CFIA return to regulatory border requirements

To: All Manitoba Pork Producers
From: George Matheson, Chair, Manitoba Pork
Date: September 28, 2015

This is an update on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA) decision to lift the temporary emergency protocol and requiring livestock transporters to be cleaned and disinfected in the U.S. before entering Canada.

After discussions with the Canadian Pork Council (CPC), the CFIA has advised that while the protocol will be lifted effective October 1 as previously announced, there will now be a gradual enforcement period until January 1, 2016. This means that until full enforcement goes into effect at the beginning of 2016, transporters that arrive unwashed at the border will be issued warnings and provided with CFIA information about the pending full enforcement of regulatory requirements. Please see the following email from Rick Bergmann, CPC Chair, containing further details on this matter.

I want to remind producers that it is essential to be vigilant in your biosecurity practices, not only because of the CFIA’s change to transportation protocols, but especially with the approaching cold and wet fall, winter and spring seasons. Following a cold spell about this time last year, Manitoba found two new cases of PEDv. After the hot summer months, which are more forgiving to breaches in biosecurity, these new cases were a stark reminder of how efficiently this deadly disease survives and spreads in cold and wet conditions, and how these conditions do not allow for any slip-ups.

Please closely review your biosecurity practices now, paying particular attention to the following:
• Ensure that the trailers you allow on your farm have been thoroughly washed, disinfected and dried.
• Exercise extreme vigilance with those trailers coming back from assembly yards – known hotbeds for all swine diseases – and other major collection points.
• Ensure that people coming onto your site follow strict biosecurity guidelines.
• After full enforcement of the regulatory requirements on January 1, when transporters must wash down in the U.S. before entering Canada, request that a second wash, or at least a bake, be done in Canada at a trusted facility.

Working with the CPC and other Canadian pork councils, Manitoba Pork will continue to press the federal government to amend regulations to allow transporters to wash at Canadian facilities. In the meantime, we will closely monitor the coming protocol change and be prepared to resolve any issues that may arise.

Should you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to call Manitoba Pork at 204-237-7447 or email info@manitobapork.com.

George Matheson
Chair, Manitoba Pork

Source: Manitobapork