Canada’s federal government has set aside new cash to help protect the nation’s farms and economy from African Swine Fever. 
On August 26, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced the release of three buckets of cash totaling a maximum of $45.3 million to be invested in prevention and management of the virus: 

• Up to $23.4 million to support prevention and
mitigation efforts, 
• Up to $19.8 million for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s prevention and preparedness programs, 
• Up to $2.1 million to enhance protective measures
at Canada’s international borders.
 
In making her announcement, Minister Bibeau emphasized the importance of collaboration in preventing and managing foreign animal disease. 
“We must continue to work as a team – federal, provincial and territorial governments together – to prevent African Swine Fever from entering the country,” said Bibeau. 
Brent Moen, chair of Alberta Pork, joined the Canadian Pork Council and other industry organizations in applauding the announcement, which will see the bulk of the funding targeting industry initiatives including compartmentalization, control of feral pigs and biosecurity. 
“While ASF has not been found in Canada, its presence would be devastating to both the pork sector and economy,” Moen said in a prepared statement released following the announcement. 
“This announcement, coupled with our ongoing ASF collaboration efforts with the Government of Alberta, shows a genuine commitment at all levels of government and within the pork sector to mitigate the potential impacts of ASF,” he said. 
CPC Chair Rick Bergmann, also in a prepared statement, said his group is pleased to see the federal government take the dangers of ASF seriously. 
“It is only through close collaboration between government and industry that we will continue to keep this deadly disease out of our borders and off our farms,” said Bergmann. 
The detection of African swine fever in our country would be catastrophic for both Manitoba and Canada’s hog sector,” said Manitoba Pork chair Rick Préjet. “Manitoba’s hog farmers are pleased that the federal government recognizes the threat that this disease poses not only to our sector, but our economy as well. We are committed to working in close collaboration across our sector, and with our partners at all levels of government to prevent African swine fever from reaching Canada, while also working to ensure that we have plans to mitigate potential impacts the best we can.”
Chris White, president and CEO of the Canadian Meat Council, described ASF as one of the biggest threats to Canada’s pork sector. 
“Prevention is key to avoid the entry of ASF, but preparedness will allow the pork industry to reduce the impact of the disease for a quicker recovery,” White said in a statement released after the announcement. 
“This funding will provide industry and government with further resources to continue the development of the ASF Canadian action plan and be prepared for a potential outbreak.” 
Efforts at developing compartmentalization protocols will be key in the effort to mitigate damages if ASF is found on a Canadian farm. 
The bulk of the funding will go toward enhancing biosecurity, wild pig management, retrofitting abattoirs and research with nearly $20 million being used for surveillance and development of a vaccine against ASF. A little more than $2 million will go toward border controls including deploying sniffer dogs that can detect pork products.
Spearheading that effort is a group of medical professionals including Red Deer veterinarian Egan Brockhoff, veterinary counselor for the CPC and a member of the Swine Innovation Porc Coordinated African Swine Fever Research Group. 
The ASF group describes compartmentalization as a tool to support food security, disease eradication and business continuity in the event of an outbreak. 
In an online clip published by Farmscape on August 31, Brockhoff gives an overview of ASF’s impact around the globe and the need for prevention of and preparation for communicable diseases. 
“As we look around the world, we continue to see viruses like foot and mouth disease move, we continue to see viruses like African Swine Fever move,” Brockhoff says in an interview with Farmscape reporter Bruce Cochrane. 
“We now have African Swine Fever in the Caribbean, and so how do we protect our North American herd from some of these viruses? We need to have measures in place to mitigate health risks for imports and so on,” he said. 

The compartmentalization study was broken down into three steps: 
*A comprehensive review of the literature and international standards to identify requirements for an ASF-free swine compartment, 
*A desk-based and on-site assessment of a large, vertically integrated commercial system in Canada to identify practical, ASF-specific recommendations, including on-farm and abattoir requirements, and 
*A public-private partnership approach to develop national standards and a framework for governance and oversight with Canada’s official veterinary authority, the CFIA. 
 Within that study, the group arrived at minimum standards required at the national level, including biosecurity, surveillance and traceability; governance and oversight; an implementation framework, and exclusion measures to prevent introduction of ASF via people, fomites, live pigs, pork products, feed and proximity pathways. 
Secondly, barn-based and morbidity-based surveillance support early detection and demonstration of freedom from ASF. 
In addition, the group established that biosecurity, segregation and traceability at slaughter plants will ensure compartment products are not cross contaminated with the ASF virus. 
They concluded that integrated production systems “lend themselves well” to compartmentalization for ASF, with substantial work still required to set up a national program to support business continuity and maintain trade when viewed through a one-health lens. 
Potential benefits include: 
*Reduced need for surplus culling and food waste while minimizing negative impacts on animal welfare and the mental health of farmers and responders, 
*Maintaining slaughter operations and retaining a food safety workforce during an ASF event, 
*Reducing the need for public funding of industry compensation, and 
*Building trusting partnerships between industry and government. 
The purpose of the study was to identify the requirements for an ASF-free swine compartment, present the advantages and challenges of the approach and provide guidance for implementation in the Canadian context in which the industry exports 70% of domestically produced pork products.
The CFIA has already confirmed zoning arrangements to help manage ASF and facilitate international trade with the United States, European Union, Singapore, and Vietnam.

The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) has recognized CFIA’s National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease in Winnipeg, MB as a WOAH Reference Laboratory to address ASF – one of only seven Laboratories in the world with the designation.
The CFIA has a network of 13 reference and research laboratories across Canada approved to perform ASF testing for surveillance purposes.
Back in early May Minister Bibeau announced over $446,000 in Canadian Agricultural Strategic Priorities Program funding to Swine Innovation Porc, based in Quebec City, QC, to develop strategies to mitigate the impact of an African swine fever outbreak on the pork sector.
In his discussions with Farmscape, Brockhoff acknowledged that the work continues. He was not available after the announcement to discuss the impact of additional funding. •
— By Brenda Kossowan