NEW LAWS
FOR ANIMALS
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BELTING
FT469
New Zealand’s associate minister of agriculture responsible for animal
welfare has condoned new regulations to protect the treatment of animals
in this country. Meka Whaitiri says the raft of new regulations will have a
significant effect on the humane way that people treat animals…and he is
proud of the new laws. “Most animal welfare offences are of a lower level
of seriousness, which may not warrant a prosecution under the Animal
Welfare Act. These new regulations will introduce penalties and fines to deal
with this sort of animal mistreatment. (People) can now be fined where sick
or injured farm animals are transported to slaughter plants.” The regulations
were developed after three years of working with industry and advocacy
groups, and after formal public consultation that saw 1400 submissions.
“These changes are part of my vision for the sector which will see better
outcomes for our animals and reinforce our international reputation for a
strong record on animal welfare in agriculture,“ Whaitiri says.
http://mpi.govt.nz/law-and-policy/legal-overviews/animal-welfare/animal
welfare-regulations/
NEW SCANNER
IN NEW ZEALAND
A “game-changing” piece of technology
for quickly identifying harmful
strains of bacteria in food has just
become available in New Zealand,
thanks to a partnership between a
Lincoln University taxonomy expert
and two US senior food safety
researchers. The scanner, called a
BEAM device, was developed at
Purdue University in Indiana with
an initial focus on the United States
market. It has been offered free of
charge to Lincoln University Associate
Professor Stephen On, and is the only
device of its kind outside the US. On
recently received an $80,000 Catalyst
grant from the Royal Society Te
Apārangi to use the scanner for New
Zealand-focused research that will
complement studies already being
undertaken in the United States.
The resulting data will be pooled for
maximum global impact. The scanner
is designed to better identify disease
outbreaks by providing a ‘specific
fingerprint’ of bacteria cultured on
a standard agar media plate. This
allows scientists to pinpoint strains of
interest more quickly, with a particular
focus on pathogens. “If there’s an
outbreak of E. coli or Salmonella, for
example, you may have dozens of
samples to examine,” On says. “The
technology provides the major advantage
of identifying the pathogen of
concern by rapidly screening it from
microorganisms naturally present in
food or clinical samples. Because it’s
non-invasive, you can take your isolate
of interest and further characterise
it with sub-typing methodologies
to better identify an outbreak. No
comparable technology is available
elsewhere – it’s a game-changer.”
The project with the US experts came
about after On visited Purdue University
in 2015 to investigate whether
the BEAM technology would be
relevant to New Zealand. The results,
some of which involved 26 pathogenic
E. coli strains important to New
Zealand meat products, were promising.
“They showed the potential value
of BEAM to national problems and
indicated that the method might be
capable of identifying E. coli strains
with a higher infection potential than
others,” On says. “This is a first in
the history of underpinning BEAM
research.” On will work to examine a
geographically diverse range of strains
of microbial species of clinical and
economic importance to New Zealand
and the US. He says the economic
and public health significance of
pathogenic E. coli remained of critical
importance, and partners of the NZ
Food Safety and Science Research
Centre (including ESR and Plant &
Food Research) have identified other
bacterial pathogens of concern, including
Campylobacter and Listeria.
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