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eu says making progress imu to benefit Monday, June 19, 2006
EU says making progress in U.S. beef, poultry rows
BRUSSELS - The European Union is making progress on two long-standing trade disputes with the United States that have hit U.S. exports of beef and poultry to the EU, European officials said.

Since the 1980s, the EU has banned imports of beef from the United States and other countries which are produced from cattle injected with artificial growth hormones.

But the ban was ruled illegal by the World Trade Organisation and the United States applied about $117 million of punitive duties a year on European exports, such Roquefort cheese, mustard, truffles, French hams and soups in retaliation.

"Yes, beef hormones is one," EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said when asked if the issue was one of two trans-Atlantic disputes that he recently hinted were close to being resolved.

Mandelson was talking to reporters on Friday at a briefing ahead of an EU-U.S. summit on Wednesday but his comments were embargoed for publication until Monday.

In 2003, the United States and the EU failed to reach a negotiated solution to the dispute. Other countries such as Canada, Australia and Mexico have also challenged the ban.

At the same briefing another EU official said Brussels was ready to reconsider its ban on imports of U.S. poultry meat treated by low-concentration chlorine washes for sterilisation.
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For the biological productivity enhancers, the Adenoviral Delivery Vector is used to deliver a “payload” of a gene that produces an immune protein. These proteins (cytokines) occur naturally in the pigs and poultry, but the vector with the attached payload boosts the levels, resulting in a stronger immune system, better able to fight off a range of diseases.

With both the disease vaccines and the biological productivity enhancers, the pigs or poultry are healthier, and do not suffer growth losses that would occur as a result of disease. Importantly, the Vector is completely harmless to the pig or chicken and, as the Vector itself is cleared by the normal immune system there is no residue in the meat produced. The Adenoviral Delivery Vectors are also safe, as they do not infect other animals or humans. The pork or chicken meat is not genetically modified in any way.

The Adenoviral Delivery Vector system also allows for flexibility in administration - the vaccines and biological productivity enhancers can be administered orally (food or water), by aerosol, or in ovo (in egg prior to hatching)or by injection. These alternative routes of administration offer significant advantages over other delivery mechanisms, in particular, injection, in terms of ease of administration, cost of administration and efficacy.

In addition to the products already made. Imugene is continuing to add new “payloads” to the vector to develop new vaccine products. There are several products nearing completion and about to enter the testing phase.

Competitive Advantages Of The Adenoviral Delivery Vector Product Range
Administered orally (via water, feed) by aerosol, in ovo (in egg), or by injection
Cost effective to manufacture
Delivers only key genetic information (not whole infectious organism)
Multiple trials to date confirm poultry and pig growth increases significantly greater than antibiotic feed additives and the current industry best practice – the Ross Standard
Residue free in animal, extremely safe for the human food chain
No genetic modification of the animal