Animal Health News & Notes for January 3, 2003

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Brakke Consulting’s
Animal Health News & Notes for January 3, 2003
Copyright © Brakke Consulting, Inc.
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COMPANY NEWS RELEASES

>  H.J. Heinz Co. announced it has completed a $1.2 billion deal that sends StarKist tuna, 9-Lives cat food and other brands to Del Monte Foods Co. and allows the company to concentrate on its core products.  The deal, which was first announced in June, gives Heinz shareholders a 75 percent stake in Del Monte.  Del Monte will also assume $1.1 billion in Heinz debt.  In the deal, Del Monte picks up Heinz’s American tuna, private label soup and infant feeding businesses. It also gets Heinz’s U.S. and Canadian pet food and pet snacks. (AP)

>  The FDA amended the animal drug regulations to reflect approval of an abbreviated new animal drug application (ANADA) filed by Phoenix Scientific, Inc. The ANADA provides for the veterinary prescription use of an injectable praziquantel solution in dogs and cats for the removal of various species of cestodes (tapeworms). (AnimalNet – Federal Register)

>  Novus International and its wholly-owned subsidiary Viridus Animal Health announced that the USDA approved its new product for the control of coccidiosis in broiler chickens.  Advent Coccidiosis Control is a vaccine with a precise dose of purified, viable, sporulated oocysts and contains the three species of Eimeria  that most affect financial performance for broiler production. (Feedstuffs)

>  The Hartz Mountain Corporation, headquartered in Secaucus, New Jersey, suffered a partial roof collapse in its Jersey City warehouse.  There was no one in the building at the time of the collapse due to the holiday, so there were no injuries. The facility was completely operational by 7:00AM the next morning, receiving and shipping product as usual. (PRNewswire)

>  Maple Leaf Foods has raised $200 million (U.S.) in a private financing deal with a major U.S. institutional investor,.  The meatpacker and diversified food processor said that the company had sold $200 million worth of long-term bonds to Prudential Capital Group, an institutional investment management business of Prudential Financial Inc. in Newark, N.J. (Meating Place)

>  Tyson Foods Inc. announced that it will trim its board of directors from 15 members to 10.  Chairman and chief executive John Tyson said the move would enhance the board’s independence, and thus benefit shareholders.  Reducing the size of the board will also create a better balance of inside and outside directors. (AP)

>  Bettcher Industries (US) and Beratung-Verkauf-Service (Germany) signed an agreement to manufacture and distribute a series of Whizard TrimVac devices that trims and remove material from beef carcasses that could be infected with BSE.  After the beef carcass is split, the device dislodges, cuts, and vacuums away spinal marrow and spinal membrane from the halved spinal canal to a separate holding tank. Support for this new method of BSE risk material removal is building within the scientific community. According to Bettcher and BVS officials, the combination of precisely cutting along the spinal column and evacuating risk material is rapidly emerging as the preferred methodology in several European countries, including France and Germany. (Wattnet Meatnews)

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THE 2002 US FLEA AND HEARTWORM REPORT

This year’s report includes an all-new survey of 250 dog and cat owners, as well as a new veterinarian survey. The veterinary survey includes information on new products including ProHeart 6, Iverhart Plus, and Revolution.  In addition, Bayer’s just-launched K9 Advantix is profiled in the report.  Product sales and trends for the veterinary products, as well as an overview of the trends in OTC sales, are also included.

The report is available for a price of $4,000.

For more information, call 972-243-4033 or email Dr. Lynn Fondon at lfondon@brakkeconsulting.com.

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ANIMAL HEALTH NEWS

>  US   California agricultural officials have destroyed approximately 100,000 broilers following an outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease on a farm in Riverside, California.  The outbreak was the first in California since 1974. A statewide outbreak of the disease in the early 1970s threatened the entire U.S. poultry and egg supply and led authorities to destroy nearly 12 million chickens. It cost $56 million to eradicate the disease. The California Department of Food and Agriculture and USDA have banned the movement of all poultry, poultry products and nesting materials from Los Angeles County and portions of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. (Wattnet Meatnews)

>  HONG KONG   Hong Kong’s wholesale poultry market was closed for two days for cleaning after the slaughter of
16,000 chickens on a farm amid fears of an outbreak of the avian influenza.   The market was closed for cleaning as a precaution after more than 1,000 chickens were found dead on a farm in the New Territories. The farm’s remaining 16,000 chickens were culled.  Initial tests showed 12 of the chickens in the farm had the H5 avian virus, a strain of which killed six people in Hong Kong in 1997. (AnimalNet – Agence France Presse)

>  US   Washington state has become the first state in the nation to permanently ban cultivation of genetically engineered fish, a largely symbolic step to protect natural stocks.  The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission enacted the Dec. 9 ban after environmentalists argued the risk was too great that the altered fish could escape and interbreed with wild fish.  For now, the move is largely symbolic, because the FDA has yet to approve the raising of any genetically altered fish. Proponents, however, predict they’ll win FDA approval. (AP)

>  SPAIN   The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture has recorded three new cases of BSE. The cases were found in the municipalities of Dozón and A Estrada in Ponteverda and in Val do Rubra in La Coruña. This brings the number of cases of BSE in Spain recorded this year to 121 and 201 since the disease was first discovered in the country. (Wattnet Meatnews)

>  US   a team of Agricultural Research Service scientists at Mississippi State, has developed a new, quieter machine for vaccinating chickens called the CPJ vaccinator.  Initial results have shown the CPJ to be far superior to its predecessor.  With it, two people can vaccinate roughly 75,000 chickens in a little over 7 minutes, compared to five people taking 45 minutes to get the job done conventionally. The battery-powered, 6- by 5-foot CPJ has nozzles on both sides that quietly spread the vaccine to three tiers of birds at once without disturbing them. (AnimalNet – ARS News Service)

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Brakke Consulting “Distributor Effectiveness Study”

(1) What is the influence of distributor representatives relative to purchasing decisions and practices in general?
(2) Who are the distributors that veterinarians do business with and why?
(3) What are veterinarians’ expectations of distributors?
(4) What do distributors do (or don’t do) that influences veterinarians’ purchasing decisions?
(5) How much impact does the distributor have in determining the veterinarians’ purchasing decisions between competitive branded or generic products?

Do you know the answers to these questions?  Are your opinions and thoughts in this area based on information generated by a qualified outside resource or from your own organization?  Brakke Consulting will be conducting a Multi-Client Study to answer these questions in early 2003.  The study will include focus groups, industry interviews and a large veterinary survey.   Please contact any of our offices for more information.

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BRAKKE CONSULTING VIEWPOINT

We all seem to find some degree of satisfaction in the closing of another year.  If our accomplishments were above expectations and plans, we celebrate our success.  If we did not attain our goals for the year, we’re pleased to relegate the year’s challenges to be filed in the reference area.  Yes, 2002 is history.  We can now look forward to the opportunities of 2003 and the next 12 months. 

Last fall we asked a number of our clients and readers to complete a survey related to the future of our industry.  We found your answers to be encouraging and optimistic regarding the future of animal health.  Here is what the participants believed we can expect in 2003:
– sales growth will exceed 5%
– several new products or technologies will enter the market
– research and product development investment will increase by over 10%
– staff additions will be made in marketing and sales areas
– the general economics of the industry will improve greatly over 2002
– The issues which will have the greatest impact on survey participants’ company performance in 2003 will be (1) high sales expectations of parent company or shareholders; (2) growth in generic competitors; and (3) lack of new markets with $100 million sales potential.

We hope your results for the coming year meet your expectations.  If they do, 2003 will be a great year for the industry.  Thanks to those of you who participated in our survey.

Have a great weekend.

Ron Brakke

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