Agriculture committee  Thank you for the question. Yes, avian influenza has been very present in Canada since February 2022. It is of concern, but it's not transmitted by chickens coming into the country from a foreign country. The most likely scenario is that it's coming from migratory birds. It may have an impact on biosecurity, depending on how farms are built or whether they are next to each other.

Agriculture committee  Yes. Under the process in place, the Ukrainians have to do inspections, and the last one was in 2019, as you mentioned. Then they have to put in place monitoring plans and prepare documentation. For their part, those who import chicken from Ukraine must ensure that all this documentation is provided and that the product is inspected at their plant.

Agriculture committee  Yes, we would have the resources. As the minister mentioned earlier, we will inspect the first 10 arrivals. Depending on what we find, the risk analysis will determine whether we need to do inspections on a more regular basis, or on a random basis as we do with imports from other countries.

Agriculture committee  At the moment, right now we have close to 700 of our employees, which is more 10% of the agency, deployed to specific sites. We have 89 sites that are active at the moment, so we go by priority, but we make sure first that the biosecurity is there, that the birds are not moving, and as fast as we can go, we have more people deploying to every site to make sure they don't wait too long.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Yes, we can certainly add to this. It's a very important activity for us at ports of entry to look for new species or new diseases that can come with some imported products. I can give you the example of wood imports coming in with certain species that are not welcome.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question of the member. The first thing we have to do when there's an outbreak of avian influenza is to make sure that the birds are contained and don't move. That is usually done after we receive an indication that the disease could be present on the farm.