Animal Health Canada celebrates one year of endorsement from FPT Ministers for emergency preparedness

Last week, Ministers from across Canada gathered in Whitehorse, Yukon, to discuss and collaborate on key areas of interest. This meeting market an important milestone for Animal Health Canada (AHC), as it was during the same event one year ago that federal, provincial, and territorial Minister unanimously endorsed AHC’s role in emergency preparedness and pledged continued investment in their work.

Colleen McElwain, Animal Health Canada Executive Director, released a letter on some of the reflections from AHC from the previous year.

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The letter below was written by Colleen McElwain, on July 24, 2024.

Since [last year’s] announcement, Animal Health Canada (AHC) has continued to roll up its sleeves to create and support an unprecedented collaborative space for government and industry partners to achieve their shared animal health and welfare priorities.

Here are just a few things we have accomplished over the past year to enhance the emergency management capabilities of Canada’s livestock industry and advising on national animal health surveillance priorities and disease patterns.

• We have developed an unprecedented collaboration between federal, provincial and territorial governments and industry (FPTIs) to enhance African swine fever preparedness and response planning efforts.
• We are sharing resources and up-to-date information on the emerging disease of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) detected in dairy cattle in some states in the US, which is currently not detected in Canada.
• We are leading the planning and preparedness for Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) with FPTI. Stakeholders recognize that collaboration is key, and we have structures and processes in place that will make work more efficient.
• We are working on a foot-and-mouth vaccine strategy to compliment the CFIA’s FMD vaccine bank and an environmental scan summary on biosecurity materials from the livestock stakeholders.
• We have created industry relevant resources to minimize the impacts of serious livestock diseases. This includes 13 national frameworks and provincial association-level plans, nine sets of producer-level handbooks, emergency response protocols, factsheets, and producer workbooks for planning at the farm level, customized to each commodity and region.
• We offer training courses tailored to agriculture, including incident command system 100, mental health resiliency, emergency management, and an introduction to working with the media.
• We have developed a template to support mutual aid agreements between partners to share Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) resources in an emergency.
• The Canadian Animal Health Surveillance System (CAHSS) works closely to support the Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network (CSHIN), and they have been working closely at creating topical resources for Canadian swine practitioners, including bi-annual national reports on influenza A in swine.
• CAHSS is deepening its collaboration with the Emergency Management division to bolster surveillance capacity for animal health emergency scenarios, fostering increased partnership and preparedness across sectors and disciplines.

As I read the outcomes from that latest annual conference in the Government of Canada’s news release, it is good to see the accomplishments we have achieved are in line with the priority initiatives for Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector. Read here.

We will continue to bring together industry, federal, provincial and territorial partners to provide collaborative guidance on a cohesive, functional and responsive farmed animal health and welfare system in Canada.

If you want to see other accomplishments beyond emergency management and emerging diseases, view our Top Accomplishments document. 

Sincere thanks to our members for their continued support, vision and collaboration to get us to this important milestone!

– Colleen McElwain, Animal Health Canada Executive Director