Canadian pork plant Olymel may reopen soon

Western Canada's largest processing plant which has had its swine tested for an undisclosed health issue has received a clean bill of health from an Edmonton lab, raising hopes of a quick reopening, Alberta Pork chairman Jim Haggins said Tuesday (June 22).

 

The Olymel pork processing plant in Red Deer, the largest of five federally inspected pork plants in Alberta, was closed Monday (June 21) after federal inspectors detected unusual symptoms in some hogs.

 

On Tuesday (June 22), Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) spokeswoman Lisa Gauthier said preliminary test results had not indicated the presence of any animal diseases. The 1,000-employee plant was shut down on Monday (June 21) morning, but the CFIA said at the time there was no indication of any risks to human health.

 

Final results from a federal lab in Manitoba will be released today (June 24), and could see the operation, which processes up to 45,000 hogs a week, reopen for business immediately, Haggins said.

 

But the two-day stoppage will hit the industry, which is already beset with low prices and heavy competition from US.

 

"It's a costly experience, costly to the plant for the loss of production, costly to the Western Hog Exchange, and to producers as pigs back up in the pipeline," he said.

 

Stressed animals tend to lose weight, resulting in lower returns for producers who already have been struggling with soft pork prices and competition from US, Haggins noted.

 

The farm that shipped the suspected animals was routinely quarantined pending test results.

 

Olymel spokesman Richard Vigneault said Tuesday (June 22) it is a concern that the plant has not been processing animals. Security and maintenance people were still working, but production had been shut down, he said.

 

Since the Olymel closure, about 3,000 pigs to be sent to the Red Deer plant have been cooling their hocks at Western Hog Exchange assembly yards.

 

There was an issue for producers, since biosecurity regulations prevent animals from returning to a farm once they have left, Alberta Pork executive director Darcy Fitzgerald said. "They had to find an alternative holding centre where the animals could be fed and watered until the plant is up and running," he said.

 

"It's a good thing we have such a tremendous quality-assurance programme, and a very high level of biosecurity,'' Fitzgerald said.

 

The system will be even tighter this fall when a programme to identify every hog comes into effect in Alberta, Fitzgerald said.

 

The threat of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which has not had an outbreak in Canada since 1952, had the beleaguered meat industry shuddering as the virus can be a financial disaster.

 

Alberta's livestock producers have already been told to be extra vigilant with their biosecurity systems following outbreaks of FMD in Hong Kong, Japan, Sri Lanka and South Korea.

 

"We are raising the awareness of biosecurity, particularly if any visitors are coming from another country," said Rob McNabb, operations general manager at the Canadian Cattlemen's Association.

 

Fitzgerald said Alberta hog producers already have one of the best biosecurity protocols in the world, but are being extra cautious because of the FMD outbreaks.