Livestock cover

The recently published book on food safety related to animal products Improving the Safety of Fresh Meat edited by Sofos (Sofos, 2005) is a very valuable resource that covers different strategies of control and understanding the ecology of pathogens transmitted via meat. Another book that covers the topic of farm-to-fork food safety with relevant information on livestock... 

Livestock deaths have generally occurred under conditions in which animals consume large amounts of pods or toxic plants in a brief period of time. Most losses happen when hungry livestock are driven through an area of heavy lupine growth, or are trailed through an area where the grass is covered... 

Since time immemorial, animal breeders have had to cross-foster motherless lambs or calves, or had to attach newborn mammals to a mother of a different species. They have been aware of odor barriers and developed methods to overcome them. A ewe will accept a non-related lamb if it has been rubbed with the hide or amniotic fluid of her own, perhaps stillborn, lamb. A classical case of successful cross-fostering between species is a technique employed by Peruvian livestock breeders to produce hybrids between alpacas and vicunas. The cross is called paco-vicuM and combines the large quantity of wool of the alpaca with the fine quality of vicufia hair. To breed an alpaca female with a vicufia male, first a male has to be imprinted on alpacas. A newborn male vicuna is covered with the hide of a newborn alpaca and presented to a lactating female alpaca without young. The young vicuna is accepted and nursed on account of his alpaca odor. Successfully raised by his alpaca mother, he will imprint on, and breed with, alpacas when adult. 

Livestock housing can be defined as the way that animals are accommodated on a farm . This can include both stables or pasture systems. In a broader sense, housing covers all factors that could influence the animal, including handling by humans, transport and slaughtering. Furthermore, influences from animal housing on the environment are considered, especially pollution. 

The Act was written to cover pesticide use on farms, forests, nurseries, and greenhouses. It does not include applications to pastures, golf courses, parks, livestock, right-of-way, or home gardens, nor does it cover treatments for mosquito abatement and rodent control. 

Cover crops, which include legumes and cereals, are grown specifically to protect the soil from erosion, enhance soil fertility, and suppress pests, including weeds (Lai et al., 1991). Cover crops are often grown not for harvest, but for soil enrichment. In some cases, a rye cover crop is harvested as forage, which provides additional feed for livestock producers (Curran et al., 1994b). Many different cover crops are used, but the most extensively used is winter or annual rye (Johnson et al., 1993). 

The initial format and content of the Regulation 2092/91 published in 1991 was developed over two years and set out timetables and stmctures for review and allowed for amendments. The Regulation covered only unprocessed and processed crop products initially and left a number of areas open for addition and review, most notably the detailed rules on imports and those covering livestock. Both topics have been subjected to much discussion throughout the 1990s (see below). The guidelines for wild crop products and mushroom production were added later. 

In June 1999 the EU Council of Ministers adopted an amendment to the Regulation which includes the additional standards for the inspection and production of organic livestock. The amendment will become law in August 2000 and from then the Regulation will cover products containing both plant and animal ingredients. 

Until the implementation of the amendment to the Regulation in 2000, livestock and animal products are not covered. However, the national control bodies and organic certification bodies have formulated standards to include them and these will have to be modified to... 

Drinking water is necessary for people, livestock, wildlife, crop irrigation, and for recreation. Although 70% of the Earth s surface is covered with water, most is salt water (salinity of 3.5%) and not fit to drink. Only 3% of the water on the Earth is freshwater (water that contains only minimal quantities of dissolved salts) and much of this water is in snow and ice (e.g., glaciers) as well as lakes, streams and groundwater. In some places in the world, freshwater is plentiful (e.g., the Great Lakes) however, in many places water is scarce. Wars have been fought over freshwater resources. 

The literature on the marketing of meat and meat products has been very effectively covered by the Bibliography on the Marketing of Livestock, Meat and Meat Products , issued by the Department of Agriculture in June, 1951. This annotated bibliography, which is well-arranged and well-indexed, lists 1600 references from the period 1932 to July, 1950. 

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