Our report on Germany, Europe's largest pork producer, confirming its first case of African swine fever (ASF) in a wild boar, was the top hitting article of last month.
There had been concerns for many months that the virus would cross over the Polish border and spread to German wild boars; Germany’s agriculture ministry verified on September 10 that a case involving a wild boar carcass, which was discovered just a few kilometers from Germany's border with Poland, in the Spree-Neisse district in the southern part of Brandenburg, was ASF.
Today, the ministry confirmed that 10 more cases of ASF have been confirmed in wild boars in the state of Brandenburg, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 65 since the first one on September 10.
All the cases to date have been in wild animals with no farm pigs affected.
Our piece on the claim by NGOs and campaign groups that the first open-source detection method for a gene-edited crop had been developed drew interest.
The groups behind this development said it could hypothetically allow the EU to carry out checks to prevent unauthorised imports, but the EU seed sector immediately rejected that claim.
The article can be read here.
A story from May about a Danish study showing that dairy cows favor natural over synthetic vitamin E was doing the rounds again in September.
Research carried out at Aarhus University and published in the journal, Food Chemistry, would indicate the dairy cow favors natural vitamin E over synthetic vitamin E. “We have proved that mainly the natural form of vitamin E is secreted into the milk and that cows distinguish between natural and synthetic vitamin E. Thus, cows discriminate much more in favor of the natural vitamin E compared to rats, for example,” reported senior researcher, Søren Krogh Jensen, Department of Animal Science, Aarhus University.
As FEFAC released its sustainability charter 2030 at its congress last month, a panel of industry and policy insiders at the virtual event, including representatives of Lidl and Danish Crown, among others, stressed that the EU feed industry body, and its members, need to take more targeted commitments.
The story, which was our fourth most popular article last month, can be accessed here.
The fifth most read story last month was regulatory in nature - Taiwan has removed restrictions on the use of ractopamine as a feed additive for imported pork. The change will take effect from January 2021.
Ractopamine, which is used to promote leanness and increase feed conversion efficiency in livestock, remains banned for use in domestic animal feed in Taiwan. The story can be read here.
Our review of Rabobank's report on the global poultry market gained a lot of traction last month.
The lead analyst said volatility in that animal protein sector will certainly also impact the feed industry in terms of the market but also in relation to investments.
You can catch up here.
Coming in at number 7 on the hit list was an article focused on agri policy in the Netherlands.
The Dutch agriculture ministry decided to abandon a controversial feed measure.
Its proposal to limit the addition of proteins in feed concentrates for dairy cattle in an effort to reduce Dutch nitrogen emissions saw strong opposition from the farm sector. In the end, due to a recent period of drought in the Netherlands, the ministry decided to scrap the scheme.
Another popular read from last month was a piece on ForFarmers.
The leading European feed manufacturer reported on its future strategy, outlining how it intends to move into new growth markets by 2025.
A piece summarizing various viewpoints as to the likely implications of Germany's first case of African swine fever (ASF), the day after it had been confirmed, also had readers clicking.
The consequences for the pig sector in other countries could be significant said the UK’s National Pig Association (NPA) at that juncture.
NPA chief executive Zoe Davies noted, however, that the German authorities were well prepared to manage the spread of the virus in their country and keep it out of domestic pigs.
Our story on DuPont Animal Nutrition announcing a partnership with Poland's Proteon on phage development for poultry sector was the last in our Top 10 countdown.
The partnership will bring the emerging bacteriophage technology to poultry producers in selected countries, helping to mitigate antimicrobial resistance, said the two companies.