Thank you very much.
Good afternoon. I'm Kathleen Sullivan, the general manager of the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada.
ANAC is the trade association that represents manufacturers of livestock and poultry feeds across the country. Our members represent approximately 90% of the commercial feed manufactured in this country. We also own and operate the feed industry's HACCP program, FeedAssure. FeedAssure is a feed safety certification program that was developed specifically for the Canadian feed industry. It was the first feed industry HACCP program in North America, and one of the first in the world.
We very much appreciate the opportunity to meet with you today to provide feedback on the status of the enhanced feed ban that is scheduled for implementation this coming July 12.
In 1997 Canada introduced its first feed ban, a set of regulations that ban the use of ruminant meat and bone meal in all ruminant feeds. Last summer the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced new regulations that would expand on that and ban specified risk material, dead stock, and downer cattle in all animal feed, including pet food, and in fertilizer. These changes are designed to provide additional controls against BSE by addressing the risks associated with ruminants inadvertently being exposed to materials that contain ruminant meat and bonemeal.
ANAC supports the enhanced feed ban. We believe quite strongly that a full ban is the simplest and most workable solution to further address the risk of cross-contamination in feed mills, and the only way to eliminate the risk of cross-contamination on farms.