JUNE 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC
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BC feedlot sector prepares cattle disease emergency plan Foot and mouth threat drives guidelines and tools for feedlot owners
by TOM WALKER FALKLAND – The BC
Association of Cattle Feeders (BCACF) have just released an extensive emergency plan as part of an initiative designed to prepare the sector for next disease outbreak. Preparing the BC Feedlot
Sector for Disease Related Sector-Wide Emergencies is the result of work between the BCACF, the Alberta Cattle Feeders Association, BC Ministry of Agriculture, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. “Alberta Cattle Feeders did a lot of ground work in building their emergency plan,” says Andrea van Iterson, executive director of BCACF. “They offered their plan to other provinces as a model and in an effort to build a cohesive plan across at least the western provinces.” There are two sections to the plan. There is an outline of the organizational roles that the association will undertake on behalf of producers in the event of an emergency, including leadership, industry liaison, communications and policy development. Meanwhile, feedlot owners, operators and staff will work with guidelines and tools to help prepare for a sector-wide disease-related emergency. “We are putting together binders that will be available by early summer,” says van Iterson. “And we will have workshops and information sessions. All of us use some of these techniques and protocols in our operations. … This plan puts it all together in one place.” The entire beef sector has
long recognized the need for a sector-wide plan. The plan says the most
recognized, feared and probable sector-wide emergency event in the feedlot sector is Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) or some other foreign animal disease. An outbreak of FMD would
impact the feedlot and beef industry as a whole, not just in BC or Western Canada but nationally.
Potential scenario What could this look like
for feedlot operators? According to the plan, a
sector-wide disease outbreak would offer a “bleak but realistic scenario” in which, “essentially, the cattle market in Western Canada has crashed.”
The plan outlines a
scenario in which FMD is identified in a feedlot in the Kamloops area. The discovery results in the suspension of all exports of beef and live cattle from Canada, as well as exports of live pigs and pork. Various levels of control zones that ban or restrict livestock and feed movements across Western Canada come into force. Feedlots can only secure feed from licensed feed mills, which must be delivered by a disinfected truck. The movement of staff who keep livestock are restricted or banned. Delivery contracts are suspended, processing plants shut down, and staff lay-offs occur. The scenario describes the depopulation of infected premises, vaccination procedures at uninfected premises, and the cleaning and decontamination of operations. “If an FMD outbreak were to occur in Canada, it is expected that international markets would be closed for six to 18 months. Renegotiating access and regaining international market share could take considerably longer,” the plan states.
BSE cost the Canadian cattle industry roughly $7 billion in total impact in the years after its discovery in northern Alberta in 2003. The new plan says a small and quickly contained FMD outbreak could cost $6 billion, while a larger outbreak (but smaller than
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the 2001 outbreak in the UK) could cost up to $45 billion. Cattle are the feedlot
operator’s responsibility and steps can be taken to prepare for the worst, the plan notes. Reassuringly, it says the sector can and will recover from a widespread outbreak if feedlot operators play their part and implement the plan’s guidelines and tools within their feedlot.
Questions and answers
The guide is written in plain language and easy to follow.
Initially, feedlot
owners complete a self- assessment, which asks key questions that begin, “Are you aware,” “Do you have,” and “Can you.”
The guidelines outline the
kinds of activities feedlot owners may experience, such as mass vaccination or mass depopulation, and consider the effects on finances, personal safety and communications. Owners can then refer to
reproducible pages that lead them through required steps. Some of the self-assessment questions include: • “Are you aware of the expectations on feedlot personnel in the event mass depopulation and disposal are required?” (Owners are directed to “see mass depopulation and disposal guidelines”)
• “Can you control movements on and off your
operation in an emergency?” (see visitor controls)
• “Do you have a biosecurity protocol ready for immediate use and known by your staff?” (see biosecurity guidelines and voluntary cease movement). By keeping the guidelines and tools available, complete and current, the plan says feedlot owners and staff will be better prepared for a sector-wide emergency like FMD. They’ll also reduce the impact on their operations, and ensure a faster recovery for the industry as a whole. “It’s not an if, it’s a when,”
says van Iterson. “It will likely be BC first. The port of Vancouver is the vector on our radar.”
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