May 3 2010

Canada and British Columbia boost meat biosecurity systems

The governments of Canada and British Columbia are working together to help producers and processors maintain the health of their businesses by strengthening their traceability and biosecurity systems.

B.C. Minister of Agriculture and Lands Steve Thomson and Member of Parliament Andrew Saxton (North Vancouver) announced the investment of US$3.5 million.

Saxton noted said the government is working with the provinces and industry to create a strong national traceability system that will help producers and processors minimise risks, strengthen businesses and continue to export top-quality and safe food.

To help producers, farmers, food processors and agri-food businesses, US$2.04 million has been allocated for the Enterprise Infrastructure Traceability (EIT), with costs to purchase and install traceability infrastructure/systems to track products from receiving to shipping.

The programme consists of animal (product) identification, premises identification and movements recording. This funding will help proactive management of food-borne risks along the agri-food chain, contributing significantly to the health and wellbeing of British Columbians. The EIT programme is being delivered through the BC Agriculture and Research Corporation, a subsidiary of the British Columbia Agriculture Council.

On the other hand, US$1.5 million will be allocated to the biosecurity programme, which will help producers continue to improve their on-farm biosecurity procedures such as wearing barn-specific clothing and disinfecting farm equipment. Under this programme, the British Columbia Hog Marketing Commission will implement biosecurity standards for their commodity on approximately 31 farms. The biosecurity programme is being delivered directly by the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands.

Ongoing efforts to implement food safety, traceability and biosecurity measures are important for achieving a safe food supply into the future and will greatly improve the provinces protection of animal, plant and human health.

Completed projects include B.C.'s US$14.5-million, high-security containment laboratory in Abbotsford and a Foreign Animal Disease Emergency Support plan (FADES) that has been developed to enhance B.C.'s response to occurrences of significant disease events.