Newsletter No. 87

WORLD OSTRICH ASSOCIATION

Mission Statement
"To Represent The International Ostrich Industry Through Communication, Dissemination of Information and Provision of Industry Standards"

Contact Details :

Craig Culley, Secretary
World Ostrich Association
33 Eden Grange
Little Corby
Carlisle, UK CA4 8QW
Tel +44 1228 562 923
Fax +44 1228 562 187
Email:

World Ostrich Association Newsletter No. 87
June, 2010

Included in this edition:
Accessing Markets
Optimizing meat colour with feed formulations
Climate Change – Global Cooling

Accessing Markets
We are often asked about the markets for our products. There is a good demand for the meat in the major markets such as the USA, EU and Japan. We also hear from many wanting to start producing ostrich, but all too often they are starting in countries that do not have any history of exporting meat products to these major markets.

Most countries have their own protocols/requirements for the exporting country. This requires strong support from government services. This Australian Government web page illustrates the type of support that is required.

What is required today is good investment into production in the countries that can already access these major markets.

Optimizing meat colour with feed formulations
A recent article in Meatingplace .com suggests that meat colour is perhaps the most influential of all organoleptic senses consumers use to make decisions. The word organoleptic is a food processing term referring to any sensory properties of a product, involving taste, colour, odour and feel.

The article suggests that most consumers perceive colour as a sign of product quality, so it is of utmost importance to avoid unusual tones. This particular article is referencing poultry meat, but it applies to all meats.

The article goes onto remind readers that colour is not based on one single factor. It confirms again that aspects such as diet, management, sex, age, strain, processing procedures, chemical exposure, cooking temperature (in ready-to-eat products), irradiation and freezing conditions all can influence meat colour.

The following quote discusses some of the influence of diet on poultry meat, but the principles are of course true for all species.

The influence of diet on poultry meat colour is not simple, and can occur from something as basic as a dietary deficiency of a single nutrient. It has been shown that dietary inadequacies of vitamin E, selenium or sulphur amino acids could alter the breast muscle in such manner that it may display a green-type coloration commonly known as "green muscle disease." This disease is the result of a myopathy that often leads some parts of the pectoral muscle to become necrotic, and has been observed to occur in broilers and turkeys. A breast myopathy that could lead to discoloration has also been linked with the use of some anticoccidial drugs, which must be used in diets to prevent a highlydamaging disease known as coccidiosis. Another disorder in poultry known to impact meat colour is the one referred to as "PSE," or pale-soft-exudative meat. Factors that lead to this condition are various and do not necessarily originate from diet, although Sheldon and others (1997) showed that vitamin E supplementation could diminish the paleness of meat.

These are issues being discussed as important with a popular and well known meat that is sold in extremely competitive markets and in volume. Over the years we have highlighted these problems in Ostrich meat – and they are all the more severe when experienced in an industry that produces insufficient tonnages to supply the demand from marketers wishing to develop our markets.

Climate Change - Global Cooling
The 4th International Conference on Climate Change organised by The Heartland Institute was held in Chicago this month. Don J. Easterbrook, Ph.D. presented a paper entitled The Looming Threat of Global Cooling - Geological Evidence for Prolonged Cooling Ahead and its Impacts. The presentation is available on line here as a video, along with all other presentations at the conference. The PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded here. Go to Day 2, Session 1, TRACK Science 2. The presentation can be downloaded by clicking on Don J. Easterbrook, Ph.D.

Figure 1 illustrates our current global temperatures compared to past temperatures going back 15,000 years. The Climate change was assessed from oxygen isotopes in the GISP Greenland ice core. The speaker notes the size and abruptness of the warming events (in red) between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago. He also notes that virtually all of the past 10,000 years has been warmer than present, well before CO2 began to rise. (Modified from Cuffy and Clow, 1997)

Figure 1 - Warming and Cooling Periods over 15000 Years [Modified from Cuffy and Clow, 1997]

Figure 2 provides comparisons between the Hockey Stick graph that the IPCC have built the current global warming fears on and other graphs supported by many climate scientists illustrating the reality. They illustrate how current temperatures are cooler than the 3000 year average.

Figure 2 - Hockey Stick Graph vs Reality

Figure 3 illustrates the hypothesis that we are entering an era of cooling rather than warming. You will note there are 3 possibilities. Option 1 is a cooling similar to the 1945-1977 period, which would be minimal. Option 2 illustrates a cooling period similar to 1880-1915 and option 3 is cooling similar to 1970-1820 period.

Figure 3 – Easterbook’s Projected Cooling

Professor Easterbrook highlights the impacts of global cooling as being farm more harmful to humans than global warming for the following reasons:

Twice as many people are killed by extreme cold than by extreme heat.
Decrease in global food production—hardest hit will be third-world countries where millions are now near starvation levels.
Increase in per capita energy demands.
Decreased ability to cope with the population explosion (>50% increase in next 40 years).

IPCC predicted in 2000 that the Earth would be 1° F warmer by 2010, but instead, global cooling has occurred, thus invalidating their climate models.