» FIRST NEWS
and new production lines up and
running at the plant.
and turkey at the facility in Listowel
and hire and train 500 workers over
the next three years, the provincial
government said in a release.
The investment would allow Erie
Meat to get refrigeration equipment
$75 MILLION
Arkansas producers get
government loans
The U.S. Senate approved $75 million
in emergency loans to Arkansas poultry
producers as part of the American
Workers, State and Business Relief Act,
according to the Akansas News Bureau.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., who
heads the Senate Agriculture Committee,
said the relief could boost a “hurting”
state industry.
Pilgrim’s Pride processing facilities
in El Dorado and Clinton, along with
a feed mill in Atkins, closed during the
recent recession.
BIANNUAL REVIEWS
NCC revises animal
welfare program
The National Chicken Council
released a revision of its Animal Welfare
Guidelines and Audit Checklist,
the industry-standard program for
assessment of animal welfare programs
and practices in broiler and broiler-breeder operations.
The revision, which is the first
overhaul of the program in five years,
incorporates a number of changes,
including the following:
✔Greater emphasis on corporate
commitment to animal welfare,
including a requirement that senior
management must sign off on a
company’s animal welfare program
✔Each department of a company
handling live animals (hatchery, grow-out, catching and transportation and
processing) must have a person in
charge of promoting adherence to the
Guidelines.
✔Each department must have a
disaster response and recovery plan.
✔Employees who handle live
animals must be trained in advance
and must receive retraining every
year, in languages other than English
if necessary.
The guidelines include a
commitment to review the program
every two years, beginning with review
by scientific advisors in 2011 followed
by an industry committee review in
2012. ■
