Farm-Scape, Episode 2193

The president of the Canadian Pork Council says Canada, the United States and Mexico are moving in the same direction when it comes to developing systems for tracking the movement of livestock.

Livestock identification and traceability was one of the issues discussed last week as representatives of the Canadian and US pork industries gathered in Winnipeg for the annual meeting of the Canadian Pork Council.

CPC president Clare Schlegel says, despite some differences in the systems being developed, the Canadian, American and Mexican industries all recognize the need for coordination.

"We've compared our systems between Mexico, the United States and Canada and, although Mexico has a different way of going about tracking animals, they have border control between states, we're all heading in a similar direction.

We're confident that North America is headed in the right direction. It takes time to put systems in place, extremely important that the systems are cost effective, that they minimize any kind of impact on the farm but yet that they're effective and that they stand up to international integrity tests.

We all agree on the importance and we do believe that the systems will work. We're each working with our own government and the governments are having conversations as well so this is a clear situation where it is a government industry partnership.

That's the only way it will work. We urge the government to continue to move forward. We urge the government to work with us as industry partners to make this a cost effective system that has integrity and stands up to the world.

Schelegel notes Canada, the US and Mexico account for almost 50 percent of international pork exports so anything that takes any one of the three out of the market will be a major problem.

He suggests, because Canada and the US have such a long border and disease does not recognize borders, it critical for the systems to be synergistic.

Staff Farmscape.Ca