By Bruce Cochrane
The chair of Sask Pork says Saskatchewan's new Premises Identification Database helps strengthen the ability of pork producers to prevent or reduce the impact of disease on the province's swine herd.
Last month the federal and provincial governments officially launched the new online Saskatchewan Premises Identification Database.
The program, which links livestock and poultry to specific land locations, along with animal identification and animal movement reporting, makes up Canada's livestock traceability system.
Florian Possberg, the chair of the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board, says the goal is to have the ability to track every movement of animals between destinations which, in the case of the hog industry, means from the breeder unit to the nursery, from the nursery to finishing and from finishing to market.
Florian Possberg-Saskatchewan Pork Development Board:
The Premise Identification Database identifies where really all the key commercial livestock units are located by pretty definitive means.
The usefulness of that of course is that, if we need to track issues, whether it's disease issues or anything potentially to do with antibiotic residues or any of those things, we really have a very good way of doing that.
Of course, with identifiers that are common across species and across our country, it gives us the ability to use that information in a format that is useful, not only within the province but within Canada as well.
Possberg says, by tracking animal movements, if there's an issue with disease, you can not only pin point the source farm by exact location, you can also find what animals from those premises had contact with other premises placing them at risk.
Source: Farmscape