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NEWS RELEASES - 2007
Taking Every Precaution
The Ontario AgriBusiness Association (OABA), which represents the grain and feed
supply sector, has developed an emergency response manual for its members.
As a voluntary organization representing 378 companies including crop inputs
suppliers, country grain elevators as well as feed and farm supply businesses,
OABA is aware of the risks facing the industry and the need for emergency
preparedness. In many cases, these businesses have sales and technical staff who
are frequent visitors to many farms, often in a single day. With the reality of
highly infectious animal diseases becoming more prevalent, it became obvious
that these people could play a large role in the prevention of any possible
foreign animal disease outbreak.
Ron Campbell, operations and member services manager at OABA, understands this.
“Diseases could be transferred on clothing, tires and equipment and so our
members need to take every precaution to not do so. It is in our best interest
to develop a member-wide emergency response plan, which will help to ensure any
foreign animal disease outbreaks are contained to a small geographic area, and
not spread from farm to farm. By introducing simple protocols such as hand or
vehicle washing to compiling a biosecurity kit for vehicles, we can help keep
our industry safe.”
It’s not a small industry either. In 2005, the provincial feed sector had sales
of $1 billion, including $248 million in exports. Any disease outbreak would
devastate not only the farmers, but all of the suppliers too. In the case of the
Avian Influenza outbreak in British Columbia in 2006, two feed mills had to be
closed and numerous people lost their jobs.
Utilizing $14,375 in funding from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the
Agricultural Adaptation Council’s CanAdvance program, OABA developed the manual.
They worked out policies and procedures to follow during a foreign animal
disease outbreak, especially during the most critical time period between when a
disease is suspected and when it is confirmed and the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency takes charge of the situation.
“While many of OABA’s members had developed some type of disease response
system, they were all different,” says AAC chair Bette Jean Crews. “There was a
concern that inconsistencies in practices and even in the use of terminology
could cause problems at a future date. OABA took the lead to develop an
industry-wide response manual to ensure that in the case of a foreign animal
disease outbreak, everyone does the same thing, and speaks the same language.”
Over the past several months, input from member businesses as well as the
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Ontario Livestock
and Poultry Committee and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has been compiled,
analyzed and then broken down and reorganized into a set of appropriate and
easy-to-understand response procedures. The guide includes descriptions of how
companies should put together a disease response team including contact lists,
job descriptions, and decision trees; as well as how they should document their
response, develop back-up protocols and much more. Manuals containing all of the
recommendations are being distributed to all OABA members with implementation
workshops to follow later this year.
Campbell is confident that this information will establish an industry-wide
standard, ensuring that all members respond to any possible outbreak in an
efficient and consistent manner. “Our members play a critical role within the
agricultural industry, supplying farmers with everything they need to grow and
harvest their crops, as well as feed their animals. It’s important then that we
also play an equally important role in preventing the spread of disease during
an outbreak.”
The Agricultural Adaptation Council is a non-profit, grass roots coalition of 71
agricultural, agribusiness and rural organizations dedicated to providing
financial resources to help Ontario’s agriculture and agri-food industry remain
profitable, grow and maintain its economic strength.
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For more information:
Nadine Armstrong
Communications Manager
Agricultural Adaptation Council
Ph: 519-822-7554
E-mail: narmstrong@adaptcouncil.org
Website: www.adaptcouncil.org
