The National Swine Biosecurity Training programme, launched earlier this year in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, is based on the national farm level biosecurity standard developed by the Canadian Swine Health Board and it's being delivered regionally by the provincial pork organizations.

Canadian Swine Health Board Chair Florian Possberg says Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba account for a large portion of our production and Saskatchewan as well as the other provinces are in the process of coming on board.

Florian Possberg-Canadian Swine Health Board

Saskatchewan is not a lot of producers.

We have a small number of veterinarians that cover most of the province.

We're pretty optimistic that by the end of the year, maybe even a little sooner we can have things happening that are actually getting the programme rolled out there.

There's a number of stages.

First the province signs up then the veterinarians get trained as deliverers of the programme.

These are the people that are the professionals that work with producers on an ongoing basis.

They will actually take the producers through a seminar which will really give a lot more information on the details of the programme then there's some follow up afterwards.

Sot it'll take awhile to get it fully operational but certainly getting the process going, I think we'll be pretty efficient on getting that going pretty quick in Saskatchewan.

Mr Possberg is confident by the end of this year or into next year all producers from across Canada will have access to the programme.

For further information on the National Swine Biosecurity Training programme, visit the Canadian Swine Health Board web site or contact your provincial pork office or local veterinarian.