Thank you very much.
Chicken Farmers of Canada appreciates the opportunity to speak to the Standing Committee on Health regarding antimicrobial resistance. Canada’s 2,800 chicken farmers are engaged on the issues of antimicrobial resistance and use, and we take that responsibility quite seriously.
For years, Chicken Farmers of Canada has actively engaged with stakeholders to implement initiatives with respect to antimicrobial use, to be able to demonstrate the responsible use of antimicrobials within the Canadian chicken sector. Our commitment to antimicrobial resistance is demonstrated by our actions, including taking the steps to eliminate the preventive use of antibiotics of importance to humans.
CFC has implemented an AMU strategy in conjunction with our industry partners, and the four guiding principles to that are reduction, surveillance, stewardship, and research. I'll touch on each of those over the next few minutes. This strategy, covering all chicken raised in Canada, works in collaboration with the pan-Canadian framework on antimicrobial resistance and use in order to achieve common objectives held by the government and by industry. Our farmers are proud of the work they're doing and the fact that this helps to achieve the government objectives as well.
While we have established a reduction strategy, it's important to note that antimicrobials are and will continue to be essential tools to protect the health of animals and the safety of our food supply. If our birds and our flocks get sick, we need an ability to be able to treat those birds. Our strategy provides a sustainable means of meeting expectations while at the same time meeting animal health objectives.
Our reduction strategy is a phased strategy with three steps. The first step was to eliminate the preventive use of category I antibiotics, those that are most important to humans. That was done in May 2014, and through surveillance from the Public Health Agency of Canada we have been able to demonstrate that it has been an effective ban.
The second step to our strategy is to eliminate the preventive use of category II antibiotics by the end of 2018. It will be followed by the third step, which is an intention to eliminate the preventive use of category III antibiotics by the end of 2020.
This strategy will continue to allow for the use of antibiotics to treat disease, and in fact that is a cornerstone of our strategy. There are markets for “raised without the use of antibiotics” products, but it's our opinion that this is not sustainable for the entire industry. Antibiotics will continue to play an important role, and that's why our strategy focuses on prevention rather than full elimination.
The second part of our strategy is stewardship, which is a key and important aspect on the farm and involves a number of different aspects, from responsible use through to infection control.
On the infection control side, CFC's raised by a Canadian farmer on-farm food safety program, which is a program recognized by the federal, provincial, and territorial governments, is a complete set of biosecurity, cleaning, disinfection, and pathogen reduction standards that are mandatory for all chicken farmers across Canada. This is a compulsory program that is enforced using the authorities provided under supply management.
From a federal government regulatory perspective, CFC is collaborating with and supporting Health Canada as it moves forward to implement some of the initiatives that you have heard about, which promote greater oversight of antimicrobial use within agriculture.
Of most importance from a stewardship perspective, Canadian farmers need access to the same tools that our international competitors have. Unfortunately, that's not the case right now. When we look at putting in place reduction strategies, we look at using different tools, feed alternatives, and these types of things. Unfortunately, Canadian farmers don't have access to the products that are available in Europe or even in the United States. An example of this would be probiotics.
While these products that we're talking about are not alternatives—they're not full replacements; there is no silver bullet—they are an important tool in our tool box as we move forward, because we have seen them be successful in other jurisdictions. That is why Chicken Farmers of Canada strongly recommends that there be an expedited priority to the current government initiative between the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada to help rectify this problem. Providing the solution by allowing more products onto the market would bring us more in line with international competitors, and it would help meet our common objectives of antimicrobial use and resistance.
To turn our attention to surveillance for a moment, surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and use is integral to increasing our knowledge and understanding the impacts of use, and to help guide both industry and government policy initiatives.
CFC has been collaborating with the Public Health Agency of Canada on surveillance initiatives for a number of years, both on antimicrobial use and resistance levels. As I mentioned, some of that research was able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the industry ban on the preventive use of category I antibiotics.
The work that CIPARS is doing through the Public Health Agency of Canada is critical to Canadian agriculture, but we would recommend even more attention be placed on surveillance in order to better track trends in antimicrobial use and resistance, and the reasons for these trends. Increasing the number of samples and the number of sample sites will provide greater validity and credibility to the results coming from CIPARS, and will also provide greater insight into the trends that are being observed and the potential reasons for those trends. AMR can be a very confusing puzzle, and proper surveillance will help Canada develop appropriate stewardship policies. That's needed at an increasing level as we move forward through our reduction strategy, but also the pan-Canadian framework.
On the research and innovation side, going forward, research and the commercialization of those results will become increasingly important. CFC contributes research funding through the Canadian Poultry Research Council. From an antimicrobial use perspective, we've focused our attention on feed alternatives, vaccine development, biosecurity, chick quality, management practices, and these types of things, which have an integral part to play in our strategy. Over half of our funding that we put towards research goes to issues of antimicrobial use and resistance.
Right now, the industry is actively participating in Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Canadian agricultural partnership research cluster, which is a five-year research program starting in 2018. For our part, we'll be contributing $500,000, with a priority being placed on antimicrobial use, resistance, and vaccine development, as I indicated.
As Canada progresses through this strategy, continued involvement from the federal government in conjunction with industry—both through grant programs and Ag Canada researchers—will be required to foster the innovation that's needed to get us to our end point. As a recommendation, we ask the committee to stay on top of the partners to ensure that funding and support for this progress and innovative research continues.
Lastly, as we focus on Canada's use and reduction strategy, we must always enter the open lines of communication and dialogue with our most important audience: Canadian consumers. It's a very important piece of the puzzle as we move through. From an agricultural standpoint, an important core message for consumers is not to confuse the issues of antimicrobial resistance with that of antimicrobial residues. Often, that is a confusion, and it's really important to make sure that doesn't happen in order to ensure continued confidence in our food supply.
Through various social and traditional communication outlets, Chicken Farmers of Canada has been reaching consumers with important messages about our food and the food supply. Antimicrobial use and resistance has been an important part of that, explaining how antimicrobials are used in agriculture and getting that out through different venues. We need support from government and those outside the food production industry to support those messages and continue that trust in the Canadian food supply that I spoke about.
In conclusion, the CFC has established a responsible antimicrobial use strategy and reduction timelines to give assurances about the sustainability of the Canadian chicken sector. We're confident in the actions that we've put in place to focus our attention on the elimination of the preventive use of antibiotics of human importance while maintaining the use of antibiotics to treat diseases. CFC’s leadership in antimicrobial resistance and use will continue to evolve as we commit to working with industry stakeholders and the government on this file as it moves forward.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.