Providing producers and stakeholders with information is vital to contain ASF. The EU must not “lower its guar...

The American Immigration Council released a report showing that immigrant workers in the U.S.’ meat and dairy industries play a vital role in producing the country’s food, providing a workforce, and stabilizing prices. It recommends expanding visa programs and implementing other long-term employment-based immigration reforms.

• Seasonal legalization of immigrants is not efficient, since it doesn’t take long-term effects into consideration and is not enough to solve the shortage of employees as ...

The Farm Bill will be updated in 2023. The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) highlighted the perks of the 2018 Farm Bill – permanent, mandatory funding for animal disease prevention and preparedness. As for the 2023 Farm Bill, the NPPC supports the development of a foot and mouth disease vaccine bank.

• The purpose of the vaccine bank will be to enable the quick containment and eradication of an outbreak and prevent financial losses. 

A new report says that the U.S. farming and processi...