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MFBF Identifies Needs Of Livestock Producers For Slaughter, Meat Processing

By Katelyn Parsons

The Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation (MFBF) is pleased to release the results from its’ survey to assess the needs of livestock producers for slaughter and meat processing. To view a PDF copy of the results, please click here.

The results are from 144 livestock producers, 89 of whom finished the entire survey. While the organization wished more producers had completed the survey, due to time constraints and summer being busy season, it is pleased with the responses to this survey.

“One of the key takeaways from the survey was that our producers have difficulty getting appointments at their local slaughterhouses due to such high demand,” said MFBF President Mark Amato. “Producers need facilities that are near their farms and that can schedule timely appointments. Survey comments even discussed the need to schedule appointments before livestock is born and the difficulties that creates.”

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Leman Swine Conference: Vaccination strategies to reduce PRRS virus recombination

Video: Leman Swine Conference: Vaccination strategies to reduce PRRS virus recombination

Dr. Jay Calvert, Research Director with Zoetis, recently spoke to The Pig Site’s Sarah Mikesell at the 2023 Leman Swine Conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, about his conference presentation on porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus recombination.

“The number one problem in PRRS these days from a vaccine point of view is the emergence of new strains of PRRS. Since the beginning, we have had new strains and a lot of diversity,” said Dr. Jay Calvert. “We thought we knew it was all about mutation changes in amino acids and the individual strains over time, but they take on new characteristics.”

With the onset of more common whole genome sequencing and recombination analysis, Dr. Calvert says there is another mechanism, and recombination seems to be a key factor.