The Canadian Pork Council is applauding the Federal Government’s stepped up efforts to keep African Swine Fever out of Canada.
Last week Marie-Claude Bibeau, Canada’s Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced funding of up to 31 million dollars to increase the number of detector dogs at Canadian airports to help prevent illegally imported meat products from entering Canada.
Gary Stordy, the Director of Government and Corporate Affairs with the Canadian Pork Council, says for the past several months African Swine Fever has continued to spread through Europe but more importantly we’ve seen a rapid expansion in the Asian countries.
We’ve been working with CFIA and CBSA, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Canadian Border Services Agency and we have identified that, while there’s things that we can do on farm related to biosecurity and awareness at a producer level there was a gap at several major ports of entry, mainly at the airports. This is where the federal government rightfully stepped in with a significant investment to increase the number of detector dogs in Canada that will be patrolling major airports and other ports of entry for meat products that were not declared.
We have seen at some of our major airports here in Canada that there is an increased need for detector dogs at the airports because travelers coming home after visiting foreign countries not only bring maybe one or two things but in fact entire suitcases of meat products. Considering this is a potential risk to our industry these dogs are incredibly valued at adding to the protection for our industry.
~ Gary Stordy, Canadian Pork Council
Stordy noted that the new funding will allow for the addition of 24 detector dog teams over five years, bringing the total number to 39.
