The Veterinary Counsel with the Canadian Pork Council suggests the entire global pork sector has a vested interest in improving the health status of the Chinese swine herd and creating a biosecurity culture.
Since August African Swine Fever has moved from the north end of China to the south end and the actual number of cases is suspected to be higher than what’s being reported.
Dr. Egan Brockhoff, the Veterinary Counsel with the Canadian Pork Council, says, as diseases continue to evolve and multiply in China, they pose a risk for North America and they pose a risk for the European Union countries so in an ideal world we would have China in a healthier position.
There’s no question that, as China becomes a more complicated more sophisticated pork industry, as they continue to grow and concentrate livestock, the potential for disease, disease evolution and the movement of that disease from this increase in globalization, with the movement of pork products and people, these things create risks for the North American swine sector and the global swine sector.
We’ve got travelers entering Canada every day that have been in countries exposed to foreign animal diseases including African Swine Fever. We’ve got African Swine Fever positive pork products coming out of Russia and likely to be coming out of China. Those pork products, if they get moved around the world illegally, they present a significant risk to our very high health herd here in Canada for sure.
~ Dr. Egan Brockhoff, Canadian Pork Council
Dr. Brockhoff says biosecurity is all about attitude. He says it’s not about policies, it’s not about standard operating procedures, it’s not about protocols but it’s about attitude and culture and if you want a biosecurity culture you have to commit to one.
