The Rural Voice, 2001-05, Page 52Dr. Anne West of the program
explained how CFIA would then
react. Agency personnel. along with
counterparts in the U.S. and Mexico,
have already practiced their response,
she said.
An area emergency response team
would be mobilized if the disease
was identified. The infected farm
would be isolated by quarantine. The
process of tracing all animals that
had left the farm or where animals
entering the farm had come from
would begin.
CFIA officials have the power to
order destruction of animals infected.
All animals infected and any other
animals on the farm would be
destroyed because it's likely even
healthy animals have been exposed.
In Britain the policy has been to
destroy all animals on the infested
farm within 24 hours and animals on
adjacent farms within 48 hours.
If animals are ordered destroyed,
farmers are compensated. A panel
made up of a CFIA official, a
representative of the commodity in
question and the farmer, evaluate the
News
loss. Compensation is at market
value and depends on the type of
animal with the top values being:
cattle. up to $2500; bison, $4000:
sheep. $600; goats, $800; swine,
$800. If farmers don't think these
compensation limits are high enough
they should take up the issue with
their commodity associations and
local MPs, West suggested.
There can also be compensation
for the destruction of property such
as feed. The cost of transportation
and disposal of animals can also be
paid. Nothing in the Health of
Animals Act mentions coverage for
the cost of cleaning and disinfecting
the barn, West said.
After all animals and teed on a
farm have been destroyed, the barn is
disinfected and left vacant for a
period of time. Sentinel animals are
then introduced and monitored for a
further outbreak.
There is no government
compensation for business
interruption, West said and this may
be an area that commodity
associations want to address.
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48 THE RURAL VOICE
More information on the disease is
available by calling a CFIA toll-free
telephone number at 1-877-277-
0677. There are also several good
websites: www.inspection.gc.ca for
the CFIA site; www.pighealth.com;
and www.maff.gov.uk for extensive
information on the British outbreak.0
Bruce pork, chicken
producers frustrated
by lack of CFIA
support for HACCP
Frustration with lack of support
from the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency for quality assurance
programs was expressed by farmers
from two commodities at the "meet
the members" dinner sponsored by
the Bruce County Federation of
Agriculture in Walkerton, April 6.
"We worked closely with the
CFIA to develop a food safety binder
which has been given to each and
every chicken farmer in Canada,"
said the chicken producers brief
presented to local federal and
provincial members of parliament.
"Now when we are ready to validate
our inspectors and certify our farms,
the CFIA seems to have disappeared.
Why won't CFIA serve as a third
party validator to give our food
safety program the credibility that it
and Canadian chicken farmers
deserve?"
Andy Ernewein of the Grey -Bruce
Pork Producers said the situation was
the same for the pork industry's CQA
program. "We've got a Canadian
Food Inspection Agency that will not
recognize it (the program
certification)," he said.
Murray Calder, MP for Dufferin-
Peel-Wellington-Grey and a chicken
producer himself, said he understood
the frustration but that CFIA says
there are legal problems in backing
the industry programs. "If it accepts
this as protocol it is the federal
government and CFIA that is on the
hook," he said.
Calder agreed with another part of
the Federation's brief dealing with
lack of competition in the food
industry. The brief said that farmers
1