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 1207

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is preparing to launch a survey designed to paint a picture of Canada's swine industry in preparation for the development of a national tracability system.

The project, 'Spread of Disease with Trade and Movement of Animals' is being coordinated by CFIA's Animal Health Network Support Group in cooperation with the Canadian Pork Council and the various provincial pork organizations.

Epidemiologist Jette Christensen says the project is intended to gather information that will help determine how to zone Canada in the event of a foreign animal disease outbreak, such as foot and mouth disease or swine fever, and to develop a national traceability system.

"The whole project is quite simple in the way that we just send out a questionnaire to the swine producers. They answer questions about animal inventories, how many animals are there on the farm and different age groups of swine.

They'll also be asked if there are any other animals on the farm and they'll be asked about the location of the farm.

Lastly we will ask, in a window of three weeks before the questionnaire is filled out, what kind of pigs were coming into the farm and what kind of age groups of pigs would leave the farm.

There will be a follow-up three weeks later to answer what animals moved to and from the farm in those three weeks.

It's a total six week window that we're looking at movements of pigs to and from the farm."

Christensen says the project will address issues such as the type of movement that should be monitored, how quickly a foreign animal disease outbreak could spread and how much damage it might do before being detected and emergency plans implemented.

She expects the survey forms to begin going out to selected producers in all provinces toward the end of next month.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.