Livestock producers should take responsibility for controlling contagious disease outbreaks, says a leading Alberta disease control specialist.
Nobody has as much at stake as producers, and nobody is likely to care as much about doing it right.
“It’s time to stop saying it’s a federal problem, or it’s a provincial problem,” Jeff Hill, a veterinarian and livestock welfare specialist with Alberta Agriculture, told the Canadian Swine Health Forum in Winnipeg.
“Ultimately, it’s your problem.”
Disease outbreaks can cause costly time delays as federal, provincial, regional and industry players argue over who is responsible for controlling live animal diseases.
Read Also
Federal government supports soil health strategy
Sophie Beecher, director general at Agriculture Canada, said at a soil conference in Winnipeg that the feds support the idea of a national soil health strategy.
That can cause dangerous delays in taking action and allow disease outbreaks to become more severe, Hill said. The number of animals infected can be reduced by 80 percent if outbreaks are aggressively engaged within 72 hours, he added.
Hill said the ever-present threat of foot-and-mouth disease means livestock industries need to prepare for mass euthanization of animals, but they aren’t doing so.
However, the hog industry has begun working on a national plan to control a mass outbreak using “humane destruction centres” in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta and co-ordination of local, regional, industry, provincial and federal organizations and resources.
Hill, who has been organizing the plan for the Canadian Swine Health Board, said an existing plan can be rapidly enacted if a crisis erupts, which is greatly preferable to squabbling over responsibility and losing crucial hours for early response.
“When something like H1N1 comes down, the (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) goes, ‘it’s a provincial issue,’ the province goes, ‘It’s an industry issue.’ None of us have a legislative mandate to take responsibility.”
However, Hill said livestock industries can’t afford to play that game because only they go out of business if things go bad.
