Weekly Livestock-Equine News: February 24, 2025

Mars pledges $27M to help dairies reduce on-farm emissions

Mars Inc. announced a new program – the Farmer Forward Program – with dairy supplier Fonterra to help dairy farmers embrace climate-smart agriculture practices. About half of the $27 million, five-year investment will fund on-farm tools and technology, and the remainder will go to about 165 farmers each year who make the most progress toward sustainability goals. Mars aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030 against a 2015 baseline.

Cornell creates online bird flu resource center

Cornell University has launched the Avian Flu Resource Center, intended to be a one-stop clearinghouse for current and trustworthy information on bird flu. The center provides an avian influenza fact sheet, links to CDC and USDA avian flu sites, and pages for those interested in current information on human health, wildlife, dairy, poultry, cats and dogs, and research.

USDA scientists overseeing bird flu response are laid off

A quarter of personnel working in nearly five dozen U.S. laboratories working on the latest avian influenza outbreak have been laid off. The cuts come at the USDA’s National Animal Health Laboratory Network, which manages data and ensures consistency in labs doing the testing while tracking animal disease outbreaks, making sure they follow similar protocols and standards.

VPS launches shoulder sore treatments for sows

Pharmacy compounding firm Veterinary Pharmaceutical Solutions launched Mendicin and Healicin ABF, two products said to have shown improvement in wound scores in recent research studies. One study studying the impact of shoulder sore treatments in sows showed that Mendicin- and Healicin-treated wounds were the only products with decreased surface area over the first seven and full 14 days.

French bird flu vaccine campaign helps poultry output recover

A bird flu vaccination campaign launched in France in 2023 has enabled the country’s poultry production to recover to levels not seen since outbreaks of the virus wiped out tens of millions of birds, according to producers. In 2024, French poultry output rose 12.1% from the previous year after gaining 2% versus 2022. It is now 1.1% above the “pre-crisis level” of 2019, a year with relatively few bird flu outbreaks.

Alt proteins fail to reduce rumen methane production, study finds

A study has found that replacing soybean meal with alternative protein co-products – i.e., brewers’ spent grains, dried wheat distillers’ grains, dried corn distillers’ grains and corn steep liquor – in ruminant diets does not significantly impact in vitro rumen methane production. The study was conducted by teams from Agrifirm, the University of Reading, Scotland’s Rural College, the University of Guelph, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.