The Development of a Risk Assessment Model for Inedible Rendering Plants in Canada: Identifying and Selecting Feed Safety-Related Factors.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is developing an establishment-based risk assessment model to categorize rendering plants that produce livestock feed ingredients (ERA-Renderer model) according to animal and human health risks (i.e., feed safety risks) and help in determining the allocation of inspection resources based on risk.

The swine enteric virome in a commercial production system and its association with neonatal diarrhea.

Swine are an important food source worldwide and producers may not always be aware of the variety of the pathogens infecting their herds, particularly viruses. In this study, 12 enteric viruses were monitored in a total of 181 diarrheic and healthy piglets; namely porcine astrovirus groups 1-5 (poAstV1-5), rotavirus A and C (RVA-RVC), caliciviruses (CaVs), porcine kobuvirus (PoK), hepatitis E virus (HEV), and torque teno sus virus 1 and k2 (TTsuV1-k2). All animals were sampled before 3 weeks of age, and then at 5, 12 and 20 weeks of age.

Expert Elicitation To Estimate the Feed Safety Impact of Criteria Included in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Risk Assessment Model for Feed Mills.

Abstract: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is developing an Establishment-based Risk Assessment (ERA) model for commercial and on-farm mills involved in the manufacture, storage, packaging, labeling, or distribution of livestock feed (ERA-Feed Mill model). This model will help inform the allocation of inspection resources on the basis of feed safety risk, including animal health and food safety risk. In a previous study, 34 risk factors, grouped into inherent, mitigation, and compliance clusters, along with assessment criteria were selected.

contamination in a network of 10 pig farms interconnected within the same cooperative.

Objective: To evaluate whether pig farms interconnected within the same cooperative share similar contamination patterns.

Setting: Ten finishing pig farms within a 100 km radius of a common slaughterhouse were selected. Their inclusion was based on their association to the same cooperative and the sharing of common resources: piglets, feed, swine transporters, slaughterhouse, technicians and veterinarians.

Kobuvirus shedding dynamics in a swine production system and their association with diarrhea.

Porcine kobuviruses are widely distributed in swine, but the clinical significance of these viruses remains unclear, since they have been associated with both diarrheic and healthy pigs. In addition, there is a paucity of data on Kobuvirus prevalence in Canadian pig herds. In this study, a total of 181 diarrheic and healthy piglets were monitored and sampled on four occasions, intended to represent the different stages of production.

Molecular characterization of subspecies C-type and S-type isolated from sheep and goats by using a combination of MIRU-VNTR loci.

subspecies (Map) is the etiological agent of paratuberculosis of domestic and wild ruminants. Map strains are segregated into 2 main groups or strain types referred to as sheep (S) type and cattle (C) type. Few small ruminant Map strains have been genetically characterized to date.

Overlooked sources of contamination in the pig production network: Slaughterhouse yard pathways and mudguards and carpets from transport trucks.

This report describes various serovars which were found on often overlooked locations in a pig farm/slaughterhouse interface. These include slaughterhouse yard pathways and mudguards and carpets of transport trucks arriving at and departing from production sites.

Dynamics of Virus Distribution in a Defined Swine Production Network Using Enteric Viruses as Molecular Markers.

Unlabelled: Modern swine production systems represent complex and dynamic networks involving numerous stakeholders. For instance, livestock transporters carry live animals between fattening sites, abattoirs, and other premises on a daily basis. This interconnected system may increase the risk of microbial spread within and between networks, although little information is available in that regard.

Detection and Phylogenetic Analysis of the Hepatitis E Virus in a Canadian Swine Production Network.

Viral contamination along the production chain is a significant concern in both food safety and livestock health. Pigs have been reported to act as a reservoir for zoonotic viruses, sometimes emerging ones, and epidemiological studies have shown direct links between the consumption of uncooked pork offal and cases of hepatitis caused by the hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotype 3 in humans. The presence of HEV in swine herds has been reported, but its dissemination in pork production environments is still unknown.

Genetic diversity of group A rotavirus in swine in Canada.

Group A rotaviruses (RVA) in pigs have been poorly investigated in Canada. In a continued effort to fill this gap, ten finisher swine farms in Quebec, Canada, were sampled over a nine-month period. The presence of RVA was detected in healthy pigs on all farms investigated during the entire sampling period.

Dramatic increase of quench efficiency in "spacerless" dimaleimide fluorogens.

In this post-genomic era, new techniques are needed to cope with the task of assigning functional roles to the huge number of identified putative gene products. We have developed a minimalist labelling strategy based on the use of synthetic fluorogenic probe reagents that fluoresce only after their reaction with a target peptide sequence. The probe reagents have fluorescent cores and bear two maleimide groups, such that their latent fluorescence is quenched by a photoinduced electron transfer (PET) to the pendant maleimide groups, until both of these groups undergo a specific thiol addition reaction.