CCC REPORT - WHITETAIL AND MULE DEER

This article was originally printed in the August / September 2001 issue of Tracking The Industry. . .
This article is copyrighted and may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Certification Program

The national CWD certification program is being developed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency with the Canadian Cervid Council, with input from the provincial governments.

This policy will be used as a standard by the provincial governments in order to have a basic program that should be acceptable to our trading partners and recognized in other provinces.

Clearly, this program will not be easy to put in place in the whitetail and mule deer industry as some of the requirements will be difficult to follow. Representations have been made by your different representatives on the CCC Board (Jason Marsland, Al Morhart and Lloyd Lee) and changes were made to reflect the uniqueness of the whitetail and mule deer industry.

Clearly, the whitetail and mule deer representative on the Canadian Cervid Council CWD Committee (Jason Marsland) should be commended for his efforts on your behalf to change some parts of the proposed program. Meetings with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, internal meetings, telephone conversations, written submissions: Jason has certainly been busy. Negotiations often started with "This is a breaking point: either it changes or we won't be able to participate!", usually we would be able to find a compromise.

While in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, the provincial governments have their own programs, most will reflect the basic elements of the national program. Your provincial governments have probably already approached your association to discuss possible changes to their own program. In Ontario, the CCC will administer the CWD Certification Program (using exactly the same program as the national program).

Now, the program is close to being finalized, and I suggest that all concerned members should call the CCC office and obtain the program in order to get the latest version.

The On-Farm Food Safety Program

With numbers growing, the whitetail and mule deer industry is turning its sights towards a venison market. The different market reports are telling us that there is a demand for venison but that supplies are not getting to the consumers due to a disorganized supply chain.

The On-Farm Food Safety Program is a process that most other livestock groups in Canada went through (bison, hogs, cattle, etc...). The goal of the program is to get the livestock groups to adopt the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) model on the farm setting.

This sounds worse than it actually is. The program is designed to provide consumers with an assurance that the food they are buying is safe and that the products used in the farming of the animal are of no danger to humans.

The main thing that will need to change on the farm is record keeping. As farmers, you will be requested to keep detailed records of what you do with the animals, the type of feed and the pharmaceutical products used.

More details will be made available to you in the near future.

Hard Antlers and the United States

At the end of the month of July or at the beginning of the month of August, we should know if and how we will be able to send animals to the United States with hard antlers.

On Thursday, June 28th 2001, the Canadian Embassy in Washington and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency met with the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the US Department of Agriculture and the Office of the Trade Representative in Washington. The meeting had been requested by the Canadian Embassy at the request of the Canadian Cervid Council to discuss the Fish & Wildlife regulation regarding the transportation of cervids with hard antlers to the US.

The CCC had prepared a document provided to the Canadian Embassy and had gathered support letters from US individuals and US organizations (however not from NADeFA and NAEBA).

The result of the meeting was a consensus that the regulation would be changed and that in the meantime, both sides would work together to propose an "administrative decision" to disregard the regulation in place (changing the regulation could take up to two years). This would possibly allow the border to be opened this Season.

Our US friends and partners should be pleased with this development as the regulation if kept would prohibit the transportation of cervids with hard antlers within the United States and not only at the borders. Please remember that under the North American Free Trade Agreement, a member country cannot impose on another member country a regulation that it does not apply within its own country.

So we look forward to trailers of animals going to the US this season. Although there are more live animals going to the US presently, there is lots of semen and embryos purchased in the US by Canadians. Trade is a two-way concept.

Also, the CCC has moved to request that the CFIA review the import protocol regarding US cervids (specifically the TB issue, and the possible removal of the quarantine). We have been assured that this will be done quickly. A review process is being put in place that will look at the TB situation in the US. We are confident that this process will bring a new and fair trading situation in the cervid industry while ensuring the health of our herds.

The CCC will have to communicate better with our US counterparts to explain what we are doing and that our efforts are important to create better networks and cooperation between Canada and the United States.

Government Assistance

The CCC is negotiating with the federal government some relief package for cervid farmers whose markets were affected by the chronic wasting disease situation.

Although most farms have not been directly touched by CWD, some markets became unsure and farmers are faced with dwindling revenues.

Lately, we met with Minister Clay Serby from Saskatchewan with representatives from SWAMDPA and SEBA to discuss an assistance program for farmers. We believe the meeting went well and hopefully we will have good news to announce in the near future.

Serge Buy

- Back to Library -

Please report any technical problems with this site to the webmaster