Worries rose this week in Thailand and Vietnam that bird flu might become a serious human killer and governments there began emergency planning.
Vietnam recorded its ninth death this year due to the bird flu on the weekend.
Meanwhile medical investigators reported that they might have found the first case of the disease moving person-to-person, which until now has been spread animal-to-human.
The developing situation underlines the message that Ted Bilyea, executive vice-president of Maple Leaf Foods, delivered to farmers at Manitoba Ag Days in Brandon.
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For the sake of global health security, some of the world’s largest livestock producers and exporters should get out of the business, Bilyea said last week.
The density and proximity of livestock and people in several countries, including Japan, other Asian countries and the Netherlands, increases the threat of disease crossover from animals to people.
“They shouldn’t be engaged in livestock marketing. It is too dangerous for the rest of the world,” Bilyea said.
In the context of this danger, Canada should more strongly promote its strengths in herd health, inspection and natural environmental advantage, Bilyea said.
He noted many competitors and customers of Canada’s livestock industry have people and livestock densities of more than 40 per hectare compared to Canada’s one per hectare.
Concentration of livestock production encourages disease development. Some of the diseases can jump from animals to humans. They are called zoonosis or zoonotic diseases and are becoming more dangerous.
“Eleven of the last 12 public health problems that came into Canada that really challenged us É are zoonosis diseases that come from animals,” he said.
Included on the list are avian flu, variant Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease, HIV-AIDS, West Nile, hantavirus, E. coli 0157:H7 and Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS. The World Health Organization is concerned that certain strains of avian flu now causing problems in Asia could evolve into a worldwide pandemic affecting humans.
Also, to manage livestock health in these dense populations, producers use drugs, raising the concern that antibiotic resistance will grow.
Maintaining large livestock populations in densely populated countries with little arable land is not only dangerous for human health, it is also bad for the environment and international trade, Bilyea said.
It is 21Ú2 times more expensive to raise a hog in Japan, South Korea or Taiwan than it is to produce one in Canada, he said.
Also, shipping one kilogram of frozen boneless pork to Asia costs about 20 cents per kg, but to ship grain to produce the same amount of pork in Asia would cost about 80 cents, he said.
“That strikes me that is anti-Kyoto, environmentally unsound and a waste of energy to get there.”
Internationally, Canada and others should be asking why these countries should encourage livestock production through subsidies.
“It is our health at stake.”
Bilyea thinks Canada has a major lesson to learn from this situation.
This country has a strong natural advantage in its reputation for a clean environment with wide open spaces.
It has educated and advanced producers and a capable and internationally respected regulatory system. Even winter is on our side, killing many germs and viruses that persist in warmer climes.
This advantage must become a key part of Canada’s marketing scheme. But Bilyea believes Canada must go further to ensure the health and safety of its food. It will be one way to keep ahead of competitors such as Brazil, who have an advantage in cheap land and labour.
His company, Maple Leaf, has already moved down this path with its DNA traceability system that will allow its pork to be traced back to the maternal sow.
There is a cost to adding such systems, but as BSE has shown us, there is much greater cost in being caught unprepared. The trick will be to get consumers to pay for meat with guaranteed safety.
The Japanese already pay handsomely for quality and safety and there are lots of other Asians with similar interests and wealth.
