Sask Pork Prepares to Launch National Traceability Study

Farm-Scape is sponsored by Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork Play Audio Farm-Scape is a Wonderworks Canada production and is distributed courtesy of Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork.

Farm-Scape, Episode 1186

Sask Pork has started laying the groundwork for the development of a national traceability system for pork.

Funding for a traceability study was approved through the Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development Fund earlier this month.

Since that time, Sask Pork has established a traceability office and installed a special projects manager to coordinate the study.

Ervin Lowe says the project is still in its very early stages but the general goal is to review options and assist in implementing a practical reasonable traceability system for Western Canadian hog producers.

"The national target is to come up with an identification system that will be able to trace animals, in the event of a disease outbreak, back to the producer. To be able to quickly identify the origin of animals is the fundamental basis but, with technology that's available once that infrastructure is in place, I think there is a lot more that we can do with the movement of animals and with value adding.

That's personally how I see it coming together.

It'll be similar to the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency's program. I think they've got a great model for us to look at.

There is a lot of work in a lot of different areas being done right now on traceability of the cattle industry, in the UK and we just need to gather as much information as we can and have a look at it and assess it."

Lowe says Sask Pork is still in the process of developing an opening position for the study and the scope of the project has yet to be determined.

However, he says, a first step will be to look at what's being done in the provincial jurisdictions and at a national level to identify what can be expected to work for Western Canada.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.