The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is accepting public comments until August 13th on amendments proposed to Canada's Health of Animals Regulations to accommodate swine traceability.

Under the proposal, all movements of pigs would need to be reported within 48 hours, bred animals would need to be identified with an approved tag and the rest of the pigs could be identified with a shoulder slap tattoo.

Karl Kynoch, the chair of Manitoba Pork Council, says, with 85 percent of their production sold into the export market, Manitoba pork producers are particularly dependant on exports and have been highly supportive of initiatives aimed at furthering traceability.

Karl Kynoch:

The one thing to remember is that the hog industry here in Manitoba for us is huge.

It's one of the largest single commodities in the province and it brings a lot of dollars back into Manitoba, it brings a lot of jobs into the province and the farmers really rely on having the exports.

If we don't have those export markets we could virtually shut down 85 percent of the production here in Manitoba so it's very huge to have the traceability, again, to allow, if we have any problems such as a foot and mouth outbreak to allow us to continue in the market.

For example, if we had a foot and mouth outbreak out in say Quebec or out in the Maritimes and once we could show that none of those hogs have crossed for example West Hawk Lake going east and west, that would again allow the western part of Canada to begin exporting and again that would maybe hopefully allow producers to reduce their losses and get back into the world markets.

Kynoch stresses the changes will have a huge impact so it's important for anyone involved in moving swine to express any concerns. For information or to comment visit the Canadian Food Inspection Agency web site or email [email protected]. For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.