NEWS 82 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE January 2025 Smithfield Foods signed an agreement with VisionAg, LLC, an affiliate of HD3 Farms, one of the largest wean-to-finish and finishing growers in the U.S., to supply hogs to the company as an independent pork producer. Under the terms of the agreement, Smithfield and VisionAg will form a new company called VisionAg Hog Production, LLC, with Smithfield owning a minority interest. VisionAg Hog Production will assume ownership of 28,000 sows currently owned by Smithfield, as well as the market hogs they produce, and is expected to have the capacity to produce 600,000 hogs annually for Smithfield's fresh pork operations. Smithfield will supply feed, transportation and other hog production services to VisionAg Hog Production. The transaction is expected to close in early 2025. HD3 Farms has been a contract growing partner for Smithfield for more than 20 years. It has 250,000 wean-to-finish and finish spaces on farms in Bladen, Columbus, Duplin, Hoke, Pender, Robeson, Scotland and Sampson Counties in North Carolina. Read more>> Zivo Bioscience, Inc., a biotech/agtech R&D company dedicated to developing therapeutic, medicinal and nutritional product candidates derived from proprietary algal cultures, reported favorable results from a study conducted in collaboration with the University of Delaware. The study evaluated the potential of Zivo’s proprietary active ingredients to reduce the transmission of Low Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (LPAI) virus among poultry. Some key findings of statistical significance from the study have been explained as: A reduction in viral titers (viral shedding) in infected birds receiving Zivo’s products compared with untreated infected controls; A delay in transmission of LPAI when healthy birds were exposed to infected birds, suggesting a slower and less aggressive spread of disease. The two-part controlled study evaluated the efficacy of Zivo’s proprietary active ingredients, previously shown to be efficacious for mitigating the effects of coccidiosis in broiler chickens, against LPAI. In the first part of the study, infected birds receiving a mixture of Zivo’s proprietary active ingredients showed an early significant decrease in viral titers compared with untreated, infected controls, thereby reducing amount of detectable virus that was shed. At the end of the study, although not significant in nature, a numerical decrease in virus was noted in birds receiving Zivo’s product. In the second part, healthy chickens were housed with infected birds, replicating a real-world, high-risk environment for disease transmission. Compared to an untreated control group, birds that received Zivo’s proprietary active ingredients that were housed with infected birds experienced a statistically significant delay in viral detection. This observed delay suggests that Zivo’s products limit viral replication within a host. Read more>> US-based companies partner for independent pork production New study: Zivo's active ingredients reduce transmission of avian influenza
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