Federal bureaucrats are laying the groundwork for a proposal to cabinet that would allow slaughter hogs from the United States into Canada if they are from states certified pseudorabies free.
It is a controversial proposal promoted by Canadian meat packers since 1992 and opposed by some farm groups out of fear that the disease will be introduced into the Canadian swine herd.
But after an all-day meeting last week between officials from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, farm groups and the American government, it seemed certain there will be a proposal to the agriculture minister to change the rules early next year.
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Minimal risk
“What came out of the day is a consensus that the project could, after a while, be pursued after we take some actions,” said Claude Lavigne, deputy director of animal health for the inspection agency.
“I realize there is still some nervousness but I believe the risk is minimal.”
He said the risk that pseudorabies will be introduced inadvertently to Canada is “a chance out of a million or so and that is probably overstating it.”
Martin Rice, of the Canadian Pork Council, said he expects a pilot project and the first approvals could come as early as the first half of 1998.
“I can’t say there is no danger but we have to live with the risk, which is exceedingly small,” he said. “We have to live with it so we can continue to be a trading nation.
He said the council is convinced the food inspection agency has the resources to monitor the risk. The danger is that if Canada keeps its border closed despite U.S. claims there is no risk from swine shipped from pseudorabies-free states, they could retaliate against Canadian exports south.
“There is always the risk of trade action or retaliation,” he said.
One of the few dissenters from the meeting was Peter Dowling, Ontario spokesperson for the National Farmers Union, which has been fighting the packer request for access to American slaughter hogs.
“We are still concerned about the risk but we were in a minority at the meeting,” he said. “I think we are headed toward doing this and other people at the meeting seemed resigned to it.”
Rice said he expects few hogs actually will be shipped north to slaughter, estimating it would be in the “tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands.”
Level playing field
At the Canadian Meat Council, a meat packer lobby group, secretary Larry Campbell would not speculate on potential numbers but he said it is important that meat council members have access to American hogs, since American packers have access to Canadian hogs.
“We see this as leveling the playing field,” he said. “If it is economical, it should be allowed.”
If cabinet agrees next winter to change the regulations that now ban swine imports from the U.S. on animal health grounds, there will be strict guidelines.
Animals will have to come from one of 30 states considered either stage four or five in pseudorabies-free status, the highest designation.
They will have to be inspected by U.S. government-designated veterinarians and certified disease free. They will be transported in a sealed truck, opened at the Canadian border for another inspection, then shipped directly to a packing plant where they will be segregated and the manure disposed of separately.
Among the projects to be carried out before a proposal goes to the politicians are studies of the potential economic impact of an outbreak of pseudorabies and the appropriate way to compensate the industry if that ever happens.
