A vet’s thoughts on serious reportable livestock diseases

We know diseases are serious when they have a highly recognizable acronym and are called reportable.

All of these conditions, if discovered, would involve a very high level of involvement from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Trade restrictions could be on the line as well as many other political forces.

As a veterinarian who has been in the field, I know producers sometimes feel helpless about these diseases, but I want to bring up some small points about each of these diseases to see if they resonate with readers.

With all these conditions, it’s good for producers to have good communication with their local veterinarian, who in turn should have a good relationship with the CFIA and provincial veterinarians.

A very large team is involved in protecting the overall health of the cattle, hog and poultry industries.

These diseases could also potentially involve wildlife and zoo animals. As a result, the entire veterinary community is involved, which is a good reason to keep communication open and collaborative.

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Bovine TB

When it comes to bovine tuberculosis, our post-mortem inspections at packing plants, both here and in the United States, are top class.

With food safety of utmost concern, the system is robust and does pick up these needles in the haystack.

Large producers end up having a good percentage of their herd reaching harvest, so with tracebacks, Canadian Cattle Identification Agency tags and brands, the herd source of an outbreak is generally found.

I know the CFIA’s trace-outs and trace-ins are super extensive, but with the last few TB detections, no further cases were found other than the index herd.

These outbreaks resulted in considerable cost to the CFIA and time and stress for producers. I just wonder about the original source — is it wildlife, foreign workers or mechanical transmission? We may never know.

Will our robust inspection system find this disease in the future? I don’t know that either.

What do countries such as the United Kingdom do, where TB is endemic?

We have dealt with TB and brucellosis in Wood bison for decades, and it is currently isolated.

Officials may find a case at slaughter, conduct a trace-back and find others at the index herd, and that’s it.

In all the TB testing I conducted in my career, I would get a few slight reactions that in literally every case was avian TB or potentially a cross reaction with Johne’s.

A few things do lead us astray, but the postmortem results don’t lie.

I have sometimes found a really gritty lymph node or abscess on a cut surface, and TB jumps into my mind.

I have submitted those samples, and they always have come back negative.

However, that surveillance system is another feather in Canada’s cap for disease detection and reportability. Veterinarians are on the lookout on behalf of producers.

FMD & ASF

Foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever have received a lot of attention over the last several years

There are many moving parts, but early detection and identifying where the outbreak starts will be critical.

Both these diseases would likely be brought in through contaminated meat, so border inspections will hopefully keep them away.

Both diseases scare the heck out of me because of the devastating consequences to the cattle and hog industries.

From a trading perspective, we are a net exporter of beef and pork, so it always does boggle my mind why we still import these products, even in a minor way.

I realize some of these imports are specialty products, but trade talks with a South American trading bloc that could potentially open the door to meat imports from those countries have recently been in the news.

This could be a huge mistake, if only for the potential of disease transmission through the meat.

We know how the packing industry has helped virtually eliminate E. coli transmission in Canada and have great faith in our meat packing industry when it comes to meat quality and food safety.

I am a big advocate of sniffer dogs, and we can never do enough inspection, in my opinion. Questioning at the border about visiting or intending to visit a farm needs to be more robust.

One can understand and sympathize with the direction of the Invasive Species Council and its Squeal on Pigs campaign.

We need to eradicate wild pigs in Canada to contain the possible spread of many hogs diseases, and not just ASF.

The hog industry has a strong emphasis on health, and much work has been done with biosecurity.

It was a mistake to allow wild boar to be raised on farms years ago.

Diversifying farming operations came with good intentions, but many of these exotic species, such as ostriches, are not sustainable for several reasons.

HPAI

I am not a poultry veterinarian, but when it comes to highly pathogenic avian influenza, I wonder if there are a couple of long-term options.

The cost of depopulating and starting over are high, and the disease seems to be pretty endemic in the wild bird population.

Migratory routes in Canada are essentially twice a year, and the exposure to our poultry is almost inevitable.

The public should know that poultry are kept in very high-health barns with strict biosecurity, but it only takes a minor breach and the susceptible population is exposed inside.

The disease is so devastating that it will almost depopulate on its own.

It’s been reported recently that the CFIA is starting to look at the possibility of vaccination.

It was done in France to save the country’s beloved duck population, where they are renowned for their foie gras duck livers.

Apparently, vaccination has worked well there.

The problem is that vaccination blocks access to export markets.

Most of the poultry produced in Canada is consumed domestically rather than exported, but are export rules cross linked to other issues? I wish I knew some of these answers so we could all collectively help with the solutions.

I am not a politician or a lobbyist, but there may be easier, less costly and better outcomes for some of these reportable diseases if we use our resources differently.

Also, will trade rules change to allow this to happen?

BSE

Science sometimes gets ignored.

Is this country technically free of BSE? I would argue yes, yet sampling continues, even though we are at minimal risk status and continue to use slaughter methods that remove specified risk materials.

We need a more well-thought-out, scientifically driven collective will for this to happen.

When the border closed temporarily for beef because of BSE, bison were also affected, even though there has never been a case in that species, which is not fed the same as beef.

I really wanted to give everyone with an interest in food production in Canada a way to look at potential disease threats differently.

The interconnectedness of the world has never been more evident than today, and the last time I checked, people still need to eat, so meat production in general will always be key.

Regardless of the livestock species, we have many things in common, including reportable diseases.