Better Pork -April 2003

BEHIND   THE   LINES

 by ROBERT IRWIN

This month's cover story on page 8, written by Better Farming staffer Don Stoneman, deals with our pork industry's efforts to minimize the effects of a possible foreign animal disease fiasco such as overtook the United Kingdom, Taiwan and the Netherlands in recent years. All great meat exporting nations, they were brought to their knees when outbreaks swept through their barns.

It's hard to imagine a scenario where there's no market for more than half of the pork we produce. Last year Canada exported 812 million kg of pork. These exports were worth $2.1 billion.

One measure being supported by the industry is a zoning protocol developed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency which would, among other things, block the movement of livestock at West Hawk Lake, a tiny town near the Ontario-Manitoba border. Our cover story reveals the fascinating details outlining why it deserves industry support.

As a livestock producing and exporting nation, Canada is in a very favourable position. Our animal health status is second to none. We have a border with only one country, the United States, that also has a high health status, and our cold climate helps to deal with bacteria and viruses. Furthermore, our wide-open spaces offer more protection from the spread of disease. But Canada's very immensity is as much of a challenge as it is an advantage when it comes to tracking where possibly diseased animals originated. Hence, the move towards a complete traceability system for all animals throughout our livestock movement system.

The Canadian pork industry has gained a meat tenderness champion in Prof. Peter Purslow, who now chairs the department of meat science at the University of Guelph. Purslow, spent five years as a meat science professor at the University of Copenhagen and brings with him a wealth of experience. We can expect to hear more from Professor Purslow in the future on a wide range of meat topics, from animal handling through genetics and finally to nutritional benefits. Read about his work on page 15.

Farrow-to-finish operations, the tried-and-true base of Ontario's pork industry, have tended to slip into the background behind the burgeoning growth of three-site production loops. Ever wonder how well farrow-to-finish operators are doing? Not badly, according to Ridgetown research associate Lynn Marchand as she analyzes a comprehensive survey of producers. Profitability returned to those who hung in after the market crash of 1998, and considerable gains have been made in terms of equity. This story can be found on page 67. BP



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Better Pork - April 2003

Outbreak zoning: Canada's best defence against contagious animal diseases

Setting up a checkpoint for livestock movement halfway across Canada is only the first step towards zoning, a process that could substantially reduce Canada's losses in the event of a foreign animal disease outbreak
by DON STONEMAN
There is literally no way around West Hawk Lake, Man., and that is the beauty of it.

This small town, just west of the border with Ontario, straddles the Trans-Canada Highway and is surrounded by rugged Precambrian Shield. The link between Eastern and Western Canada is so fragile that, when a beaver dam broke a couple of years ago and flooded the highway, all east-west truck traffic was shut down for a day.

Because there are no pigs or cattle there that can catch and spread a contagious animal disease, the Shield is a natural place to divide the country into areas that might be declared free of foreign animal disease if an outbreak should occur in Canada. For this reason, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) will launch a pilot project at West Hawk Lake this year. Livestock movement will be recorded going both ways, just as if it were a border crossing at a national frontier.

In the case of a disease outbreak, all trading would cease. Trade would resume from a disease-free zone several weeks after the first outbreak came to light, as opposed to waiting until three months after the last case were reported.

If splitting the country in two were all that it took to protect one half while the other suffered through a foreign animal disease, outbreak zoning would be a piece of cake. However, the pilot checkpoint that will be set up at West Hawk Lake is just the first step in safeguarding Canada's livestock trade.

This dividing up of the country is referred to as zoning. Under the sanitary and phyto-sanitary rules developed at the last round of World Trade talks, new rules were developed for placing trade embargoes on nations where a contagious foreign animal disease, such as foot-and-mouth, classical swine fever or African swine fever, has broken out. Countries where any of these diseases are endemic have the right to create within their borders areas that can have a disease status different from the country as a whole. Livestock from an enclave with an elevated health status can be sold into developed nations that don't have the disease in question. Likewise, countries like Canada, with a health status equal to that of any nation in the world, can use zoning to keep livestock trading open while walling off infected areas.

It's like walling off an abscess, says John Kellar, head of the CFIA's animal disease surveillance unit, who is leading the zoning initiative in Canada. The mechanism for maintaining international livestock trade during a disease crisis is like a four-legged stool. Zoning is one leg, disease surveillance by the provinces is another. The remaining two legs are animal identification and a trace-back system. Surveillance by provincial government testing laboratories and veterinarians is already in place, but the other three elements are expected to cost the Canadian livestock industry between $100 and $110 million.

It sounds like a lot of money, but proponents say the cost is miniscule compared to potential losses while a nation-wide disease outbreak is brought under control. The Canadian Animal Health Coalition (CAHC), a group of livestock industry stakeholders which includes producers, packers and even bankers, estimates that a foot-and-mouth outbreak would cost Canada a staggering $45 billion. Walling off the outbreak to even half the country would reduce losses by $20 billion or so. (Swine-specific diseases would be less costly, but would still cripple the pork industry. Limiting a disease off to half of the country would, again, substantially reduce the economic damage.)

The pork industries in both Taiwan and the Netherlands will never recover from recent swine specific disease outbreaks, according to Embro Ontario pork producer Carl Moore, CAHC's chairman. Governments took the opportunity to squeeze the industries in both countries, using environmental concerns as an excuse.

A post mortem of the disastrous U.K. foot-and-mouth in the late 1990s revealed that there were a million head of sheep in transit between farms, sales yards and slaughterhouses said CFIA's Kellar and Canada isn't any different. "That is the kind of thing that studies decades ago showed was the Achilles Heel for North America," says Kellar.

Two essential questions
In the case of a foreign animal disease outbreak, livestock on the disease side of a checkpoint becomes almost worthless compared to animals on the other side of the zoning border. Human nature being what it is, Kellar says, there would be attempts at smuggling.

Moreover, he says, when there is a disease outbreak "the clock starts to tick." As a disease progresses, the stricken animal produces more and more infectious agents. When an outbreak is discovered, it likely started four to six weeks early on another farm. Foot-and-mouth, for example, has an incubation period of up to 60 days. Both Classical Swine Fever and African Swine Fever can at first be mistaken for yet another outbreak of a common disease -- "any of the infections that lay swine low," Kellar says.

How far might animals from an infectious barn have moved before the disease is found? This is where animal tracing comes into place, says Kellar. "We ask ourselves two essential questions while the clock is ticking and the world is watching -- where did (the disease) come from and where has it gone? Until we can answer these two questions, we can't show the world that we have the disease under control and we can't prove the validity of the zoning approach."

The cattle industry has embraced the concept of an animal identification program and eartags are now mandatory in all cattle. Moore says the technology for swine identification is still lacking, but the pork industry is working on it. However, pork is ahead of beef in terms of locating barns by Global Information System (GIS) and a swine project in Ontario is now mostly complete.

Quebec is going ahead on both fronts, having committed to spending $20 million on traceability for pigs, cattle and also sheep. An arms-length company called Agri-Traceability Quebec has been established and is located in St. Hyacinthe.

As for Ontario, individual animal identification is being pushed along in a number of directions, says Gwen McBride, director of the Livestock Technology Branch, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. National ID will be mandatory next year under the federal Health of Animals Act. "That's a year away," she says. Mandatory cattle and sheep programs were put in place first. All those animals must have an eartag registered in a national database. "That will spin things along. Country-of-Origin Labelling (in the United States) will provide impetus," McBride asserts.

Then there is the tracking of animal movements, which will require a large database. Clare Schlegel of Tavistock, a member of a Canadian Pork Council committee on traceability, says the ownership of the database and whether it will be run provincially or nationally remains undecided. He sees it as significant that both the CFIA and Agriculture Canada will support development of the project "to the extent that the farm community and farm leaders are willing to support it."

The CFIA "see tremendous value in it from the foreign animal disease preparation perspective. We are testing with our membership the level of commitment in this direction."

Denmark leads the way
Jette Christensen, a CFIA epidemiologist based in Charlottetown, has experience with a national livestock system database in Denmark, where traceability was phased in over nearly a decade. All livestock farms were registered in 1992. Tracking of cattle movements began in 1995 and tracking of pig movements started in 2001. "We have to think very carefully about what we actually need and be very concerned about putting in too much information," she says.

The numbers of animals in a given area must be known, so that the resources needed for humane euthanization during an outbreak can be mustered, Christensen says. After that, it's important to know if animals have been moved to other farms from the immediate area of a disease outbreak.

"The worst thing that can happen," she asserts, is that a database is developed with too much information in it, especially if the information is too detailed and isn't updated frequently. The GPS location survey of all the barns is a good start, she says. However, it's questionable whether databases maintained by different provincial commodity groups can be melded together for disease control purposes.

For his part, the CAHC's Moore is ready to go ahead on zoning. "It's a challenge and it won't be done in six months or probably even in a year. I think I can say that all the commodity groups are looking desperately to have it done." The pork and beef industries must have zoning, he asserts. "We are both over 50 per cent exports."

The Ontario Manitoba border is the just the first proposal for zoning, he says. Other possibilities are to wall off Vancouver Island from the mainland, to zone the area of British Columbia west of the Rockies by putting control points in the mountain passes, and to do the same with Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

However, Moore points out that, statistically, a foreign animal disease is more likely to break out in Perth County with 600,000 hogs than in Newfoundland or P.E.I. "We are trying to develop as simple a procedure as we can to enable all livestock movements to be traced, all livestock to be identified and movement patterns known, and get this into effect and take it to our trading partners in the United States."

Ontario has the infrastructure together to make this work, he says. All the regions and commodities have to be up to the same level. "There's no value in having hogs "up to snuff" in Ontario if other commodities and regions have fallen behind, Moore says.

The Ontario pork industry has invested a lot in its quality assurance program and its GIS program, and other provinces have GIS under way. Identification needs to be spruced up, he says. "We have relied on tattoos. We have to be sure that every hog is identified and that we know where they have been and where they are going." There are weak points in the system, he notes. In Ontario, sows are generally not identified.

U.S. recognition first
The purpose of zoning is to facilitate international and domestic trade. Your trading partners have to recognize and accept your zoning procedures, Moore says. He visited the Netherlands a year ago and found that it had zoning "in every small area" and had made it work with trading partners in the European Union. Recognition by the rest of the world, as represented by the Paris France-based Office international des épizooties (OIE), is another matter. Zoning isn't recognized by the OIE until there has been an outbreak and is specific to that disease.

Our first effort would be to zone and get the United States to recognize it, Moore says. A joint recognition of zoning between the two countries would likely be mutually advantageous, he says. There is generally considerably more traffic north-south than east and west. With the high level of livestock traffic between the two countries, there is a good chance that our outbreak could come from the United States or that theirs could come from Canada.

In March the Canadian Pork Council sponsored a conference in Montreal aimed at getting the traceability process moving faster.

"In animal traceability, pork is not where it wants to be. We hope that the conference in Montreal will lay the groundwork for a national identification program, Moore says. ("I don't think the method is nearly as important as the end result. The identification has to be 100 per cent," he says, but he isn't clear if that 100 per cent includes the breeding stock in a barn or just the animals moved out to nurseries, feeding barns and packing plants.

Traceability has to be very specific in order to make zoning work. You have to relate the tattoo on the pig's back to the owner and also to the location of the barn, Moore says.

You have to relate the tattoo on the pig's back to the owner and also to the location of the barn, he says, and you have to be able to identify every animal and every chicken on both sides of the divide, so that you can prove where that animal was raised. And if it was moved from one side of the divide to the other, there must be a record of when it was moved. If there isn't a record, that zoning won't be recognized until the whole country is cleared of the disease.

Zoning, animal identification and traceability are very much like an insurance policy; it may never be needed, Ontario's Schlegel says. "Heaven forbid, if (a disease outbreak) ever happened, it could be the saving grace to get us back on the world market quickly.

"You'd like it done tomorrow, but infrastructure building like this doesn't happen in a day." BP

Canadian producers will have to get used to traceability programs

Martin Rice, executive director of the Canadian Pork Council, points out that Canada is in a unique position on this planet. It has a contiguous border with only one country, the United States, which also has high heath status. Only Australia and New Zealand are in a better position than we are to keep animal agriculture on a clean footing, he says.

By comparison, Brazil, which is aiming to become a pork-exporting powerhouse, borders on 13 countries, all with comparatively poor animal health status. When it comes to zoning, however, Canada doesn't have the infrastructure in place to deal with a disease outbreak. Veterinarians will have to deal with diseases they have never seen before, he says. It's been 40 years since there was a hog cholera outbreak in Canada, and nearly that long since foot-and-mouth disease last struck.

Not so in the Netherlands, which has recently suffered through Hog Cholera. There, "they have developed an awareness that they all have to submit to a fair degree of openness in their operations," Rice says.

In Canada, "people tend to be a little bit defensive. They aren't used to having people come in and ask how many animals they've got, where they've sent animals in the last 30 days and whether they've had animals come from somewhere in 30 days. You have to do that if you want to zone. Otherwise, countries you need to convince that you have an effective zoning system won't buy it. The Europeans, in particular, are not going to take your word for it. They are going to want to see it."

Last month, a pork industry conference on traceability was held in Montreal. Rice hopes that it will lead to "industry direction," and that some economic benefits besides animal health would make this attractive and saleable to producers.

One of these drivers might be a program that Ontario Swine Improvement Inc. (OSI) has been working on. Its gate-to-plate animal tracing has more to do with connecting the breeding barn to the pork chop on the plate than it does with stopping an animal disease outbreak in its tracks. But it does give farmers another reason for individual animal identification, putting some more dollars in their pockets with branding programs in association with packers, says OSI's general manager Henry de Wolde.BP

Finding a foolproof identification system

In order to have zoning for foreign animal disease control, a trace-back system is needed. Underpinning that is a thorough system for identifying batches of animals that moved together, or perhaps even individual animals. Eric Aubin, a hog production analyst with the Canadian Pork Council, says the identification system must be permanent; leg bands chalks and spraying have been rejected.

Last year, a study in Quebec assessed a dozen possible permanent identification systems. They looked at cost, readability life-span of tags and at what age of animals the identification could be applied.

Some methods, such as hot branding, were rejected "out of hand" for humane reasons and food safety concerns, as was any kind of identification that might end up in the meat or byproducts. Also rejected was DNA fingerprinting, which is useless for tracing live hogs in a zoning situation, Aubin says.

The committee settled on five suitable methods of identifying hogs -- a numbered eartag, an ear tattoo on the outside, a shoulder slap tattoo, a shoulder tattoo applied with air pistol and an electronic tag. "All of them have their pros and cons," Aubin says.

The committee identified four systems for traceability identification:

Pilot studies testing these systems and means of identification will start in the spring, Aubin says. The means of identification is one variable; another is the size of the farm, he says. BP



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Better Pork - April 2003

What happened to the idea of getting better before getting bigger?

In a fiercely competitive marketplace, investments in efficiency may give you a better return than expansion
by RICHARD SMELSKI
There's a story about two friends camping, who come upon a bear. One of the two stops to put on his running shoes. The other one says, "Do you really expect to outrun the bear". "No," replies the first camper. "I only have to outrun you". A very sadistic, but true-to-life story.

Can you outrun the other pork producers in the pork industry? Is your cost of production more sustainable than other producers' costs in the marketplace? The George Morris Study, a Guelph-based agricultural think tank says North America is one of the most competitive places in the world. Ontario producers compete in a global market with producers across the world and the producer who can produce pork at a lower cost of production and still give customers what they want is most sustainable. What is your competitive advantage?

smelski2.jpg - 20609 Bytes Many producers often have no idea how competitive they are, especially against the "big guys." They falsely believe that they must expand to compete when investments in efficiency may have been better than expansion. I believe the cash cost one needs to keep going, depending on expected ROE, vary between $1.30/kg to $1.75/kg and my belief is that the higher end is for the "bigger" producers.

Can you produce a pig for $100 cash costs? How does the cost of land influence your pork production costs? What if interest rates change, corn quality deteriorates, or disease breaks out? What-if scenarios are extremely important because many producers are sacrificing the nickels and dimes that made this industry successful. What ever happened to the philosophy of getting better before you get bigger?

Applying the what-ifs from your management skills has never been more important. The marketplace has no sympathy, no feelings and no remorse for poor management decisions. The producers who don't sacrifice the details will be one step ahead and, although, it could be the winning step. A one-stroke difference among the golf pros is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in their year-end winnings. The same difference exists in taking care of the little tasks in pork production. Several good computer programs exist to determine producer break-even costs and production what-if scenarios.

It's surprising how many are hedging the price of hogs without knowing their cost of production. That is gambling; some will win, but the majority will never know and will have an extra cost to pay at the end. Before you hedge, know your costs, your what-if scenarios, and check your options. What is your expectation on returns? Hedging is one side of the ledger; the other side is having a long-term business plan.

A farmer once found a vase and, when he rubbed the dirt off it, a genie appeared. The genie, true to form, granted the farmer two wishes. The ecstatic farmer wished for $25-a-bushel beans and asked to delay the second wish for six months. Six months later, the farmer again rubbed the vase and once again asked for $25 beans. The genie, somewhat surprised, said" "You have already asked for $25 beans and I granted them in your last wish." The farmer replied: "But this time I will sell!"

If only that farmer had known his cost of production, he would have set some realistic expectations. BP

Richard Smelski is a swine industry consultant and former Ontario government swine specialist.


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Better Pork - April 2003

Code addendum provides valuable guidance for those practicing early weaning

Whether you are directly involved in SEW/ISO production or using more traditional production practices, the addendum provides useful information to improve the care and handling of piglets
by JIM DALRYMPLE
In the early 1900s, a "Recommended Code of Practice for Care and Handling of Farm Animals: Pigs" was prepared for the Canadian pork industry. This code was developed by a group of individuals across Canada under the direction of Dr. Frank Hurnik, a leader in animal welfare research at the University of Guelph.

When the original Code was developed, most pigs were weaned at the age of three to five weeks and beyond. Greater knowledge of nutrition, housing and health has led to improved management with specialized facilities being developed and improved nutritional health of pigs at 10 days to three weeks of age.

Early weaning evolved due to the health benefits, improved welfare and growth enhancement that it demonstrated. Some concerns remained, however, so an addendum to the original code was prepared in order to highlight the important management practices necessary to ensure the well-being of early weaned pigs. This addendum was developed with input from 23 knowledgeable individuals representing 16 organizations in Canada, such as the Canadian Council on Animal Care, the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Canadian Pork Council, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, the University of Manitoba and the Prairie Swine Centre.

The points outlined in this addendum, although designed for production units using early weaning techniques, are worth noting for all production units. Management practices to wean pigs safely at 28 days have been practised for many years. When initiated, Segregated Early Weaning (SEW) and Medicated Early Weaning (MEW) involved weaning pigs as early as seven to 14 days. Currently early weaning refers to weaning from 14 to 20 days with the average near 14 days. The pigs are then moved to a site usually isolated from the sows and market pigs and this has led to the term "isowean" (ISO).

The code deals with all aspects of the care and handling of early weaned pigs -- from health concerns to pre-weaning management recommendations, weaner management, transportation, care and management of the sow at pre-weaning and post-weaning. Also outlined in the addendum are concerns such as low weight of piglets at birth. It is recommended that additional research be conducted in such issues as:

The principle of the SEW/ISO procedure involves removing the piglets from the sow while they still have passive immunity from the sow's colostrum and thus before they can succumb to the potential pathogens in the sow-farrowing room environment. The piglet's ability to defend itself against many pathogenic diseases is lowest between the second and fourth weeks of life. Thus, strict attention to cleanliness, room temperature and humidity, and a high quality diet can lead to improved survival rates and piglet performance.

The code addendum discusses the weaner management required for SEW operations and the space, temperature and feeding requirements that are currently recommended. Water is particularly critical and method of delivery is very important.

The booklet discusses such issues as removing dividers between creep areas of adjacent pens, re-grouping pigs in the nursery and getting pigs on feed as quickly as possible.

A key element in the success of SEW production is the care and handling during transportation. Recent research on the minimum space allowance for transportation of weanling pigs is included.

Whether you are directly involved in SEW/ISO production or using more traditional production practices, the addendum provides useful information to improve the care and handling of piglets. The addendum can be obtained from the Canadian Pork Council in Ottawa in English or French and is available on the Canadian Agri-Food Research Council's internet site, www.carc-crac.ca.

Early weaning has faced criticism from many people unfamiliar with livestock production. More than 50 research papers are cited in developing this document and continued research is underway to provide producers with the information to wean piglets so as to improve their health survival and at the same time keep producers viable.BP

J.R. (Jim) Dalrymple is a former Ontario government swine specialist and owner of Livestock Technology Services in Brighton.


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