Health Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2026

[Egan Brockhoff]

Absolutely, and I'm going to follow up on some of the comments that Dr. Fisher made in her testimony.

It's critically important that the livestock sectors, the veterinary profession and the nutritionists working with livestock are brought into these conversations early on. We have to be part of the solution, and regulatory flexibility is absolutely critical to that. We need access to new products.

We're just now having conversations about veterinary health products, the critical role of nutrition, new nutrition products, prebiotics, probiotics and other nutritional aids. We're just now scratching the surface, while other regions have been working with these for more than a decade. Regulatory flexibility is absolutely critical in this space.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

COVID changed a lot of the ways things were done. Canada really stepped up, and the agriculture industry especially reacted properly to it.

What really strikes me, being a farmer, are the supply chains and how much we are held behind. Is there one recommendation, one thing that stands out to you, that you think we should be addressing when it comes to things holding us back as a nation in regard to antimicrobial resistance?

[Egan Brockhoff]

There's no question that this is a multifactorial problem. David Wiens spoke about our multisectoral coalition that authored the white paper. That white paper highlighted many of the critical roadblocks within the regulatory framework, such as access to different types of antimicrobials and how categorization could negatively impact vaccines and vaccine technology.

However, much of this boils down to how attractive a location Canada is. When we look around the world at innovation and innovation that is coming into the animal health sector, we see that we are nobody's first choice. They are going to other countries where things are easier, where markets are larger and where impediments are fewer. We are a smaller market. We have to make ourselves attractive to some of the larger players in a different way. We have to innovate in this space, or we're going to be left behind.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Dr. Brockhoff, do you believe that—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Your time is up, Dan. I'm sorry about that.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Okay. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I'm going to Mr. Eyolfson for the Liberals.

You have six minutes, Doug.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to thank you all for coming.

My professional experience is in human medicine in the emergency department, so although AMR is a very topical problem that we've dealt with, I'm learning a lot of new things, because, of course, in my line of work we don't do a lot of agriculture or veterinary....

There's something I want to clarify. This was alluded to at a previous meeting. I guess it will dovetail with what you said, Mr. Roy. You said that Canada is no longer using antibiotics preventatively. Is that correct?

[René Roy]

We are not using category I for preventive use.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Are there any that you're using for preventive use?

[René Roy]

Well, I will let our veterinarian answer this question. It will be more precise.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Okay. That would be Dr. Brockhoff.

Dr. Brockhoff, are any antibiotics being used in a preventative manner?

[Egan Brockhoff]

Yes. Our on-farm food safety program, PigSAFE, prohibits the use of category I antimicrobials for preventive use. Category I antimicrobials are labelled for treatment only, and veterinarians are allowed to prescribe those to the swine sector for treatment. Category II and category III antimicrobials can be used for prevention and treatment within our model.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Can you give me an example and just name a couple of the category II antibiotics?

[Egan Brockhoff]

Yes. Penicillin—penicillin G—can be used for the treatment or prevention of bacteria like streptococcus suis in a swine population.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

What would be the criteria? What conditions would need to be met in a given agricultural operation to be prescribing penicillin preventatively?

[Egan Brockhoff]

It would be the presence of a disease within the population.

I'll give a very simple example. Let's say there's a pig barn with 2,000 finisher pigs. The producer goes into the barn. They have a prescription, and they have a protocol to treat pigs with streptococcus suis with injectable penicillin. They go into the pen, and they see a pig with clinical disease. They treat that pig. If the other adjacent pigs in that pen are showing clear signs or unclear signs, they can also be treated preventatively for that same disease.

There's a clinical push in the presence of disease.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

That's reassuring. Thank you.

This is, again, something that was alluded to, and I just want to confirm it. In many countries across the world—and at one point this was the case in Canada—antibiotics were simply being added to feed to increase the growth of animals. Am I to understand that this is no longer the practice in Canada?

[René Roy]

Yes, this is no longer the situation in Canada. Since 2018, this has been banned. We are not using antibiotics as a growth substance.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Good. That is very reassuring. I remember reading about this practice over 10 years ago and it worried me. I'm glad Canada has stopped doing that. I understand that some nations still do that. Of course, we have no power over that.

There was a reference to going to low- and middle-income countries and assisting their efforts. Are any of these nations still allowing this? Has there been any lobbying or dialogue with their governments to change the regulations in countries that still allow this?

Mr. Roy, I don't think you're the right person for me to be asking this.

Dr. Weese.

[Scott Weese]

I believe that as of last report, there are around 26 to 30 countries where it's still legal to use antimicrobials for growth promotion. Beyond that, there's probably some use in the grey area of what's growth promotion versus prevention. It's a small percentage and declining regularly, but it still does exist.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Does Canada import animals or animal products from any of these countries?

[Scott Weese]

That's outside of my area. There's no prohibition against it, but I'm not sure.

I'm not sure if Egan would know that. I don't know the dynamics of that.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

I have heard references to the World Health Organization and that there's been some work with that, which of course is becoming much more difficult with the United States pulling out of the funding for it. Are there other international organizations working with governments abroad to help get a better handle on this problem internationally?

[Scott Weese]

Yes, there are quite a few. The World Organisation for Animal Health is essentially the WHO equivalent for animal health. That's an international agency. The FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, has a very strong mandate with agriculture and working with farms. They have a variety of programs that work within countries to improve farm management. Part of that is antimicrobial use.