Thank you.
Good morning. My name is Frank Novak. I'm a producer from Alberta and first vice-chair of the Canadian Pork Council's board of directors. I'm joined today by Gary Stordy, who is our manager of government public relations. I want to first thank the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food for the invitation to appear before you this morning and to discuss the amendments to the health of animals regulations.
I'd like to spend a little time this morning outlining some of the CPC's industry activities related to animal care and transportation and why we have concerns with the proposed amendments to the health of animals regulations. First of all, I just want to point out that the CPC represents more than 7,000 pork producers across Canada. We produce, as a group, more than 25 million animals per year and are responsible for over 100,000 jobs across our industry. The industry generates almost $24 billion in economic activity and last year exported 3.8 billion dollars' worth of pork.
Raising livestock is a 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year commitment, and those who do it take the responsibility very seriously and consider it much more than just a job. Hog producers want to ensure that our animals arrive at their destination in the best condition possible. Canadian farmers are dedicated to the highest quality standards. Registered producers demonstrate their commitment to national standards for food safety and animal care through the national Canadian quality assurance program known as CQA. To be a registered CQA producer, a producer has to undergo an annual assessment for compliance to program requirements.
Producers recognize the importance of animal welfare and led the process to update the code of practice for care and handling of pigs on our farms, which was released in 2014. It was developed through a reasoned and scientifically informed debate that goes far beyond minimum requirements and includes provision for further progressive changes in the future.
I'd like to point out also that the livestock transportation industry is also in the process of updating its code of practice for livestock trucking, and pork producers plan to be engaged in the development of that code. Producers raise their animals to the highest standards to ensure health, safety, and high-quality product, and it is in our best interests to maintain this through transportation.
Hog producers and hog transporters take specialized training courses addressing the specific needs of animals in transport. This includes training staff on how to handle pigs, load and unload pigs, account for weather conditions, be prepared for emergency responses, and understand the potential impacts of those actions on the animals' well-being. Education tools like the Canadian livestock training program, or more specifically for swine, the transport quality assurance program, are mandatory training for anyone who wants to handle or transport pigs to Canada's federally inspected plants.
The CPC supports the move to outcome-based regulations and recognizes the need for continuous improvements, including in areas such as preventing undue stress for animals during transport. We believe that the welfare of animals in transit is dependent on a wide variety of conditions including vehicle condition, weather, handling, etc. It's not possible to describe every possible situation that you might incur.
Outcome-based approaches allow transporters and animal handlers the flexibility needed to ensure good animal welfare by identifying best practices to align with the regulatory requirements. This is why we are unsure why the CFIA has chosen to use both prescriptive measures, such as time off feed and water, as well as outcome measures to address the same concern. We feel that this is unnecessary.
The CPC does not agree with the proposal to reduce the maximum interval for restricting access to food and water from 36 to 28 hours. We feel that the prescriptive time limit does nothing to contribute to the goal of improved animal welfare and only serves to take away from progress that could be made by designing and implementing outcome-based regulations that are grounded in unbiased science.
Very little scientific evidence is offered to support the CFIA's claim that the change will improve animal welfare and reduce risk of suffering during transportation. Despite claiming that the position is establishing clear and science-informed requirements, no research has been cited demonstrating the impact of long transportation times for pigs. The small amount of data available on transportation is limited to market hogs, and no data has been presented for early-weaned pigs, feeder pigs, or breeding stock.
Most of the movement with a duration of between 28 and 36 hours in our industry is for isoweans transported to nursery barns in the midwestern United States. These shipments experience extremely low mortality rates and the U.S. nursery barns report exceptional performance from our pigs when they arrive. These newly weaned pigs have very low feed and water intake in the first couple of days at any rate, even without being transported. It is unreasonable to expect them to eat much, if anything, during this time.
Stopping also compromises biosecurity and increases the risk of exposing these animals to disease. The unloading of pigs will create significant stress leading to even more sickness and death losses, and both of these issues do nothing to improve animal welfare.
In 2016, Canadian producers shipped over 20 million market hogs to federally inspected plants. Our numbers, or the CFIA's own public numbers, show that 0.3% of those animals were found to be sick, injured, or dead upon arrival. This, to me, suggests that we don't have a problem that is out of hand. Rather, it shows that we can always improve. Longer hauls often show reduced rather than increased losses.
CPC is supportive of the efforts to improve animal welfare; however, we believe that better progress can be made by designing and implementing outcome-based regulations that are firmly grounded in unbiased science.
I would also like to add that research on newly weaned pigs' ability to withstand long-distance transport is being initiated currently at the University of Saskatchewan. This project will determine the maximum reasonable transport time that does not significantly impact the pig's welfare. Our recommendation would be that these regulations not be amended, or at least that this particular section not be amended, until that research is complete.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to appear before you today.