Agriculture committee  Canada is one of the rare countries that has managed to almost completely eliminate bovine tuberculosis in all of the herds, nationally. People know that it is normal that there be a few cases every two or three years. When we tell those countries that we are conducting a complet

Agriculture committee  No, that's not it. The 2016 case was in Alberta, and today we have a first case in British Columbia. There were cases in 2011, but they were in another location also.

Agriculture committee  As I said, it was quick this time because we drew lessons from the last case, and we had changed our policy. On October 26, samples were delivered to the lab, and we had the results on November 9. I think they arrived Thursday or Friday, and on Monday we knew which herd was invol

Agriculture committee  We had a program from 1923, where we were doing active surveillance, right up to 1980 or 1985. Active surveillance means that if you find a case, you go out on most of the farms—based on our statistics—and take samples. If you find cases, then you quarantine and kill animals and

Agriculture committee  Yes. First of all, in learning from the lessons of last time, we are very careful in how we approach the producer. We put them in contact with the provincial health authorities right away so that if they need any help they can have it. Second, we have a compensation program fo

Agriculture committee  CFIA does the compensation for the animals that are destroyed. For the other programs that Donald has talked about, they are all done in conjunction with the Province of B.C. These are cost-shared programs. On the tax deferral on whatever compensation we pay, I think our depart

Agriculture committee  I'll tackle the first one, and look to my colleague if I make any mistakes. We have worked very hard on this since the 1920s. Among other countries that have similar systems to ours in managing animal health—the U.S., the U.K., New Zealand, Australia—I think Australia and Canada

Agriculture committee  Yes, that's exactly what we do. On the primary farm, the cows under one year of age will be quarantined, but we can send them to slaughter. If there are no post-mortem findings in those, they can be used for consumption. On the contact farms, we will do the testing—not on the cal

Agriculture committee  Thank you for that question. The previous investigation lasted 18 months because we had to slow down in the spring because of calving season. During that season, we cannot test the gestating cows because there is no reaction. Also, we did not want to disrupt the producers' work.

Agriculture committee  I will explain in detail how it is done. If I go into too much detail, let me know. If there is a positive case on a primary farm, after being tested, the animals are destroyed, because the place has to be disinfected. If the animals that have been in contact with the other farm

Agriculture committee  Other animals can also be infected. There are pets on farms. There can be cats, dogs, and also sheep and goats. We analyze the risks for those animals, and even for the humans. We explain to them how all of it works. Depending on the scope of the contamination, we can decide to o

Agriculture committee  This is the one of the most complicated micro-organisms we have. It grows very slowly and it hides itself in a ball of fibres. The immune system doesn't react very well, so we don't have a test that can detect it very well.

Agriculture committee  You can pick it up, as we were talking about before, when the abscess bursts and the animal starts breathing it out through respiration or coughing. It's when you are in long-term contact with that animal.

Agriculture committee  Depending on the concentration of the micro-organism in the milk, we can detect it. We have tests now, besides culture, such as ELISA and PCR, but none of these tests are 100%. That's why we have to do a combination of tests.

Agriculture committee  I think I will have to get back to you on this question.