New biosecurity standard for Canada's dairy farmers

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

Canada’s dairy farmers have a new biosecurity standard designed to help them protect their herds’ health.

The Biosecurity for Canadian Dairy Farms National Standard was released today by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. It was developed by the CFIA and Dairy Farmers of Canada in collaboration with producers, academia and provincial governments with funding from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s national agricultural policy Growing Forward.

The standard is a series of management practices that will help farmers minimize and control disease risks entering their farms, spreading within their operations or to neighbouring farms. The four key control areas of the standard are:

• animal health management,
• animal additions and movement,
• premises’ management and sanitation, and
• personnel, visitors, vehicles and equipment.

Therese Beaulieu, Dairy Farmers of Canada spokesperson, says by email the boards of directors of each province and DFC have approved the standard. She says it is the standard for biosecurity just as the Code of Practice is the standard for animal welfare.

The biosecurity standard is the “reference book,” she says.

DFC president Wally Smith says in the CFIA press release the biosecurity standard is a tool for all proactive farmers who want to bring animal health to a superior level. It complements existing standards for on-farm food safety in the Canadian Quality Milk program and other efforts dairy farmers make to constantly improve their farm operations.

Beaulieu says under the DFC’s ProAction proposal, there’s a plan to integrate the various standards, such as food safety, biosecurity, animal welfare and environmental stewardship, in a streamlined program that shows Canadians that “dairy farmers are responsible, conscientious producers.”

DFC delegates are to vote on the ProAction proposal in July.

CFIA spokesperson Lisa Murphy says by email the agency is working to develop biosecurity standards and producer guidelines for other sectors too, including bee, goat, mink, sheep, plus grains and oilseeds. Work on these guidelines is progressing and they should be completed later this year. BF