Alberta Pork is asking producers in the Canadian Quality Assurance program to be especially vigilant during the transition to raising and shipping ractopamine-free pork.
Executive director Darcy Fitzgerald addressed producers during a regional meeting in Red Deer recently, stating that they risk losing their ability to ship to federally-inspected processors if they don’t pass muster, including keeping their paperwork up to date and passing on-site inspections.
“Really, there’s nothing wrong with ractopamine – let’s be honest,” said Fitzgerald. “Some countries don’t want it, and that’s a trading issue. We have to follow their rules and that’s all there is to it.
“Many countries accept it and we trade very well with them. The U.S., Japan, South Korea – those are all great trading partners and those are really good markets for us and they’re not worried about ractopamine. Other markets are, but we have to trade with all of them, so that’s why we’ve moved to this direction.”
Those markets include China and the European Union, with the potential in the future to resume trade with Russia as well, said Fitzgerald.
“We’re basically, at Alberta Pork, the license holder of the CQA program (which incorporates the ractopamine program), so we’re there to administer the program on behalf of the national lobby. All producers across this country, the processors, everybody who wanted to jump on board to make sure this ractopamine thing happened – individually, there might be producers who say, you know, I don’t care about it – but these pigs get sold somewhere where we have to do this. So, we have to take responsibility and make sure we get stuff done.” An important aspect for processors is that they need to sell the whole pig, but various countries want only certain parts of it. Therefore, the rest of the animal has to be sold elsewhere, he said.
“Otherwise, we have to figure out what we’re going to do with those parts that nobody wants in this country.”
Producers will therefore have the responsibility of making sure they have all of their documents in place and that they are ready for visits from a validator who will be looking for signs that ractopamine has found its way into their feed systems. Producers found with minor deviations will have 14 days to get them fixed. There will be quite a bit more work to do if major deviations are uncovered.
Fitzgerald advised producers to ensure that they know what steps to take, telling them to take their questions and concerns to Javier Bahamon, quality assurance co-ordinator for Alberta Pork.
“This program will cause you nothing but grief if you don’t follow through on these rules and someone else hears about it. We’ve had a bad experience, without giving away too many details,” said Fitzgerald. “If the validator sees that there is ractopamine on the farm, really, they must contact Javier. He really needs to know.” Responsibility lies heavily on the weight of the processors as well, because they’re the ones who are shipping the pork.
“(The processor), at the end of the day, is the guy who has to sell this stuff someplace, so he wants to make sure that he’s got all the right paperwork as well,” said Fitzgerald. He warned producers to be especially cautious about where they buy their feed, especially in Alberta where a large number of mills sell to mixed species and therefore have a heightened risk of cross-contamination.
Commercial feed mills are put into two different categories – the A list and the B list, with the A-listed mills being those that specialize in swine while the B list refers to mills that mix feed for all species. Alberta currently has 26 A-list and 10 B-list mills, meaning 26 per cent of the mills in the province are likely using ractopamine in feed made for other species of livestock.
“That’s scary. Everybody else is very much less,” said Fitzgerald. Feed samples tested in 2012 and 2013 have come back with traces of ractopamine in them, he said. There have been no further samples taken since then.
To help avoid the risk to swine producers, Alberta Pork put a motion to the Canadian Pork Council to have all B-list mills removed from the CQA program. CPC has replied that they’ll look at it, including the economic impact on farmers, but have not yet moved forward with any sort of action plan.
Fitzgerald urged producers to contact Bahamon if they have any suspicions about their feed. He can be reached by email to javier.bahamon@albertapork.com or by calling 780-469-8982. •
— By Brenda Kossowan
