Pork Industry Targets 48-Hour Movement Reporting

CANADA - The Manager of PigTrace Canada says the faster information can be reported on the movement of swine the more effective a new national swine traceability system will be, writes Bruce Cochrane.

15 December 2010

3 minute read

North America

Proposed federal regulations designed to accommodate the creation of a new national swine traceability system are expected to be published for public comment in Canada Gazzette-1 in the first quarter of 2011.

Under the proposed regulations stakeholders will be required to report information on the movement of swine within 48 hours.

Jeff Clark, the manager of PigTrace Canada an initiative of the Canadian Pork Council, acknowledges there have been concerns expressed that 48 hours might not be practical.

Jeff Clark – Canadian Pork Council

Right now, that's in the regulations for a couple of reasons.

It's an international standard.

If we can accomplish it it'll give the Canada pork sector a very very good reputation in terms of not just our excellent pork quality but also a very strong traceability system that's becoming more and more of an interest to the importing countries that buy Canadian pork.

There's reasons to really hit that 48 hours.

When you're looking at an emergency situation, the worst one being a foreign animal disease, a foot and mouth disease issue but even production diseases like PRRS, the quicker you can get on top of it and find the source of the contamination or disease infection and then eradicate it you'll prevent spread and then potentially the quicker you can get back into business.

We do know from economic studies that have been done, the longer it takes to get the traceback information, the longer it takes to actually do the investigation and the financial repercussions are exponential so the tighter we can get it the better the return on investment will be.

Of course if we can get real time on the hour it would be great.

We know that's not achievable for most people.

Forty-eight hours is kind of a happy medium.

Mr Clark says, while there are no guarantees traceability will improve market access, a growing number of the high-value importers are demanding traceability and in some cases it could become a requirement to sell pork into certain markets.