Agriculture Business Week

WHAT TYPES OF FOOD ARE MOST LIKELY TO SPREAD SALMONELLA?
Salmonella germs are common in uncooked food products from animals, such as eggs, egg products, meat, meat products, poultry, unpasteurized milk and unpasteurized dairy products. This is because thorough cooking and processing kill the germ. Salmonella can be in any type of food if Salmonella germs get on the food. For example, a food handler with salmonella may get germs on the food if his or her hands are not washed thoroughly before preparing food.

In July 2008, U.S. officials-after focusing on tomatoes as a possible source of contamination-traced a Salmonella outbreak that sickened more than 1,300 people to a batch of Serrano peppers shipped from a Mexican farm.

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Posted on June 6th, 2009 under Special Report. Tags: Bacteria, Salmonella. Comments: None

The Department of Health(DoH) and the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD), according to a Manila Bulletin news report, recently served a suspension order on Samuya Food Manufacturing Inc. following the results of a laboratory examination that showed its peanut butter products Yummy Sweet and Creamy Peanut Spread and Ludy s Sweet and Creamy Peanut Butter were contaminated with Salmonella.

The suspension order dated March 20, 2009 was served personally by health officials led by DoH Secretary Francisco T. Duque III in an impromptu visit to the Samuya manufacturing plant in Hidalgo Village, Pasay City. The DoH order also faulted the company for failure to comply with Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMPs) set by the BFAD for food manufacturers.

“It is hereby declared that all your food products manufactured are imminently injurious, unsafe or dangerous. Thus, pursuant to article 10 of Republic Act No. 7394 or the Consumer Act of the Philippines, -you are hereby directed to immediately recall or cease from public sale or distribution all your food products manufactured by your establishment at the above address. Further, on the strength of section 16 of Republic Act no. 3720, as amended, your license to operate as food manufacturer is immediately suspended and as such you are ordered to submit to BFAD, for its appropriate action, the original copy of your license to operate from receipt of this order,” the DoH order said.

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Posted on June 5th, 2009 under Special Report. Tags: Bacteria, Salmonella. Comments: None

A new broad spectrum fungicide has been proven to kill different fungi and bacteria in ornamentals.

Fungicides have been used for more than 400 years from as simple as a brine solution, which was used for cereal seed treatment, to the introduction of very complex organic chemical compounds in the earlier half of the 20th century. There are different classes of fungicides that are classified according to their chemical structure. One of them is copper-based fungicides or copper fungicides. It has been used to protect crops after the ‘accidental’ discovery of the Bordeaux mixture by Pierre-Marie-Alexis Millardet in the late 1800s.

Disease control with the use of a copper based fungicide is done by disrupting the functions of the cellular proteins of fungi and bacteria. This is because when cupric ions are released in the presence of moisture, it destroys the secondary and tertiary structures (denaturation) of these proteins upon contact. Once these proteins are denatured, its functions are lost.

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Posted on June 2nd, 2009 under Ornamental, Plant. Tags: Bacteria, Copper, Fungi, Fungicide, Ornamentals, Plants. Comments: 7

Salmonellae are widely distributed in our fond chain and environment. The bacteria can be found in raw meats, poultry, eggs, impasteurized milk, and daily products. People may also become exposed to Salmonella bacteria through contact with animals such as, pet chicks, dogs, cats, and reptiles.

Salmonella is a genus of rod-shaped Gram-negative Enterobacteria that causes typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, and the foodborne illness salmonellosis. Most Salmonella species are motile and produce hydrogen sulfide. There are approximately 40,000 cases of Salmonella infection reported in the United States each year.

DISCOVERER
The genus Salmonella was named after Daniel Elmer Salmon, an American veterinary pathologist. While Theobald Smith was the actual discoverer of the bacteria that causes hog cholera (Salmonella enterica var. Choleraesuis), Salmon was the administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture research program so the organism was named after him.

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Posted on April 18th, 2009 under Special Report. Tags: Bacteria, Salmonella. Comments: None

Here is the continuation of the questions and answers of about the important things a pig farmer should know about tiamulin.

Does tiamulin have adverse interaction with other antibiotics?
Generally, tiamulin is a safe drug and may be used in the prevention and treatment of certain infections in pigs of any age. However, like other drugs, tiamulin may show adverse interaction with certain other antibiotics, most specifically with some members of the so-called ionophore (also called polyether) antibiotics such as salinomycin, monensin and narasin. These ionophore antibiotics are commonly used as growth promoters in pigs and ruminants, and as anticoccidial agents in poultry.

The term “ionophores” refers to substances that “punch” holes in the membrane coverings of bacterial cells resulting in their death. Although the ionophore antibiotics have selective effects on bacterial cells at the usual doses, they may also adversely affect the animal cells at high doses and/or in combination with tiamulin.

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Posted on January 31st, 2009 under Livestock. Tags: Antibiotic, Bacteria, Disease, Tiamulin. Comments: None

For more than thirty years, tiamulin has been used in treating various bacterial infections of pigs. While many antibiotics have faced reduced effectiveness in the treatment of the same or similar infections, tiamulin remains one of the best antibiotics in controlling certain respiratory and intestinal infections in, farm animals. This article discusses in a question-and-answer format some of the important things a pig , farmer needs to know about this antibiotic.

WHAT IS TIAMULIN?
Tiamulin is an antibiotic originally derived from the mold scientifically named Clitopilus syphoides. At the time of tiamulin’s discovery this mold was known as Pleurotus mutilus, hence the name “pleuromutilins” given to the group of antibiotics to which tiamulin belongs. [Note also that the more familiar antibiotic group "penicillins" was so named after mold Penicillium notatum from which the first penicillin was derived.]

Many drugs, including tiamulin, come in “salt” forms such as hydrochloride, sulfate, bromide, etc. The approved tiamulin salt is tiamulin hydrogen fumarate or THF Dynamutilin (Novartis) is the first commercial brand of THF in the world, or at least in the Philippines. Being the original, Dynamutilin has been the most trusted THF brand for many years. When the patent for THF has expired, a number of other branded and generic THF appeared in the market.

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Posted on January 29th, 2009 under Livestock. Tags: Antibiotics, Bacteria, Pigs/Hogs, Tiamulin. Comments: 1