International markets react to bluetongue presence in Ontario

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

Markets for Canadian dairy and beef cattle genetics along with sheep and goat exports have been closed after confirmation of the bluetongue virus in Ontario but one farm group says live beef cattle exports to the country’s biggest market - the United States - won’t be affected.

The confirmation of the viral disease in three Southwestern Ontario beef cattle in August and earlier this month also won’t impact exports of meat or meat products to the United States, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association says in Sept. 4 news release.

Rob McNabb, general manager of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, says “for most countries it (the confirmation of bluetongue in Ontario) shouldn’t impact any meat products at all.”

Bluetongue is a disease that affects domestic and wild ruminants and is transmitted by the biting Culicoides midge. It doesn’t pose risk to human health. The disease was first confirmed in August in a sample from a beef animal at an Ontario abattoir taken as part of the national Bovine Serological Surveillance program.

A Sept. 4 notice from the Ontario chief veterinarian’s office says the loss of Canada’s status with the World Organisation for Animal Health as a country free of bluetongue means “immediate suspension of export certificates for live animals, semen and embryos until certificates can be negotiated with trading partners.”

Michael Hall, executive director of the Canadian Livestock Genetics Association, says the certificates need to be changed to stating Canada requires an animal-testing program for bluetongue rather than the claim the country is free of the disease. The changes must be negotiated by the Canadian government and ratified by both Canada and the countries Canada exports to.

“We work with them (the Canadian government) to prioritize markets on behalf of industry,” he says.

Currently the markets for dairy genetics that have been closed include:

• 14 for live cattle but most are markets that Canada doesn’t export a lot of live cattle to “so it’s not a big consequence,” Hall says.
• two for embryos.
• 18 for semen, including China, Europe and Brazil. Hall says the biggest impact of the bluetongue confirmation is on semen exports.

In 2014, Canada exported $158 million worth of dairy genetics around the world. For beef cattle, semen exports in 2014 were $6.4 million while exports of beef cattle for breeding purposes was $27.7 million.

Markets for beef genetics, goats and sheep have also been closed after export certificates were suspended.

Hall says he doesn’t know how long it would take for Canada to negotiate the certificates. “It will depend a lot on how long it takes some of these counties to reply.”

Canada’s biggest market for dairy genetics is the United States and it remains open. Bluetongue is prevalent there and in Mexico, Hall notes.

Bluetongue is also commonly found in Australia, Africa, the Middle East, India, China and it’s spreading northwards in Europe, according to a Canadian Food Inspection Agency factsheet.

McNabb says if bluetongue is prevalent in a country, hopefully those countries won’t require testing of Canadian breeding stock.

Some countries may and do require semen and embryos to be certified as coming from animals that are bluetongue-free, he notes. “In those cases, that requires testing.”

Michael Latimer, executive director of the Canadian Beef Breeds Council, says he doesn’t know how long the genetic export certificates will be suspended. “If it’s a 30-day deal or indefinite that will be what determines the impact.”

If the export certificate suspensions are short term, from 30 to 60 days, “it won’t matter a whole bunch,” he says. Suspensions lasting a year to five years are a different matter.

Follow-up testing earlier in the month on the Ontario farm where the animal that first tested positive originated has detected two other positive animals. It’s the first time bluetongue serotype 13 was confirmed in a Canadian animal and the first occurrence of bluetongue in a Canadian animal outside British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, the Ontario chief veterinarian’s notice says. The bluetongue serotype 13 has been found in Canada before but only in imported animals.

In Canada, the virus’ presence usually occurs in late summer and early fall, the cattlemen’s release says. Conditions must be warm enough for bluetongue virus to multiply within the midge. Midge activity ceases with the first hard frost.

The bluetongue serotype 13 is immediately notifiable under the federal Health of Animals regulations and Ontario’s Animal Health Act and laboratories are required to report confirmed diagnoses to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Meanwhile, sheep producers are concerned as the disease can cause serious illness and death in sheep.

The Ontario notice says clinical signs of the disease vary among species with some species, including cattle and goats, not showing any signs of the disease.

Robert Scott, vice chair of the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency and the Canadian Sheep Federation, says the Canadian sheep flock has never been exposed to bluetongue “to our knowledge” and that means “there is no natural immunity built up in any flocks.”

“We’re definitely worried,” he says, noting he has almost 800 head of sheep on his farm. In the United States, “we can see fatalities in unexposed flocks from 20 to 80 per cent so this is pretty scary.”

“This is just another thing we didn’t need in agriculture,” Scott says. BF

UPDATED Tues. Sept. 15, 2015: According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the exports that have been suspended because of the discovery of Bluetongue generated $291.5 million in 2014 or about 13.5 per cent of trade in the affected commodities. Commodities affected include: live goats, semen bovine, semen dairy cattle, live sheep, cattle embryos, live bison, live purebred breeding cattle, live non-purebred breeding cattle, slaughter cattle, feeder cattle and calves, cervids, hides and skins and porcine dried blood.

A spokesperson with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says via email on Tuesday that 60 export certificates were suspended on September 2015, “effective immediately.” They are now being renegotiated. “Industry has identified its priority markets and the CFIA will act based on those consultations,” writes Rod Lister, an agency spokesperson, in the email. END OF UPDATE