The 2023 Pilgrim’s Sustainability Report outlines the company’s substantial progress in sustainable practices across its global operations. This year, Pilgrim’s emphasized environmental goals, with substantial initiatives to minimize its carbon footprint. Key achievements include a marked reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, thanks to energy efficiency programs and a shift toward renewable energy sources across its facilities. Additionally, water conservation measures have been implemented, particularly in areas facing water scarcity, to ensure responsible use of this critical resource.
A highlight of Pilgrim’s sustainability efforts is its emphasis on animal welfare. The company has invested in advanced welfare programs, using innovative farming methods that prioritize animal health and minimize stress. This is part of Pilgrim’s broader commitment to humane treatment and ethical farming, ensuring that animal welfare is integral to its sustainability goals.
In terms of community and workforce development, Pilgrim’s continues to provide support to the local communities in which it operates. Through various social responsibility programs, the company has been able to create jobs, foster skill development, and support employee well-being. Notably, Pilgrim’s also addresses fair treatment and equal opportunity, creating a more inclusive work environment.
The company’s supply chain has seen enhancements in transparency and resource efficiency. Pilgrim’s now requires more sustainable practices from its suppliers, focusing on waste reduction and resource optimization. This is paired with an effort to source materials responsibly, supporting both environmental and social sustainability goals.
Overall, the 2023 report reflects Pilgrim’s holistic approach to sustainability, merging environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) priorities. As the company continues to strive for sustainability, it sets an industry benchmark for responsible and ethical practices in food production. To explore these initiatives in detail, view the full report here.
On Thursday, October 24th, Poultry Industry Council (PIC) held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in a hybrid format, both at the GrandWay Event Centre in Elora and online, followed by a Board of Directors meeting. The AGM highlighted a year of impactful educational programming and welcomed changes to the PIC Board’s and staff leadership team. This AGM saw the ratification of new By-laws and updated Articles of Incorporation making the PIC ONCA compliant.
Caroline Gonano continues in her third term and returning Chair of the PIC Board. Caroline, who is the Associate Manager of Technical Affairs, Science & Regulation at Turkey Farmers of Canada, brings extensive experience and dedication to PIC. Kayla Price will serve again as Vice Chair. The Canadian Technical Manager at Alltech, Kayla holds a doctorate in poultry health and works across agriculture, with a focus on poultry nutrition and regulatory needs in Canada. Cathy Lennon will remain as Treasurer for another year. Cathy is the General Manager of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and brings a wealth of experience in financial management and agricultural leadership.
Three valued board members are departing this year: Ed Verkley, Babak Sanei, and Mike Terpstra. Their contributions over the years have been invaluable, and we look forward to seeing them at future PIC events.
Joining the PIC Board of Directors are:
Jody Durand (Huvepharma): A seasoned sales and management professional in the Canadian feed industry, Jody has been a dedicated supporter of PIC for over 15 years.
Andre Bourbonniere (Poultry Insurance Reciprocal of Canada): Andre has over 17 years of expertise in Risk Management, Insurance, Stakeholder Relations, and Financial Advisory, making him an asset in corporate governance.
Kaitlin Lake (Maple Lodge Farms): With a B.Sc. in Agriculture and a specialization in broiler supply chains and animal welfare, Kaitlin brings valuable insight into modular loading compliance and industry technology integration.
“I’m thrilled to return as Chair of the PIC Board, especially at such a pivotal time with new leadership and a renewed focus on our strategic vision,” said Chair Caroline Gonano. “I’m deeply grateful to Ed Verkely, Babak Sanei, and Mike Terpstra for their years of dedicated service to PIC. We’re also excited to welcome Jody, Kaitlin, and Andre, whose fresh perspectives will help drive us forward.”
The 2023-2024 year brought significant changes, including the recruitment of a new Executive Director, the retirement of a ten-year team member, and new additions to the board. Over the past year, PIC has hosted 30 events, drawing over 700 attendees, and our membership continues to grow, now reaching 164 members with strong website engagement. Events like Producer Days, the Innovations Conference, and the National Poultry Show continue to generate excitement and foster valuable connections in the industry.
“It’s a privilege to lead such a respected organization,” said Executive Director Tom Lewis. “I’m thrilled to work alongside our exceptional board and dedicated staff. The PIC team remains laser-focused on our mission: advancing industry success through impactful education, program development, events, and knowledge transfer.”
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has announced it will provide up to $500,000 to support Native American tribes, tribal organizations, and tribal colleges with animal disease prevention, preparedness, and response projects. Through the National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program (NADPRP), the funding will help selected tribal projects enhance animal health and biosecurity by summer 2025.
Funding Priorities
The USDA is focusing this funding on tribal projects that will advance preparedness for animal disease outbreaks in several areas:
Developing and improving animal disease outbreak response strategies
Strengthening biosecurity measures for livestock and poultry
Expanding depopulation, carcass disposal, and decontamination capabilities
Enhancing animal movement tracking and traceability during outbreaks
Providing education, training, and outreach on disease prevention and response
How to Apply
Tribal applicants can submit their proposals between October 23, 2024, and January 24, 2025. To access application resources like templates and FAQs, applicants can visit the APHIS NADPRP or APHIS Funding Opportunities websites. Applications are also available on ezFedGrants and Grants.gov (CFDA number 10.025, Funding Opportunity Number USDA-APHIS-10025-VSSP0000-25-0002).
Webinars for Applicant Support
APHIS will offer two informational webinars to assist potential applicants:
This funding represents the third consecutive year that APHIS has dedicated NADPRP resources to tribal initiatives, reinforcing USDA’s commitment to animal disease preparedness through the Farm Bill’s animal health programs.
Brazil’s animal health authorities have successfully concluded efforts to eliminate a Newcastle disease outbreak in poultry, officially informing the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) that the outbreak is now resolved.
After the initial detection in a flock in Anta Gorda, Rio Grande do Sul, comprehensive measures were implemented to contain and eradicate the disease. The flock was depopulated, and authorities enforced strict control strategies including surveillance within restricted zones, movement control, traceability, disinfection of the premises, and proper disposal of carcasses and byproducts.
According to the latest WOAH report, no further virus detections occurred outside the affected flock. With 90 days now passed since the depopulation and disinfection efforts, and no new cases reported, both WOAH and Brazil’s veterinary service have declared the outbreak officially closed. This was Brazil’s first case of Newcastle disease since 2006.
While Brazil celebrates its recovery, WOAH recently reported a new Newcastle disease case in Sweden, where a commercial flock of approximately 18,000 laying hens was affected in Ödeshög. Control measures are underway there as well. Additionally, WOAH has active Newcastle disease reports in Poland and Israel, keeping the disease on the radar for poultry producers globally.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship announced Friday it had “depopulated” birds from Pure Prairie Poultry, Inc., which had previously informed the department it was unable to purchase feed for its broiler chickens and closed its processing plant in Charles City.
Fearing animal welfare concerns, the department intervened Oct. 2 and took over the care, custody and control of the 1.3 million birds, located across 13 Iowa farms. The same day, Pure Prairie Poultry Inc. shuttered its Charles City processing plant and laid off its employees.
Pure Prairie Poultry received $45.6 million from U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2022 to expand the Charles City processing plant. Iowa’s USDA Rural Development office celebrated the expansion with a ribbon cutting in July 2024, just two months before it filed for bankruptcy.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig commented on the situation in a statement Friday:
“This is an incredibly unfortunate situation and raises serious questions about USDA’s oversight of taxpayer dollars. Congress should exercise its oversight authority to ensure that something like this does not happen again and that those responsible are held accountable.”
A spokesperson with USDA said the investment in the plant was made in support of a local bank’s efforts to reopen the plant, “for the benefit of farmers, workers, and the Charles City community.”
“Rather than trying to deflect attention away from a decision he made, Secretary Naig could instead work constructively with USDA, creditors, and the Charles City community to find a way to reopen the plant to preserve an important processing option for Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin farmers,” the statement read.
The spokesperson said USDA is searching for ways to reopen the plant and has worked “closely and as supportively as possible” with state departments of ag through the federal indemnity program and poultry trusts to help growers who relied on the market.
Growers contracted by Pure Prairie Poultry in Wisconsin and Minnesota were also affected by the plant’s closure and company’s inability to purchase feed.
The closure of the plant sent IDALS searching for a buyer and processor in early October, which was difficult, “due to the structure of the broiler industry,” the press release from the department said.
Pure Prairie Poultry, Inc. received $45.6 million in USDA funding in 2022 to expand its processing plant in Charles City. (Photo courtesy of USDA)
According to court filings in the Third Judicial District Court of Iowa located in Sioux County, IDALS reached an agreement with Tyson Foods. It stipulated that IDALS would cover care costs for the chicken until they reached market weight, then Tyson would handle catching, loading and transportation of the birds to a processing plant. The filings state Tyson would have purchased the birds for 50 cents per bird, which was half of the company’s original offer.
“Tyson’s offer represented a global resolution, limiting the uncertainty of what happens to the chickens moving forward and how the chickens would be fed and cared for,” the court filing read.
Several interested parties and some of the growers contracted by Pure Prairie Poultry indicated they would argue their lien rights on the birds, which the court filings said, “caused Tyson to reconsider the agreement for fear of future litigation” and eventually rescinded its offer.
With mounting costs of caring for the 1.3 million birds, IDALS asked the court to authorize the department to pursue depopulation, or culling the birds.
“While IDALS believes depopulation should be a last resort … depopulation provides the State, and everyone, with finality to this unfortunate circumstance and limits the costs to the citizens of Iowa,” the filings read.
Culling of the birds began Oct. 17 by licensed veterinarians employed by the department and concluded Oct. 25.
The department has spent over $1 million in dealing with the birds so far, but Don McDowell, IDALS communications director, said the anticipated figure is over $2 million, as many of the expenses have yet to be paid.
McDowell said these costs include feed, farmer contracts, depopulation, disposal, personnel expenses, and mileage.
The IDALS press release from Friday said it would, “pursue all available avenues to recoup taxpayer costs … including through possible future legal remedies.”
The court ordered on Oct. 11 that, “defendants with any ownership interest in any of the livestock” must pay the department for expenses incurred with feeding and maintenance.
It also ordered IDALS to submit a final report detailing the depopulation and detailed accounting of the state’s costs through situation.
This article has been updated to better represent the opposing lien holders and to include comment from USDA.
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has issued a public health alert for various meat and poultry products that were illegally imported from the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. FSIS is continuing to investigate how these products entered the country.
The following products are subject to the public health alert, regardless of the product date. View photos of products here. Products subject to the alert are:
180-g. cans containing “BEST BEEF CURRY.”
425-g. cans containing “BEST Chicken Biryani.”
360-g. cans containing “Hti Mi Gwik Dry MoHinGa Paste.”
The products subject to the public health alert do not bear an establishment number nor a USDA mark of inspection. These items were shipped to retail locations in Arizona, California, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.
The problem was discovered when FSIS was performing surveillance activities at a retailer and found meat and poultry products from Myanmar that are not eligible to be exported to the United States.
There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products. Anyone concerned about an illness should contact a health care provider.
FSIS is concerned that some product may be in consumers’ pantries and on retailers’ shelves. Retailers who have purchased the products are urged not to sell them. Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them.
These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.
In this week’s episode, we spotlight the beautiful Silver Penciled Plymouth Rock chicken and we discuss Fall tasks that will help you get ready for cold weather. Our recipe this week is Pumpkin Rosemary Drop Biscuits, and we share some retail therapy with chicken harnesses and leads.
Fertilization in commercial chickens is usually the result of natural mating. However, in
some cases, artificial insemination is commonly practiced. The turkey industry especially depends on artificial insemination since natural mating is virtually impossible as a result of intense genetic selection for conformation and body weight.
The completed mating in chickens is the culmination of a sequence of behaviors. The rooster will initiate mating by exhibiting courtship behavior: dropping one wing and dancing in a circle (the lowered wing will be on the inside of the circle dance). The hen will crouch (dip her head and body) to indicate receptiveness to the male. The rooster will then mount the hen and grab her comb, neck feathers, or the skin on the back of her head or neck to help hold onto the hen’s back. The next behavior is the tread (the rooster walks quickly in place on the hen’s back) and finally, the completed mating of the behavioral sequence. The completed mating occurs when the rooster dips his tail to the side of the hen’s tail and spreads his tail feathers so that their cloacae come into contact. At this point the rooster’s ejaculate is released directly into the hen’s vagina via her cloaca.
In the typical breeder house with thousands of birds, the entire sequence of behaviors do not always occur, and the courtship dance is frequently left out of the sequence. Chickens are polygynous, but certain males and females selectively mate regularly. Some females in the flock will show avoidance to specific males, and therefore are rarely mated by those males.
The rooster usually ejaculates between 100 million and 5 billion sperm at a time with greater concentrations produced at the beginning than at the end of the day, when depletion occurs after many matings. First ejaculates average about 1 ml, but after several ejaculations the average volume will be reduced to 0.5 ml or less. These data were obtained from semen collection as done in artificial insemination. The numbers of sperm per ejaculate and the volumes of semen should be lower in natural matings as compared to semen collection by artificial stimulation and massage. The frequency of mating follows a diurnal pattern with mating frequency reaching peaks early and late in the day.
A rooster may mate from 10 to 30 or more times per day, depending on the availability of
hens and competition from other roosters. However, the number of sperm per ejaculate is seldom less than 100 million which is the minimum required to maintain high fertility. With natural mating, better fertility will result when mating occurs after the hen has laid a hard shell egg. However, if the hens are mated frequently (daily), there is unlikely to be a noticeable difference in fertility regardless of when the matings occur.
The rooster has a small phallus that becomes engorged with lymph to form a copulatory
organ. The copulatory organ is rudimentary and at the time of mating there is practically no penetration. The hen everts her vagina during copulation which helps to transfer the semen into the oviduct. Ducks, geese, and some other birds have more well-defined copulatory organs.
An understanding of the natural mating behavior in chickens can help the breeder manager
and producer to observe the mating behavioral sequences in their flocks to assess whether their flock fertility should be good, average, or poor. Since mating behavior generally follows a diurnal pattern, the best times to observe the flock are early in the morning or late in the afternoon. In a broiler breeder house pay attention to the frequency of females coming off the slats so they can be mated.
When a large percentage of the females are reluctant to enter the litter area it is a sign that the males may be overly aggressive and fertility will suffer. A good practice would be to walk the outside perimeter of the slats a couple of times per day shortly before and shortly after egg production begins. This forces the hens to moving toward the nests and entering the litter areas.
New Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidance goes beyond poultry barns to cover all animal slaughtering and processing facilities.
Previous OSHA guidance only applied to poultry establishments. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is in poultry plants but isn’t charged with the safety of poultry employees. That’s where OSHA comes in.
The new “Inspection Guidance for Animal Slaughtering and Processing Establishments” is intended by OSHA to reduce injuries and illnesses resulting from occupational hazards in all meat and poultry processing facilities through outreach, compliance assistance, and enforcement.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has reported new cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) affecting three commercial poultry flocks in British Columbia, marking the first recorded instance of HPAI in Canada since April 2024.
This outbreak is British Columbia’s first HPAI case this year, though CFIA has not disclosed further details about the types or quantities of birds impacted in these latest infections.
The announcement comes shortly after the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) updated its status on HPAI in Canada, noting that zoning restrictions had been lifted nationwide. CFIA had removed the final primary control zone related to a Saskatchewan outbreak on October 2.
Canada’s most recent HPAI case in commercial poultry was recorded in Alberta in February 2024, while the last case in a non-commercial flock occurred in Quebec in April.
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