CFIA better prepared for animal disease outbreak says auditor general

Thursday, October 28, 2010

by SUSAN MANN

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has come a long way when it comes to foreign animal disease outbreak preparedness, says Auditor General Sheila Fraser.

But the agency has more work to do and Fraser recommended improvements in her fall report released Tuesday. “We would like them to be a little more systematic about how they’re doing certain things, like the lessons learned,” she says, noting the agency also needs to develop priorities and work plans for other diseases similar to the ones it has for Avian Influenza and foot-and-mouth disease.

Fraser says the agency was severely criticized for its handling of the 2004 Avian Influenza outbreak in British Columbia. “We noticed they learned a lot from that one.”

Dr. Brian Evans, Canada’s chief veterinarian, says the audit report is balanced. The Auditor General recognized some of the agency’s strengths, particularly in how the agency managed some recent foreign animal disease outbreaks.

The audit was done mainly from October, 2009 to April, 2010 and looked at how prepared the agency is for animal disease emergencies that call for prompt action outside of normal activities. Fraser’s office also looked at the handling of Avian Influenza outbreaks in Saskatchewan (2007) and British Columbia (2009) and reviewed some documents going back to 2004.

Fraser concludes the agency followed established plans and procedures when it responded to the two recent outbreaks. But every disease outbreak is unique and those results can’t be generalized to predict how the agency will do for the next outbreak.

Evans says “the report does recognize the CFIA handled those circumstances with respect to our protocols and they were well managed.”

Lori Moser, chair of the Ontario Livestock and Poultry Council’s biosecurity committee, says they’re concerned about some of the gaps in the agency’s readiness plans. The Council and commodity organizations are working with the agency to sort those out.

She says it’s good the Auditor General did her report because it highlights matters that should be discussed. For example, in the swine industry there’s a need to work out plans and procedures to carry out large scale depopulation and disposal of animals.

“Poultry is one thing but pigs and cows are something else when you have to euthanize and dispose of that kind of body mass,” Moser says.

The provincial council is dedicated to improving the industry’s ability to respond to an emergency animal disease outbreak.

Council chair Gord Coukell says it’s impossible for any one organization to be totally prepared. That’s why the council is working to ensure the Ontario industry is ready by doing simulated disease outbreak exercises about every two years with the participation of the federal agency and the provincial agriculture ministry. The idea is to “try and improve our readiness.”

Coukell says Ontario is better prepared for an animal disease outbreak than most other provinces because the council is working on preparedness. “None of the other provinces have that.” BF