Feds invest $7.5 million in livestock traceability database
Posted Oct 9, 2014 11:38 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Good news for livestock producers in Canada looking to sell their product overseas.
The federal government is investing $7.5 million to implement and operate a national traceability data service.
Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz explained it includes everything from eggs to beef.
“This brings together a multiplicity of avenues that are out there right now, a lot of the industries have their own databases and so on, there’s one in Quebec, there’s one for the rest of the country, and this put it’s all under one roof, one portal, so there’s much easier access and maintain and make sure the data is accurate,” Ritz said.
It’s one of the first of its kind in the world and will better position Canadian livestock producers to sell their product overseas.
Not only does it help when there are outbreaks of disease among a heard or region, but he said it also helps in flood situations and moving animals out of harms way, like we had in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
“It certainly does start to speak to gaps and overlaps that are there in the system,” said Ritz. “Now everybody recognizes Canada has again regained the world lead when it comes to traceability and when you have discerning trade partners like Korea, Japan and the European Union, they’re requesting this for their consumers and we’re able to deliver it, no one else can at this point.”
He says the U.S. tracing system is done on a state-to-state basis and there is no federal program there.
It will take about two years for everything to be in place.
