Efforts aimed at preventing and preparing for African Swine Fever remain a top of mind concern among Canada’s pork producers.
Animal health and disease outbreak preparedness, primarily focused on African Swine Fever, was among the topics discussed during the Canadian Pork Council’s Fall Members Meeting in Ottawa.
Canadian Pork Council Executive Director Gary Stordy notes ASF doesn’t affect human health but, should it be confirmed in a country that exports pork, those exports would immediately halt so the potential economic consequences have been driving serious discussion on how to keep the disease from entering Canada and how to respond should a case be confirmed.
The level of biosecurity has significantly improved for producers, an awareness of the importance of maintaining biosecurity. The availability of detector dogs to detect meat products coming into Canada from where ever around the globe is important. I’ve seen them in action and they are effective, to both serve as a reminder to international travelers that they are not supposed to be bringing in meats because of the risks and also detecting larger quantities where for what ever reason they decide to ship meat products into Canada. In both those cases they are certainly being effective.
In addition to that general public awareness. Public announcements both to international travelers in flight or at the international airports is helping. The next step is global participation. This is a topic being discussed in many pork producing countries, whether it’s here in North America or in Europe and obviously dealing with it in the Asian regions at this time. The attention is there.
~ Gary Stordy, Canadian Pork Council
Stordy says, in the event a positive case is confirmed, the top priority will be to contain and eradicate the infection quickly and efficiently and to address the implications of border closures and the loss of markets.
