Agribusiness Update for Wednesday 04/15/15

Thanksgiving may be in trouble this year as four more turkey farms in the Midwest have confirmed cases of H5N2 avian influenza - which means 24 farms have been infected and more than 1.2-million birds have been killed by the disease or authorities trying to contain the disease. The latest cases are in Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The most recent outbreak in Wisconsin has impacted a commercial flock of 200,000 chickens - the first confirmed case in a commercial chicken farm in the region.

The USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service is implementing exploratory sampling of raw pork products for pathogens of public health concern. USDA issued a notice Monday outlining sampling protocols for salmonella as part of this exploratory sampling project announced earlier this year. The notice includes instructions for inspectors on how to update the establishment profile to include additional product groups so that all eligible pork products will likely be subject to sampling eventually. Products not eligible for sampling are ones that will receive full lethality treatment at a federally inspected establishment.

That's today's Agribusiness Update from the Ag Information Network of the West.