Health of Animals Act input sought

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency wants to hear from the industry about proposed changes to the federal Health of Animals Act.

According to a discussion paper published on its website Monday, changes being proposed include:

• Adding regulatory requirements to confirm the identity of an animal including, in some cases, alternative methods such as DNA tests or retinal scans;
• Standardizing identification requirements for both domestic and imported animals;
• Expanding, when there is industry support, the categories of information collected about an animal, such as its breed or genetics;
• Requiring that farm premises be identified. Existing provincial and territorial registries could be used ‘as long as they are built on national standards adopted by federal, provincial and territorial governments’;
• Introducing compliance and enforcement programs to ensure participation from all industry players;
• Building in provisions to protect personal and confidential information that would go above and beyond those in the federal Privacy Act and, at the same time, permit access to non-personal information for scientific studies and emergency simulations. A system of offences and penalties would be used to enforce these provisions;
• Requiring the reporting of animal movements ‘and other events critical for disease management and food safety to an industry-led administrator’;
• Introducing additional record-keeping requirements.

The agency is proposing that the costs of the traceability framework be shared between government and industry. It’s also proposing that, while standards may very, they should all be incorporated under a national framework. “The system will strive to be flexible to allow for the evolution of those standards,” the paper says.

It is also calling for a technology and traceability national information portal to provide “authorized users with a single point of access to compile information.”

The agency has set May 3, 2012 as the deadline for providing written comments. Once the legislative framework is in place, regulations would be developed. The paper says the regulations “would be implemented for a species (or multiple species), in a phased-in manner based on industry readiness and extensive consultations with affected stakeholders.”

Tara Haas, an agency spokesperson, says no target date has yet been set to introduce the changes to the act.

According to an agency news release, traceability “is the ability to follow an item or a group of items - such as animal, plant or food products or their ingredients - from one point in the supply chain to another.” BF