Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is Paul Doyon, and I am senior vice-president general of the Union des producteurs agricoles, or UPA. I am a dairy and maple syrup producer.
I am here today with Guylain Charron, the UPA's agricultural research and policy advisor.
Animal biosecurity is important for both the health and well-being of animals and because of the major economic and trade consequences associated with animal diseases.
According to the Équipe québécoise de contrôle des maladies avicoles, for EQCMA, the avian flu outbreaks in 2022 and 2023 cost the Canadian government more than $180 million and, to date, have resulted in the loss of more than 7.6 million birds.
The Équipe québécoise de santé porcine has informed us of a recent study from the University of Iowa in which the impact of the outbreak of African swine fever was estimated at $7.5 billion and the combined outbreak of African swine fever and foot-and-mouth disease in the pork and beef sectors in the United States at $23 billion.
Biosecurity measures are thus essential to protection from disease outbreaks throughout the chain of production, from producer to consumer. This means that agricultural input suppliers, livestock transporters, slaughterhouses, processors and renderers all have a role to play in animal biosecurity.
The various farming sectors have developed tools including biosecurity measures, which they apply to protect the health of their animals. Many of those measures have been developed based on national standards and the biosecurity principles of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the CFIA. The codes of practice developed by the National Farm Animal Care Council for the care and handling of animals are also used by our affiliated groups and establish requirements and recommendations for biosecurity on the farm or refer to the CFIA's national standards.
For example, the beef and dairy sectors are working jointly to establish a biosecurity strategy for the entire beef industry. Their objective is to design and implement a biosecurity action plan including all industry players. They also have a certification program including on‑farm biosecurity criteria.
Poultry sector groups have mandatory biosecurity requirements in their respective safety programs. They are applying biosecurity protocols and an emergency plan developed by EQCMA.
Les Éleveurs de porcs du Québec has prepared biosecurity training material and an emergency measures plan in preparation for an African swine fever outbreak. They are cooperating on a project being conducted by the Centre de développement du porc du Québec on improving biosecurity in hog transportation.
Traceability is an important tool that complements animal biosecurity. When an animal disease outbreak occurs, it helps reduce intervention time and mitigates economic, environmental and social impacts. Traceability is mandatory in Quebec for cattle, bison, deer, sheep and pigs.
The purpose of the consultation on the Health of Animals Regulations is to improve the present traceability rules by correcting a number of deficiencies, in particular, by adding goats to the list, reducing the time period for reporting information, requiring that a site identification number be obtained and requiring that movements from departure facilities to destination facilities be reported.
The World Organisation for Animal Health Issued a report in 2017 on its evaluation of veterinary services in Canada, highlighting the collaborative work done by the EPA, the CFIA and Quebec's department of agriculture. The report noted the efficiency of our communications, particularly those of our producer associations that are very active in sending messages concerning animal health and the promotion of biosecurity.
The government must provide the agricultural sector with the necessary support to optimize animal biosecurity. To that end, it must increase scientific assistance and funding to sectoral initiatives in order to establish a herd health and buyer security strategy. It must include cleaning and disinfection costs in the emergency costs covered by the CFIA, as the World Organisation for Animal Health has recommended in its report. It must facilitate vaccine development and access to vaccination programs and protocols for sectors seeking to adopt this approach. Lastly, it must tighten up buyer security controls at the borders by, for example, increasing fines imposed on offenders.
Thank you.