Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAuley will not
over-rule the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on its requirement that
hog-hauling transports be washed in the United States before returning to
Canada.
Hog farmers are angry about that requirement because they
say many U.S. truck washes recycle water contaminated with the Porcine Epidemic
Diarrhea virus.
Instead of acting to prevent the spread of the virus, the
washing actually increases the likelihood that it will contaminate trucks that
then carry it into Canadian farms.
MacAulay was asked about the truck-washing rule during a
visit this week to Winnipeg.
“It’s very difficult for me to overrule the regulations
continually,” said MacAulay. “I am the government, but I am not a scientist.”
He acknowledged the disease has been a huge issue south of
the border, but said the inspection agency has indicated washing swine-hauling
trailers before they return to Canada is the right approach.
The Manitoba Pork Council disagrees and has been working to
convince the agency otherwise.
“I think that it’s pure logic that if there is more disease
down south and they use recycled water in their wash facilities, that it is a
time bomb,” said Pork Council president George Matheson.
“It will only be a matter of time before more PED enters the
province because of that, so we’re hoping that between the minister and CFIA
that they closely look at it and perhaps make a regional protocol for us.”
For two years an emergency federal protocol allowed empty hog
trucks coming into Manitoba from the U.S. to be cleaned and disinfected on the
Manitoba side of the border. That protocol ended in May.
