hoof and mouth

[grgsrvc]

Interesting little scare with the the Olymel processing plant
shutdown on Monday. I think this topic about what to do if there
was an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease is something we all
should consider. Watching the British Island fiasco of a few years
ago does not look like much fun... Would we have to cull all our
cloven hoofed animals as well? Other countries have the disease
and cope with it so maybe we could as well?

[kato]

What happened?

[kato]

It's OK, I found out. Scarey stuff.

[grassfarmer]

You raise a good point grgsrvc, I've been trying to draw attention to the ongoing risk since they had the first outbreak in the UK in 2001. Our industry leaders have done a fine job of turning a blind eye and ignoring the risk - backed by folks like Happy Trails who insist we stick with a system that dates back to the days of the open range.
Truth is the manifest/LIS system would be useless in the face of a F M outbreak, brand inspection worse than useless. We need to utilise the EID tags that we are already putting on our cattle. Get a modern computer run system in place to read everything in and out of auctions, packing plants, feedlots etc. Only then would we have the traceability system we need. It could all be achieved, and at little cost to producers if they would only see the merit and start lobbying Government to introduce and pay for the program.
I don't doubt we will get this system eventually but whether we get it imposed on us at our expense after fighting against the Government introducing any kind of credible ID/tracking/tagging system or after a F M outbreak that could easily cost us 10 million animals as id did in the UK remains to be seen.

[kato]

"Government to introduce and pay for the program."

Now those are the magic words.......... if that came true, I don't think you'd be finding the resistance to it that you see today.

[grgsrvc]

I agree good traceability would and should be the best response. Prove to
our export buyers that all the problem herds are accounted for and the "clean
herds" are clean. It just really gets my gall though having to depend on
government mandated programs to do it. I think the industry would welcome a
id program if there was some benefits to the primary producer. as it works
now we pay for the tags and put them in and then never see or here that
animal again once it is in the system. I would like to know If the genetics
i'm using are producing traits that say a feedlot want or the like. This is
an example of some value to the cow calf producer.

[kato]

Check this out.

http://www.cattle.ca/what-is-bixs/

I don't know if it's gotten past the pilot project yet, but it's got potential to finally give us something back from the system.

[grassfarmer]

It's not a matter of proving which herds are clean or infected - if you get F M your country loses its export status overnight - international rules.

This is a case where I believe Government should be responsible - animal health protection for the country against catastrophic disease outbreaks.

[Happytrails]

Just a note to support Alberta's LIS and brand inspection. It is the best livestock movement tracking system in N America despite what GF says. God help us if we lose the person in the alley inspecting cattle and have to try to decipher scanning data to find certain cattle. HT

[grassfarmer]

OK HT with many cattle going to auction with NVB how can you quickly trace the source of a problem animal in a feedlot if they just assembled 200 black NVB heifers from various auctions? In the face of a F M outbreak this has to be done very quickly and accurately as we need to know not only where the animal was born but what premises it has been on, which animals it has been in contact with and where they all subsequently went.

How many weeks did it take to source the contacts of the original BSE cow in 2003? What did they identify anyway? maybe 80% of the cohorts? Not nearly good enough for a large scale disease threat.

[Happytrails]

I won't bother trying to change a closed mind but will point out that LIS inspects all cattle traded even if NVB. What use is being made of the ID tag scanning data that is now being reported by feedlots? HT

[grassfarmer]

I'd be quite open minded to you convincing me how LIS/branding could quickly trace animals as described in my case scenario. Truth is you know there is no argument, its just empty talk.

[grgsrvc]

I guess when I posted the topic I was more trying to bring to
understanding what would we have to do if we had a outbreak of hoof and
mouth. I was not sure of the length of export ban and who it applied
to. Here's the next thought. Could you survive a mass cull of all your
animals? and if there was an ad hoc bailout how should it be handled?

I don't think even our grain growing brethren would escape this thing.

We need our critters to chew through the excess crop production.

[Happytrails]

My Dad lived thru hoof and mouth in '52. It was eliminated in about a year, I believe, by targeted slaughter. How did they find the right critters? Well I know it wasn't by ID tag scanning. I ask again; what useful information is being generated by the feedlot ID tag reporting that is being done now? If it is a good idea there should be some benefits showing up by now. HT

[grassfarmer]

I guess they didn't have a feedlot alley back then either - the concentration of cattle and the rapid speed of transport that happens nowadays makes the spread of disease so much more likely and dangerous.

As I understand it the feedlot reporting program is getting some experience of the system and how it will work. They can rapidly record animal id numbers coming in and hold them on a database. This is a small component of a movement/traceability system. I wouldn't condemn it because it isn't showing obvious reward - would you consider branding a flawed idea if ranchers did it and there was no brand inspection/LIS or reporting of brands on the manifest? Only reading tags on arrival at feedlot is a similar small part of the big picture rather than a complete solution.