Question Period Note: AFRICAN SWINE FEVER

Q1 – What measures has the Government of Canada already put in place to address the threat that the global spread of African swine fever poses to Canada’s swine industry? Q2 – (AAFC) How does the launch of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s African Swine Fever Industry Preparedness Program help to mitigate the risks and impacts of the disease? Q3 – How has the CFIA tested or validated its preparedness efforts?

R.1 - A pan-Canadian approach is being implemented to focus on prevention, biosecurity, and preparedness. It also promotes business continuity and communications, including international zoning agreements.

As part of this plan, strong import controls are in place. These include restrictions on the importation of live pigs, pork and pork by-products, plant-based feeds from affected regions, and using Canada Border Services Agency border services officers and detector dogs at entry points. R.2 - This $23.4M funding over three years (2022-23 to 2024-25) supports projects such as improving on-farm biosecurity, reducing disease transmission, wild pig management, communications, response planning, retrofits, modeling and diagnostics. Eleven projects have already been completed in the areas of vaccine research, planning, equipment purchases and processing plant retrofits.

The African Swine Fever Industry Preparedness Program has put 42 projects in place since it was launched in 2022. The Program ends on March 31, 2025. Applicants are encouraged to contact the Program should they wish to apply. R.3 - Exercises continue to be a key element of African swine fever preparedness validation and refinement.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has hosted multiple recent exercises simulating disease response and preparedness activities that included participants and observers from international, federal and provincial/territorial governments, pork producers and processors, and Animal Health Canada.

Stakeholders developed common understandings of disease response and tested various preparedness plans by, for instance, reviewing laboratory preparedness, and other related actions for both African swine fever and other emerging zoonotic diseases.

Risks and impacts of African swine fever to Canada’s hog industry

African swine fever does not pose a food safety risk and has never been reported in Canada.

African swine fever is a reportable disease under the Health of Animals Act. This means that any suspected case of African swine fever must be reported to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). African swine fever is also a World Organisation for Animal Health listed disease, meaning that member countries such as Canada must submit timely information on disease situations.

The hog/pork industry is an important part of Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector and the Canadian economy as a whole. As of 2023:

The Canadian hog sector contributes an estimated $24 billion to the economy and supports roughly 100,000 jobs.

Canada is the 7th largest pork producer in the world, representing roughly 2% of total global production.

Representing 13% of the world pork trade, Canada is also the 4th largest pork exporter after the European Union, United States, and Brazil.

Exports of live hogs are also an important segment of Canada’s hog industry. In 2023, 6.75 million live hogs were exported to the United States, which represents approximately 24% of Canada’s total hog marketing (i.e., slaughter and live hog exports).

The Canadian hog sector is highly integrated with the United States.

The introduction of African swine fever into Canada would have a significant impact on the entire pork value chain. Initially, all export markets of live pigs and pork products could immediately close and some could remain closed for several months.

The Government of Canada continues to work extensively with international trading partners to prevent entry and mitigate the impacts of African swine fever in the Americas.

Zoning is a disease control tool that separates areas of the country where disease is present and where disease is absent. Recognition of zoning decisions allows trade to resume from the disease-free parts of the country.

The goal of the zoning disease control tool is containment of the disease to part or parts of the country to support eradication of the disease and to return Canada to an African swine fever-free disease status.

To proactively minimize the impact of a positive African swine fever detection, Canada has confirmed zoning arrangements with key trading partners such as the United States, European Union (EU), Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong.

Canada continues ongoing negotiations with other key trading partners including Japan and Mexico and is also engaging members of the Quad Alliance (U.K., Australia and New Zealand) on broader zoning discussions, including African swine fever.

In March 2021, the CFIA and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture signed a protocol to guide bilateral trade in the event that African swine fever is detected in wild pigs.

Actions to date

Mitigating and responding to the potential threat of an African swine fever outbreak in Canada has been a government priority since 2018.

The CFIA, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) have engaged with industry (Canadian Pork Council, Canadian Meat Council) and the provinces and territories through an Executive Management Board. The ASF Executive Management Board provides leadership and strategic direction, through the pan-Canadian action plan on African Swine Fever.

The pan-Canadian action plan on African swine fever identifies priority activities organized under four framework pillars:

Enhanced biosecurity and prevention

Preparedness planning

Ensure business continuity

Coordinated risk communications

Since 2023, the key priorities include supporting the advancement of the Invasive Wild Pig Strategy, clarification of roles and responsibilities and inter-organizational communications in the event of an African swine fever outbreak.

The Action Plan also supports the development of tools for response (e.g. depopulation and disposal decision tools), financial recovery support for producers and processors, an African swine fever communication plan which includes preparing Canadians in advance on what to expect regarding African swine fever response efforts and gathering resources to support mental health in the event of an African swine fever outbreak.

On August 26, 2022, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announced an investment of $45.3M into preventing and preparing for African swine fever.

$23.4M is being made available to industry through the African Swine Fever Industry Preparedness Program for activities such as biosecurity assessments, wild pig management, abattoir retrofits and research and analysis.

$19.8M is being dedicated to supporting the CFIA efforts such as testing response capabilities through exercises involving various stakeholders, increased surveillance, laboratory testing capacity, supporting international partners in the development of an African swine fever vaccine, and establishing African swine fever zoning arrangements with key trading partners.

$2.1M is being used to enhance the CBSA border control activities.

The CFIA is following the international situation closely and has strong import controls in place to prevent the import of live pigs, pork products and by-products from countries and zones affected by African swine fever. For example, the CFIA:

has issued border lookouts for countries where active outbreaks are occurring;

has worked with the CBSA to increase the number of food, plant and animal detector dogs at Canadian airports;

is following the situation in the European Union closely and is only allowing imports from zones that are not affected or that are not identified as high-risk zones for African swine fever (this is in accordance with the agreed-upon zoning protocol); and

continues to work with the CBSA and airlines to mitigate the risks related to illegal imports and travellers.

The Government of Canada has led significant work in communications surrounding African swine fever, through airport signage and in-flight messaging to travellers and is currently delivering targeted communications directed at small producers, retailers and travellers.

The CFIA has made significant progress on its ASF response policy, the ASF Hazard Specific Plan. Drills, tabletop exercises and full-scale simulation exercises are being used to validate stakeholder preparedness and identify areas of improvement which are needed.

The Government takes the threat of African swine fever seriously and recognizes the impact that this disease could have on our pork sector if detected in Canada.

In August 2022, $45.3M was announced to help prevent the entry of African swine fever into Canada, and to put contingency plans in place to prepare for a potential outbreak.

The Government will continue to work with all stakeholders to prepare for and prevent the potential introduction of African swine fever into Canada.