Mr. Chair, members of the subcommittee, on behalf of Bioniche Life Sciences, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you about food safety in Canada.
As you know, Bioniche Life Sciences is an innovative biopharmaceutical company based in Belleville, Ontario. Our mandate is to act on innovation and to improve quality of life. We’re publicly traded and invest heavily in research and development. We currently employ about 200 people around the world in highly skilled scientific and research-based jobs, with the majority of these being in Belleville, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec.
An important part of this subcommittee’s mandate is seeking recommendations to reduce the risk of future food-borne illnesses. Today, I want to tell you about a breakthrough in reducing the risk of Escherichia coli or E. coli, the O157 strain in particular, which is a food-borne pathogen and public health issue.
Highly publicized outbreaks such as Walkerton in 2000 and up to and including last year, where we had an outbreak in North Bay as well as one in the Niagara region, are tragedies caused by E. coli O157 that can shake the confidence of Canadians in the safety of their food.
There are many strains of E. coli that are harmless, but the O157 strain is one that releases toxins that cause severe illness, permanent illness, or even death. Like listeria, unfortunately, it is young children and the elderly who are often most at risk. The Government of Canada can take pride in the fact that it supported research and development that led to the world’s first licensed vaccine against E. coli O157, named Econiche. This unique innovation, which has positive implications for Canada’s agricultural sector, national food supply, health care system, and overall consumer confidence, speaks to the calibre of this country’s scientific research community.
Econiche is designed to reduce the risk of E. coli O157 contamination of food and water, and it received full licensing approval from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in October 2008, only a few months ago. The vaccine is given to cattle and is the first of its kind in the world to combat E. coli O157 at the source. By “source”, I mean beef and dairy cattle, the natural hosts of these bacteria.
This deadly strain of E. coli lives within the intestines of cattle without causing any ill effects to them. Studies have shown the vaccine significantly reduces E. coli colonization in cattle by as much as 98%. This reduction in the amount of E. coli O157 shed by cattle helps to reduce the risk of it being present in ground beef or via groundwater or spread to children who pet animals during farm tours, or via produce, as was the case with the huge spinach recall in 2006.
Adoption of this vaccine will position Canada as a global leader in food safety, preserve consumer confidence in Canadian agriculture products, and bolster public health. It will provide much-needed assistance to the agricultural sector, particularly the beef industry, by offering an additional stamp of safety and acting as a premium on Canadian agriculture products, potentially increasing foreign demand for our beef and produce.
Given the many of benefits that will result from inoculating beef and dairy cows with this vaccine, one might assume cattlemen would move quickly to vaccinate their cattle; however, it is not that simple. The challenge with adoption of this on-farm intervention is that individual cattlemen receive no immediate or direct benefits for spending the money to vaccinate their animals against E. coli O157. As this bacteria does not make cattle sick, there is no incentive for cattlemen to vaccinate them. We believe that if governments provide the initial funding to encourage adoption, the long-term benefit to the overall cattle industry will become apparent. We must recognize that E. coli O157 is more than only a beef issue; it poses a risk to humans through other foods, water, and direct contact.
Organizations such as the Canadian Association of Bovine Veterinarian, the Canadian Association of Fairs and Exhibits, and the Beef Value Chain Roundtable have all issued statements supportive of approved licensed on-farm interventions to reduce the public health risk of food-borne pathogens such as E. coli O157.
During these subcommittee hearings, we have heard about the shared responsibility between industry and government in regard to food safety. We have heard that government’s role is to deliver resources and establish policies necessary to keep our food supply safe. We have heard that in Canada a greater cost for food safety is paid for by producers compared with other countries where a greater proportion of public dollars is used for food safety.
In Canada, we have successfully used vaccines for decades to address serious public health issues. Safe, effective vaccines are a proven technology to reduce the risk of infectious disease. The concept of vaccinating cattle to proactively reduce a serious public health risk is a perfect fit for the “one world, one health” concept widely advocated by health experts. The challenge, however, is that such innovations may require the cost to be incurred by one party, yet the benefits to be realized by another. Ultimately, as you know, food safety is about protecting Canadians, which is the purpose of the government's food and consumer safety plan. All of society benefits from the use of technology to reduce the risk of infection and illness.
The subcommittee is looking for suggestions to strengthen the food safety system and reduce the risk of future food-borne illnesses; therefore, I will put forth three recommendations on behalf of Bioniche for your consideration.
Number one, our key recommendation is the funding of a program, or pilot projects, designed to ensure the removal of E. coli 0157 from the Canadian food chain. This was previously recommended by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance in the pre-budget report of 2008. We feel confident that Canadian taxpayers would prefer having the fiscal responsibility involved in funding the prevention of food-borne illness than in funding the long-term consequences of an outbreak. Food-borne illness in Canada costs approximately $10 billion each year.
A series of pilot projects, funded through a program such as AgriFlexibility, would enhance the position of the cattle industry and beef value chain by encouraging primary producers to incorporate technologies, such as Econiche, that add value for other members of the supply chain as well as the end consumer.
There are four such potential shovel-ready value chain pilot projects, with Bioniche acting as a partner.
In Ontario there's a group involving the Ontario Corn Fed Beef organization and also the Ontario Veterinary School and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
In Quebec, there's a project waiting with Viandes Sélectionnées des Cantons; and l'Association des médecins vétérinaires praticiens du Québec; and le ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation du Québec.
In Prince Edward Island, there's another group with the Atlantic Veterinary College, as well as the public health office.
And also in Alberta, there is the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, and the newly created Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency.
Our second recommendation is to implement policy changes that support development of novel approaches to food-borne pathogens. When a company such as Bioniche researches, manufactures, and commercializes a new vaccine to prevent illness in people, the vaccine is typically reviewed by the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Advisory Council on Immunization. The advisory council will make a recommendation about its use in Canada. This recommendation will determine if health care dollars can be used for the purchase of the vaccine, and the cost of immunization. However, innovative products like Econiche—given to cattle to prevent illness in people—fall outside of the council’s current mandate and therefore are not considered for public health funding.
Our final recommendation is that enteric pathogen surveillance systems, such as the C-EnterNet, should be fully funded. This is an initiative facilitated by the Public Health Agency of Canada, and also funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, designed to support activities that reduce the burden of gastrointestinal illness.
To summarize, our first priority is the funding of pilot programs that encourage adoption of on-farm food safety technologies. Our next recommendations relate to policy changes and support of public health initiatives to monitor enteric diseases in the environment.
In conclusion, I will say that all of us are in the consumer confidence business. From farm to fork, each link of the value chain has an obligation to do everything it can in the production of safe food. Government and industry are partners in the development of a shared vision going forward to reduce the risk of food-borne illness. We believe that Canada’s commitment to be a leader is built on a foundation where innovation is encouraged, commercialization nurtured, and the adoption of novel approaches to food safety supported.
Thank you.