Livestock monitoring station gains another three years

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

by KRISTIAN PARTINGTON

A major element in the strategy to prevent the spread of animal disease outbreaks in Canada will continue for at least another three years in the boreal forest near the Ontario/Manitoba border.

The West Hawk Lake Zoning Initiative is a livestock monitoring point at West Hawk Lake, on the border of Manitoba and Ontario. The location is a “choke point” of rail and highway corridors between Eastern and Western Canada, and a monitor station there can track, trace or even limit shipments between the two parts of the country, allowing producers in one section to continue their business if a disease outbreak affects the other.

The program operated as a pilot for two years until its funding, $3.5 million from the federal government and Canada’s livestock industry, ran out in 2009. The possibility of a permanent program appeared to be in jeopardy until the federal government announced in 2010 that it would spend nearly $2 million to keep it running.

“I’d say we’re up 24-7 now,” said Curtiss Littlejohn, a director with Ontario Pork and the Canadian Pork Council who helped develop the initiative.

Along with the federal funding, “there was some work done to readjust the funding formula from industries,” he added. All told, the funding should be enough to keep the initiative running as envisioned for upwards of three years.

Now the challenge will be assessing the overall practicality of the program. “The value of the project can only be determined once there is an actual outbreak,” Littlejohn pointed out. “All we have to do is look at what's going on in South Korea with almost a third of the sow herd being culled for foot and mouth and you begin to understand the importance of what zoning can do.” 

Should an outbreak happen, Littlejohn said he is confident the ability of the Canadian livestock industry to isolate half of the country will help allay fears in other markets about the safety of Canadian livestock and related products.

“Any time that we look at doing anything that improves the ability of the national herd here (to isolate outbreaks) or to decrease potential effects on the U.S. herd, those things are always viewed positively,” he said. BF