Agriculture specialists with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) found live Khapra Beetle larvae and a number of dead adult beetles comingled within a shipment of rice from Saudi Arabia in Philadelphia earlier this month.

USDA confirmed the first recorded long horned beetle in the US was intercepted in a shipment of Costa Rican pineapples.

On November 18, USDA reported all cases of HPAI in commercial poultry have been resolved and that the US is free of HPAI.

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a report on planning and preparations for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in advance of a potential recurrence of the disease when birds migrate south this fall. 

Despite fewer outbreaks in recent months around the world, avian influenza remains a major concern for the global poultry industry, according to Rabobank’s latest Poultry Quarterly Q3 report.

It has been more than a month since the last case of avian influenza was detected in the US, but USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack is not ready to declare the outbreak over, according to a recent interview he gave with the Associated Press.

 ConAgra pleaded guilty to introducing Peter Pan and private-label peanut butter contaminated with Salmonella into interstate commerce during the 2006 through 2007 outbreak. 

 NPD Group researchers find more than 50 percent of consumers in the US say they have some level of concern about avian flu. 

The avian influenza outbreak that has devastated turkey flocks across the country, including suppliers to Jennie-O Turkey store, has forced the company to layoff employees at a Minnesota plant.

In all, 14 flocks have been infected in the US since the initial case was reported in December of last year.