USDA Watershed Projects in North Carolina and ASF Vaccine Tested
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**Visiting North Carolina last week, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack highlighted USDA’s investment of more than $39 million in six watershed infrastructure projects in the state.
The six projects include rehabilitating dams, flood prevention, and watershed restoration projects, and are funded by the bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service received $918 million to allocate through its watershed programs, which they began implementing earlier this year.
**Scientists with USDA’s Ag Research Service announced a vaccine candidate for African swine fever passed an important safety test required for regulatory approval, moving it one step closer to commercial availability.
The new results show that USDA's vaccine candidate does not revert to its normal virulence, after being injected into swine.
The studies are necessary to gain approval for use in Vietnam and eventually in other countries around the world.
**USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has approved the Clemens Food pork packing plant, in Michigan, to run faster line speeds under a one-year trial program.
The agency now has let four plants operate with faster line speeds, which could increase packing capacity and alleviate supply issues in the face of strong pork demand.
FSIS established the line speeds program in November, after a provision in USDA’s 2019 New Swine Inspection System was struck down in U.S. District Court.
