Newsletter 99

Included in this edition:
Rogue Traders
South Africa Avian Flu Update
Variation in Turkey Meat Colour: a Consumer Issue in Germany
Genetic Improvement by Natural Selection
How does consumer fear of GM Crops affect Ostrich Production?

Rogue Traders
Last month we received an enquiry from a prospective ostrich farmer looking for day old chicks. This same farmer reported having sent money earlier but the seller had taken the money and he heard no more. All industries have their rogue traders and it is sad to see this still happening in ostrich production.

One problem we have with our ostrich industry is the lack of experience as most participants are beginners. Therefore their ability to recognise a seller who may not be all he/she appears to be is limited. Shortly after that enquiry I received an unsolicited email – this is all it said:

There were a number of factors in the approach that alerted me to the fact this was probably not a genuine supplier. The unsolicited approach, the prices, no reference as to who they were or where they were located and no indication of delivery included or not. A Gmail account email account was used.

As several people have asked me for names of suppliers of livestock, I thought I would respond and in the knowledge we had recently heard from someone who was conned out of his money. My first question was to find out his location and the numbers he had available. The answer was Spain. He mentioned a number of 350 but did not specify for which category – eggs, chicks or mature birds – no reference at all. There were other comments regarding the freight and he assumed I was based in the US that continued to suggest this person was not a genuine seller.

Further brief emails were exchanged over the next few days. I asked him also if he was based in Europe, why he was not selling meat. He told me he could sell meat, they are slaughtering – anything I wanted. He then provided me with the address of an ostrich operation based in Tenerife and mentioned their farm close by. He also referenced bringing in ostriches from Africa. When I asked him for his slaughter plant registration number, he provided me with a chicken slaughter plant based in China.

Clearly this case was fairly easy to detect as a rogue as the story was forever changing to fit my questions but with absolutely no knowledge about the product he was trying to sell me. The evidence points to him being the same rogue that conned the genuine buyer referenced above. So it is a lesson once again for “Buyer Beware”. Before parting with any money it is essential to verify the person you are dealing with is legitimate.

The European Commission has sent animal health experts to South Africa to help authorities there contain an avian flu outbreak that has put a halt to ostrich meat exports.

The emergency veterinary team arrived on Wednesday, following the discovery of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in ostrich farms in the Western Cape province, the commission said Thursday.

The outbreak was first detected on April 9 in Klein Karoo Valley and in the following weeks the disease "spread further in the area endangering the local ostrich population that is kept for meat production," it said.

The disease has not had any public health impact but it has had a major effect on animal welfare as well as "serious economic effects on the local rural population," the European Union's executive arm said.

"In fact, following the outbreak exports of ostrich meat, usually destined for the EU market, have been immediately stopped to prevent the spread of the disease outside South Africa's borders," it said in a statement.

The commission said the European experts will help control the disease to limit the risk to other poultry and eventually reduce trade restrictions.

South African experienced HPAI outbreaks in 2004 and 2006, but like the current cases they were not caused by the H5N1 strain of the virus, which can be fatal to humans, the EU executive said.

The press release is self explanatory and indicates ongoing problems with the Avian Influenza in the region.

Variation in Turkey Meat Colour: a Consumer Issue in Germany
An article recently published on themeatsite.com discusses the issue of variations in turkey meat colour in Germany. It opened with this statement:

Variable meat colour has been a major issue with ostrich production, which we have discussed in a few past newsletters (16, 22, 36 and 87).

Figure 1 is a photo I took of retail ostrich steaks we purchased for our personal consumption - the 4 steaks all came from a single retail pack. Note the variations in colour. Note also the variation in size and shape. This is an issue that needs to be addressed to ensure products are more consumer friendly.

The two major problems with this pack from a consumer viewpoint were the colour and the variability of the muscle shape and size within a pack. This particular pack came from an area known for producing birds with muscle yields of around 20kgs to 25kgs per bird. When producing birds of greater muscle size, this also results in larger muscle sizes that are easier to portion to more uniform shapes and sizes. A bird fed sufficiently well to produce larger muscles generally will produce meat of a more consistent colour.

Genetic Improvement by Natural Selection
Over the years we have emphasised the important role that improving the genetic stock as one of the management factors to achieving more commercial levels of production. Recently we received a comment that those interested in ostrich farming should shy away from such terms and effort as "genetic improvement programs". The reason put forward was fear that our consumers may believe we are going down the same track as companies such as Monsanto with their approach to genetic modification (GM).

In this current environment of increasing consumer concerns of GM it is important to be very clear about how the modern GM technology is so very different to “genetic selection by natural selection”. For millenniums agriculture has improved output with farmers selecting seeds from their best crops and selecting breeding males and females from their best livestock genetic lines. This process has improved agricultural production since the start of agriculture some 10,000 years ago. As discussed in February, genetic selection this way has also changed the confirmation of breeds to meet the modern market demands. Figure 1, from that newsletter illustrates how the Aberdeen Angus has changed from 1959 to 2006.

In livestock genetic improvement by natural selection is achieved by selecting the animals demonstrating the best traits for their breed and/or specie to use for future breeders to improve the breed for their productive traits. In ostrich these productive traits may be egg laying, they may be specific conformation that provides optimum muscle size for meat production; they will include optimum growth size and feed conversion.

With plants this natural method of genetic improvement is achieved by saving seeds from the best crops to produce a quality crop with optimum yield under the local climatic conditions.

Genetic improvement by natural selection introduces only the genes from the same species, they may be crossed with different breeds or varieties of the same species but they do not introduce genes from different species. For example in cattle you may cross a Friesian Dairy Cow with a Hereford to achieve a calf that will yield more meat when no further heifers are required to replace older members of the herd.

In recent years something new has crept into genetic development that is alien to genetic improvement by natural selection. That is genetic engineering where DNA from different species is impregnated into a plant or animals. The simplest definition of a genetically modified organism is one in which the genetic make-up has been altered in a way that does not happen naturally. The genes, DNA have crossed the specie barrier.

An example of Genetic Modification is taking the gene that programs poison in the tail of a scorpion, and combining it with a cabbage. These genetically modified cabbages kill caterpillars because they have learned to grow scorpion poison (insecticide) in their sap. Another example is the gene from a fish that lives in very cold seas has been inserted into a strawberry, allowing the fruit to be frost-tolerant. The item with the greatest concern is the impregnation of DNA into crops such as soya and maize to make it resistant to the herbicide roundup.

The two types of genetic improvement must never be confused. Genetic improvement by natural selection is normal and essential in commercial agriculture and quite natural so long as the traits selected for and developed do not compromise the animal’s health and well-being. The controversy on the safety and ethics of genetic improvement is the Genetic Engineering/modification introduction of genes from different species as many scientists still question their long term safety.

An excellent video “The World According to Monsanto” put together by Marie-Monique Robin examines the science supporting the evidence of the safety of GM crops and their development. At minutes 47.44, during a discussion with Steve Druker reviewing FDA documentation highlighted this statement written by Dr. Louis J Prybal from the FDA Microbiology department:

The commercial success of ostrich farming depends on identifying the productive genetic material and developing those bloodlines using natural selection and breeding techniques, which can include Artificial Insemination. There is no need or place for GM technology in ostrich genetic improvement.

How does consumer fear of GM Crops affect Ostrich Production?
The major fear of consumers of this new technology is the longer term implications on health as discussed in “The World According to Monsanto” and also the video The Future of Food. Both these videos provide a good background to gain a better understanding of just what this technology is, the politics supporting its development, the impact on farmers and consumer concerns.

Production ostrich require soya, maize and lucerne as essential ingredients forming the basis of their rations to achieve optimum production. These crops are challenging to obtain GM free in some areas thus posing problems for producers living in regions were GM ingredients are not permitted or buyer wishes to certify their products as GM Free.