September 25, 2013

Canada's PigTrace programme to take effect on July 2014

The Government of Canada and the Canadian Pork Council (CPC) have agreed that on July 1, 2014 mandatory requirements for the PigTrace Canada programme will take effect.

According to the Manitoba Pork Council, federal regulation of PigTrace Canada, the national swine traceability system, is an important step towards building an effective programme that responds to disease outbreaks and food safety emergencies.

PigTrace aims to provide animal health and food safety officials with the best possible information regarding pig identification and movement between locations. For that to happen, the programme needs the entire Canadian pork industry to participate.

Since proposed amendments to the Health of Animals Regulations were published by the Government of Canada during the summer of 2012, the CPC and its partners have worked with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on an appropriate timeline to implement the traceability programme and make it mandatory under federal law. The July 1, 2014 target date sets a reasonable time-frame to allow the CPC and its provincial member organisations to continue to grow the programme.