Source: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
The government of Canada will invest up to $1.5 million in the Canadian Pork Council to adopt a virus detection system to support animal health. Funded under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership’s AgriAssurance Program, the virus detection system will enable the CPC to provide consistent information on the health status of the hog population across the country, track early disease warning signs and rapidly identify new and emerging diseases in the sector before they spread.

“Canadian pork producers welcome this investment in research and development from the government of Canada in the area of swine health,” says Rick Bergmann, chair of the CPC. “This project will provide a comprehensive tests to laboratories and will help veterinarians and producers manage the Canadian hog herd. Furthermore, using the data obtained through this project to inform disease surveillance activities will greatly benefit the industry and help prepare for disease mitigation.”

This complements a previous investment of more than $94,000 to the University of Montréal to develop an advanced disease surveillance tool to enable faster threat detection across Canada. With funding under Growing Forward 2’s AgriMarketing Program, the surveillance model developed by the UdeM’s Diagnostic Services will enable the hog sector to better understand the frequency of diseases, emerging strains and the movement of endemic diseases in Canada.

“Our government continues to help the hog sector grow and remain competitive,” says Jean-Claude Poissant, parliamentary secretary to the minister of Agriculture and Agri-food. “Canada’s pork producers are known throughout the world for producing safe, high-quality products. These investments will further strengthen, and help bring stability to the sector and provide pork producers with more opportunities to sell their products abroad, helping to grow our economy and our middle class.”

The seventh largest pork producer in the world, Canada’s hog sector includes over 8,000 hog farms and is a key driver of the Canadian economy, accounting for $4.5 billion in farm receipts and $4 billion in pork exports in 2017.