D2-Lancaster Fanning Saturday, March 29,1986
DES MOINES, lowa -
Delegates at the 1986 Annual
Meeting of the National Pork
Producers Council (NPPC) in St.
Louis, March 11-12, approved two
producer task force reports and
resolutions on various subjects
ranging* from advertising to food
safety practices.
The report of the An
tibiotics/Sulfa Task Force, chaired
by Mike Wehler, a
producer/director from Plain, WI,
included a recommended five
point program to combat currently
high sulfa residue levels in hog
carcasses at times of slaughter.
The Task Force recommended
support of mandatory iden
tification to the point of origin.
Noting that USDA fully intends
to reduce sulfa residue violations if
the industry does not address the
problem itself, the Task Force
report said an on-going national
education program can make
producers more aware of the
Maryland promotes poultry biosecurity
Bradley J. Hilly (right), an
Extension agricultural agent in
Wicomico County, on Maryland’s
lower Eastern Shore, discusses
“Don’t Yield to Visitors in Poultry
.Houses” sign with Randolph Clark,
manager of the Southern States
It's no
Penn State researchers hope to develop hard-shelled egg
BY JULIE LALO
Penn State Public
Information Specialist
UNIVERSITY PARK - If Penn
State researchers had been around
when nursery egg Humpty
Dumpty had his great fall, they
might have been able to save him.
Or at least made him less likely to
break.
At Penn State, poultry scientists
are aiming for an egg with a
tougher shell. To do that, says
Roland Leach, they first have to
unlock the secret behind the
crystal structure of the sturdy, but
fragile protection a chicken gives
her eggs.
It started with manipulation of
diet, the professor of poultry
science says. He learned that
manganese and copper
deficiencies could cause chickens
to lay “enlarged eggs with
wrinkled shells.”
And he discovered that the
formation of the eggshell occurred
a lot earlier in the process than
prior research had indicated. Eggs
are formed during a 24M>-hour trip
through a hen’s oviduct, where
they are developed from the inside,
or yolk, out, the poultry scientist
save. - - ......
Council addresses identification, sulfa issues
Pork
problem and the tools available to
avoid it. The report said good
management and the use of
granulated sulfamethazine
products can ensure sulfa-free
pork. It encouraged enforcement
by the Food and Drug Ad
ministration on the use of soluble
sulfa powder. The Task Force
report encouraged a
producer/industry protection
program by testing feed,
ingredients and hogs.
The Task Force indicated that
sulf-safe pilot projects in Illinois
and lowa were successful in
demonstrating the various causes
of sulfa residues. The pilot projects
also provide a framework to field
test new fast-screening testing
methods.
The Swine ID Task Force,
chaired by NPPC vice president
Tom Miller, a producer from
Maricopa, AZ, recommended
support of mandatory iden
tification of all slaughter hogs back
to the last farm of ownership. It
Cooperative feed store outlet in
Salisbury. Developed by the Mid-
Atlantic Cooperative Extension
poultry health and management
unit, the sign is intended for
display at feed stores throughout a
five-state area. Participating feed
oik:
“Now we know that the crystals
are formed earlier, during the
membrane formation, and feel
that these early events of shell
deposition may ultimately
determine the structure of the shell
which is deposited later in the shell
gland,” he says.
While a hen is busy making the
membrane that we all know as the
rubbery extra shell on a hard
boiled egg, she also starts to
deposit the initial calcite crystals
of the shell, Leach found.
Now he is left with more
questions. “Do the initial crystal
sites determine shell structure?
How important is crystal structure
to the strength of an egg? Lastly,
how can this be manipulated? ’ ’
Leach is certain that if the right
crystal structure can be
established, he can make it an
inherited quality which could be
bred into egg-laying chickens.
“It is already done to generate
thicker-shelled eggs,” he says. In
fact, thickness is a trait that will
prevent 60 to 70 percent of egg
breakage. But 30 to 40 percent of
the breakage does occur to thick
shelled eggs, so other factors such
as crystal structure are con
•tributing.to.a weakness.of.the egg
also encouraged packers to share
health and carcass quality in
formation with pork producers.
USDA Veterinary Services is in
volved in research and develop
ment of a bar coding system and
will evaluate its practical ap
plication in a swine identification
program. Meantime, preliminary
work at Michigan State University
shows promise that a system of
identification, using the slap tatoo
Delaware resumes poultry auctions
DOVER, DE - The Delaware
Department of Agriculture has
announced it is lifting the ban on
public poultry auctions.
The ban had been placed on
public auctions as a precaution
against the spread of avian in
fluenza (AI) by Secretary of
Agriculture William Chandler, Jr.
on January 24,1986.
. In announcing the lifting of the
ban, State Veterinarian Dr. H.
stores also will have MACE
educational leaflets on bio-security
and nutrition available for free
pickup by poultry producers,
especially those with small or
specialty flocks.
shell.
“Creating a stronger eggshell
barrier is important for economic,
consumer and health reasons,”
says Herbert Siegel, head of the
department of poultry science.
Broken eggs represent 6 to 8
percent of all U.S. eggs produced.
“Checked" eggs, which contain
cracks in the outer shell only, may
be diverted to liquid or dried egg
products, says Siegel. But leakers,
which are eggs with broken
membranes, cannot be used for
human consumption. Penn State
food science researchers are
developing alternative uses for
these.
“From a consumer point of view,
to boil a soft-shelled egg only to
have it crack before it has cooked
will cause a producer to lose
customers,” Siegel adds. “Finally,
there is always a potential when
the shell is breached that un
desirable flavors'and organisms
can invade the edible portion of an
egg.”
The creation of a more sturdy
egg is so important to Leach that
he calls his search for answers a
“holy grail.”
“The holy grail would be a
fantastically strong ece.” he savs.
along with some new electronic
data recording equipment, can
help provide useful carcass and
health information back to
producers.
The 1986 NPPC Delegate Body
did not consider a recently com
pleted report by a jury panel of
industry representatives that
recommended the pork industry
move toward a goal of
pseudorabies (PRV) eradication.
Wesley Towers, Jr. said the
Agriculture Department will not
be relaxing health standards for
poultry. “We will be inspecting all
poultry sold at auctions for at least
the next 30 days”, said Towers.
At least 20 birds from each
poultry flock owner will be tested,
according to the State
Veterinarian. In addition, poultry
owners are being advised to take
precautions including careful
NPPC to coordinate national
pork checkoff programs
DES MOINES, lowa - Noting
that producer involvement is at an
all-time high, Ron Kahle, president
of the National Pork Producers
Council, told elected delegates at
the organization’s annual meeting
March 11 in St. Louis, that ap
proval of the 100-percent national
pork producer checkoff has set a
new course for the nation’s pork
producers.
Kahle said that after the new
checkoff goes into effect late in
1986, NPPC will continue to be the
only organization completely
devoted to developing and ad
ministering policy programs and
projects that offer all pork
producers the best opportunity for
a reasonable profit.
The NPPC president said he
hopes the members of the new
independent Delegate Body and
the new independent Pork Board
will recognize that producers are
not interested in development of a
new bureaucracy but rather want
the industry’s existing resources
and energy pooled to build a
stronger, more effective pork
industry.
“Shaping public policy is crucial
to the survival of any industry in
this modem day of rapid change,”
Kahle told producer-delegates.
“For this reason, NPPC will
continue to serve in the coor-
It is probably not ironic that the
poultry scientist would use a
religious reference to this most
universal of foods, deeply em
bedded in theological n-adition.
Says Siegel, ‘The egg and its
creator, the chicken, are two of the
few animal food items that have
not been religiously or culturally
prohibited in some part of the
world.”
Eggs and chickens are eaten
worldwide, he says, unlike beef,
which Hindus do not eat, or pork.
i\,VL'
The NPPC Executive Committee
earlier had officially received the
jury report and sent it to NPPC’s
PRV Oversight Committee for
further evaluation. The committee
is expected to review the jury
report and will await the com
pletion of PRV pilot projects in
several states this fall before
making a firm recommendation.
NPPC delegates will make the
' ultimate decision for NPPC.
observation ot birds tor signs of
avian influenza.
The ban was lifted because there
have been no further field cases of
AI in the past 30 days.
Towers reminds poultry farmers
and others that avian influenza is
easily spread and although it is
deadly to chickens and turkeys, it
is not a risk to human health
through direct contact or by
consumption of poultry and eggs.
dinating role of establishing long
range industry direction,” he said
Preliminary results of a national
survey now being conducted of
NPPC members and non-members
indicates that about 80 percent of
producers believe the new Pork
Board should be a collection and
contracting body, with producer
direction still coordinated through
the NPPC and its member states.
Complete results of the national
survey are expected to be released
this summer.
Kahle told delegates they should
return to their home states and
work hard for the selection of
progressive, well-qualified pork
producers to the independent
Delegate Body whose members
will be nominated this spring and
elected by pork producers m a
special election in every state later
'•this summer.
“The caliber of people you
nominate and elect within the next
few months to serve on the in
dependent Delegate Body will
literally hold the destiny of the
NPPC in their hands,” the NPPC
president said. He expressed the
hope that the majority of
Delegates at the 1986 NPPC An
nual Meeting would constitute the
independent Delegate Body, ui
order to assure consistent industry
policy and programs.
which the Jewish and Moslem
faiths prohibit. In fact, increased
egg sales, he says, do reflect this
food’s added significance during
the spring holy days of Lent and
Passover, appearing as it does m
the Easter basket and on the seder
plate.
Theological connection or not,
Professor Leach will continue to
search for his grail, while the old
saw paraphrased might read,
“You have to break a few eggs to
keep most of them whole.’’