Good evening.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, for inviting us to appear before the committee.
Thank you as well to the committee members for your work on this issue.
My name is Rene Roy, and I am the chair of the Canadian Pork Council. Joining me is our director of on-farm programs, Audrey Cameron.
I am also chair of Animal Health Canada, and our executive director Colleen McElwain is also here as a witness. We are also pleased to be joined by the representatives of Les Éleveurs de porcs du Québec and Ontario Pork, two of our provincial members.
Throughout the industry, we are seized with the questions around biosecurity, and we have made great strides at improving preparedness throughout the industry in recent years. We are also committed to ongoing improvements as we continue to work to keep African Swine Fever out of Canada.
The Canadian Pork Council is the voice of Canada's almost 8,000 pork farmers.
Our industry is responsible for almost $5 billion in annual exports to more than 75 markets around the world. Indeed, pork exports represent almost 1% of Canada's world exports.
Let's talk about what we would like to see.
We would like to see better tools and testing capabilities for disease surveillance, so we can track outbreaks more quickly and work to eliminate health threats.
We would also love to see a cross-government initiative set up related to wild pig eradication. At present, CFIA is leading the initiative, but it's not really a food issue. We intend to work with government to include Natural Resources Canada in the mix, as well as Parks Canada, as we seek to eradicate this invasive species.
Finally, we continue to seek harmonization of regulation as much as possible with the United States on this issue. Given the integrated nature of our industry on both sides of the border, the more we can collaborate with USDA on biosecurity engagement, the better.
What have our efforts to improve biosecurity entailed thus far, and what would we like to see?
As an industry, we have done very good work on traceability programs, and PigTrace is recognized as the best in class traceability program around the world. Its existence has allowed us to respond quickly to outbreaks of Seneca Valley virus, among others, to contain outbreaks quickly and to mitigate their impact on the industry.
We have also worked with livestock transporters to ensure that our transportation practices maximize biosecurity at every step. There's work we have undertaken with AAFC, CFIA and others in the industry. We also provide our members with training and on-farm programs to help guide their biosecurity decisions, and we work continually to improve those standards. Our international trading partners recognize us as a leader in this area, and we continue to work to maintain that position globally.
Thanks to government funding for ASF preparation, we continue to work to develop tools and tool kits for farmers to use on farm to ensure that they have the best available knowledge about prevention tools and other best practices.
Thank you. We'll be ready to take your questions.