2007 Annual Report - Manitoba Pork Council

manitoba initiativesAnimal Care • Quality Assurance • Traceability & Emergency Preparedness • Manitoba Hog Grading Inc.Manitoba Pork Council 2007 Annual Report12ANIMAL CAREIn July 2007, a delegation from ManitobaPork Council met with those responsiblefor the animal transport review initiatedby the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.The purpose of the visit to Ottawa wasto reinforce the industry’s reliance onattaining markets throughout NorthAmerica. Council also continued toimprove cross border delays of animalsentering the U.S. The Trucker QualityAssurance (TQA) program was deliveredto seven locations in Manitoba with 165people attending.QUALITY ASSURANCEAll CQA veterinarians attended an updatesession in Winnipeg in July 2007.National CQA coordinator Dawn Lawrencepresented new updates and reviewed theprogram to ensure consistent validationprocesses. To ensure accountability,Manitoba Pork Council conducted 10farm audits to verify CQA compliance.The audits revealed high levels of CQAcompliance, which verified farm managersand their staff, along with CQA validators,are following the program.Farm (premises) registration and theslaughter tattoo registration programcontinue to play a fundamental role inidentifying animal movements, whilethe western Canadian swine slaughterreporting system is now collectinginformation from abattoirs in theWest. These three elements provided acentralized, quick reference for tracinganimals from packinghouse back tofinisher barn by their tattoo number on adaily basis.Farm-to-farm movement reporting willone day be a reality. In 2007, Councilcompleted two pilot projects thatevaluated different reporting tools forcapturing animal movement informationfrom the field. One of the projects usedmobile phones for reporting shipping andreceiving information to a central datawarehouse. The results demonstrated thattraceability information can be reportedin a simple, quick and a practical manner.However, much work remains to be done.Council actively participates in preparingthe province’s livestock sector foranimal health emergencies throughManitoba’s Avian Influenza OperationsCommittee. Composed of 12 federal andprovincial government departments andfour provincial commodity groups, thecommittee holds a wealth of expertise,and will soon be working to prepareresponse plans for swine-relatedhealth crises.MANITOBA HOG GRADING INC.Manitoba Hog Grading Inc. continuesto provide hog carcass grading servicesfor producers in federally-inspectedprocessing plants in Manitoba. Hoggrading displays and promotionalmaterials are used at trade and industryshows to improve awareness of theservice and provide more informationto producers.TRACEABILITY ANDEMERGENCY PREPAREDNESSThrough the Canadian Pork Council’sAnimal Identification and TraceabilityCommittee, Manitoba Pork Councilcontinues to be a key participant indesigning Canada’s national SwineTraceability System. This industry-ledeffort has achieved key milestonestowards the full implementation ofswine traceability.