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 1447

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says initiatives designed to improve the ability to identify and track livestock are keeping Canada at the forefront in the defense against foreign animal disease.

The Paris based International Organization for Animal Health is guiding an elevation of standards for animal identification and tracing within its member states, including Canada, Mexico, the United States and some 160 others.

CFIA National Manager of Animal Disease Surveillance Dr. John Keller says, in the open world commerce promoted by the world trade organization, nations have become more receptive to imports.

He says the challenge of increased trade has resulted in a strong infrastuctural response to the inadvertent entry of a foreign animal disease.

"I look upon Canada as one of the, perhaps, five to ten leaders in this area.

If we look upon the European Union as a cluster of one, Canada joins Australia, New Zealand and a series of other nations including the European Union in leading the charge in the form of identification of livestock and in the creation of the database infrastructure that facilitates the tracing of the tags that are applied to that livestock population.

Certainly, in an interval when animal agribusiness is faced with such horrendous challenges, I would challenge industry to look forward at least five years to the leading infrastructure that we are going to have at that time and a much brighter economic scenario".

Dr. Keller considers animal identification to be a key driver in the ability of Canada or any other nation to defend the health status of its livestock populations in support of trade.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.