Animal Health Canada expanding planning and preparedness model to support all foreign animal disease outbreaks

Animal Health Canada (AHC) is proud to announce an important expansion of our collaborative model to encompass the planning and preparedness for all foreign animal diseases. This shift reinforces our commitment to protecting Canada’s farmed animal health and welfare under the guiding principles of One Health and One Welfare.

The structure of AHC was to create greater synergies between industry and federal, provincial and territorial government partners to solve challenges and meet opportunities that would guide a cohesive, functional, and responsive farmed animal health and welfare system in Canada.

This collaborative model has been piloted successfully through the tangible work that is taking place to enhance African swine fever prevention and response planning and preparedness.

The model has helped prioritize activities through over 15 working groups filled with key stakeholders under four strategic pillars:

Pillar 1: Enhanced biosecurity planning
Pillar 2: Preparedness planning
Pillar 3: Ensure business continuity
Pillar 4: Coordinated risk communications.

We know we have a robust template that can be adapted to accommodate other foreign animal diseases and stakeholders.

We will be taking the lessons learned from the African Swine Fever model to structure the planning and preparedness for foot and mouth disease (FMD), the continued work under highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), and have on hand to use more broadly for other emerging foreign animal health diseases.

In the coming months, you will see working groups being struck to start FMD work, which will focus on areas like industry-government roles and responsibilities, biosecurity, depopulation and disposal. FMD planning and preparedness will require a broader subject matter expertise and inclusion of commodities beyond the Animal Health Canada membership, but we have the structure in place to pull in the right groups together at the right time.

Significant efforts are being made to understand and prevent the incursion of HPAI in cattle and AHC has collaborated with a working group comprising provincial chief veterinary officers, industry representatives, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and the Public Health Agency of Canada to develop guidance documents aimed at assisting event organizers and exhibitors in mitigating the risks of HPAI transmission to cattle.

Furthermore, AHC is in the process of establishing an Expert Review Panel in conjunction with national poultry organizations, including the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors, Canadian Hatching Egg Producers, Egg Farmers of Canada, Turkey Farmers of Canada, and the Chicken Farmers of Canada. This panel will consist of third-party experts who will evaluate humane whole barn depopulation methods for poultry that are not currently approved, in alignment with the World Organization for Animal Health's (WOAH) guidelines. This initiative is a critical component of the overall objective to develop a Canadian Poultry Depopulation Methods Reference Document. The review of the terms of reference for this project is currently underway, and the Expert Review Panel is expected to be established in the coming months.

This comprehensive foreign animal disease preparedness model not only strengthens external stakeholders, but it also solidifies a coordinated, cross-divisional approach within Animal Health Canada.

The work of the Canadian Animal Health Surveillance System division to promote data sharing, emerging issues monitoring, and early warning systems strengthens Canada’s ability to respond to animal health emergencies. This, in turn, supports the Emergency Management division’s planning and preparedness while the National Farm Animal Care Council promotes sustainable animal welfare practices overall.

With this development, Animal Health Canada continues to solidify its missions to provide leadership in building a collaborative, multi-partner model that clarifies the respective roles, responsibilities and accountabilities of each partner implementing an animal health strategy for Canada, beginning with emergency management.