06/25/07 G4 Breakdown & Onion Recall

G4 Breakdown & Onion Recall plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. U.S. trade officials are expressing disappointment in the collapse of the G4 trade talks in Potsdam, Germany. Trade Ambassador Susan Schwab and Ag Secretary Mike Johanns were on hand and Johanns explains why the breakdown. JOHANNS: We had two countries, India and Brazil who I don't believe really chose to negotiate. They were present in all of the sessions but I would tell you that they picked numbers that were so out of the realm of possibility when it came to manufacturing market access that, it just literally was a situation where the United States would have had to negotiate with itself to try to find anything that might be in the realm of possibility of being acceptable to them. They adopted that attitude from the beginning and it cast a chill over the entire week of discussions. During routine testing, the Washington State Department of Agriculture detected the presence of Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. The packer, Gills Onions, LLC is recalling the diced yellow onions with the Trader Joes brand name and was distributed to stores in California, Oregon and Washington. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. Like most horse owners I know I take better care of my animals than I do myself meaning that all our horses are up to date on vaccinations, worming and shoeing, and you sure can't say that about me, especially in the shoe category! There is one exception; Spider Monkey our buckskin missed his West Nile vaccination. Now I haven't been too concerned with this oversight because his chances of encountering a mosquito carrying the virus in our region have been slim to none. After reading the warning issued by scientists with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention you can bet Spider will be getting his West Nile Vaccination in the next few days. Scientist fear warmer than normal weather this summer could make conditions ripe for a West Nile outbreak in horses and humans. As the disease marches further west each year the states at the Western edge of the virus spread are hit the hardest. Last year it was Idaho with 338 equine cases so Oregon with 35 and Washington with 6 sit primed for an outbreak! In the words of my vet Dr. Funk why risk loosing a good horse for a $20 shot. Call WSU's Veterinary Teaching Hospital at 509-335-0711 for more information regarding the spread of West Nile. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.