Canada - Swine Traceability Consultations Underway

The Canadian Pork Council has kicked off the first round of consultations on a proposed national swine traceability system. Over the next three weeks representatives of the provincial pork organizations will get their first look at the first draft of a proposed national swine identification and traceability system. The system, which has been under development for the past two years, is intended to provide traceback in the event of foreign animal disease. CPC Hog Traceability Working Group Chair Dennis McKerracher says representatives will outline what the committee looked at and gather feedback. "The committee examined such questions as the why and the how in order to design a system that would address the identified needs. We will be laying out the three phased approach for our system, looking at phase one being premise registration and the national tattoo system, looking at phase two which will be more of the structure database and then looking towards phase three which is the implementation of the system. I think it's really important as we discuss traceability that we realize this isn't about my farming operation. It is about what is good for our industry and this, in turn, will benefit all our farms and businesses. What we're going to be discussing over the next months is we're going to be discussing shaping the future of our industry so we're going to have everybody contribute to the building of an even stronger and secure and competitive Canadian pork industry." Round one of the consultations began this week and will continue until early next month gathering feedback from representatives of the provincial pork organizations. Round two will involve a wider cross section of producers and stakeholders and is scheduled to begin in early November after the traceability committee has considered the comments made during round one.