After years of effort to set up a reciprocal insurance
program for poultry and livestock diseases, a private company, Hub
International Ltd., has entered the market.
Deborah Whale of Alma, Ont., spent years spearheading an
effort to undertake research so insurers could measure their risks and
establish a multi-layered system to insure against catastrophic losses in the
case of an outbreak of a foreign animal disease.
While the effort began with poultry, it evolved into
proposals that include the livestock industry.
To date there has been less-than-enthusiastic buy-in by
marketing boards and farmers.
The Ontario Broiler Hatching Egg and Chick Commission was
the first to establish a reciprocal insurance program for salmonella
enteriditis.
Despite all of the work to form a farmer-driven program
embracing all poultry marketing boards, the Ontario egg marketing board decided
it would run its own program.
Now Hub International Ltd. has announced it will insure
poultry farmers against avian influenza, Infectious Laryngotracheitis
and Newcastle
diseases.
“This new insurance product will be a critical
tool to assist Canadian poultry and egg producers in managing the risks of
disease,” Jim Henry of Hub said in a news release.
“Up until now, producers had to seek coverage for SE (salmonella
enteriditis) from insurance reciprocals and assume the risks associated with
this strategy. To the best of our knowledge, there is no protection available
for AI, ILT and Newcastle and now that has changed”.
