A study to get a bead on antibiotic use in Manitoba’s swine herd is less about appearances, more about dialing in management practices before antibiotic resistance becomes an issue, Manitoba Pork Council (MPC) leaders said during their annual general meeting April 6.
“It’s not just about PR, it’s actually, ‘We’re going to have to do stuff,’” said Mark Fynn, MPC’s manager of quality assurance and animal care, speaking to producers during the meeting.
Manitoba Pork has been surveying farms about antibiotic use since 2019, with plans to create a benchmark report by spring of 2023, general manager Cam Dahl later said in an interview. The benchmark will draw a line in the sand to measure progress, while concrete data will reveal where producers can afford to cut back, the council has argued.
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Antimicrobial resistance is considered a “growing health threat” in Canada, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
The conversation around antimicrobial use in livestock has been a long one, with the CFIA pushing to significantly decrease antimicrobial drug usage in livestock in the hopes of protecting the efficacy of drugs important to human and animal health.
In 2017, the federal government released a pan-Canadian framework for taking on antimicrobial resistance, the latest in a string of such documents released federally since 2014.
In late 2018, rules around previously common veterinary antibiotics changed as part of Health Canada’s efforts on antimicrobial resistance. Following the change, producers required a veterinarian prescription to access virtually all antibiotics.
Health Canada tracks the use of antibiotics, Dahl said.
“Antibiotic resistance is something that we need to be aware of, and it is both for our health as well as our animals’ health,” he said.
The council launched its study in 2020 and garnered 50 participating farms in the first year. In November 2021, the council said it would like to double those numbers.
The benchmarking work is “proactive in nature,” Dahl said.
Health Canada hasn’t imposed any directives on the pork industry.
Dahl declined to speculate on if such regulation was coming, however, leaders at the April 6 meeting seemed to think rules were likely.
“We do need to work on this as an industry, again, before we see regulations,” Dahl told producers.
“We’re not going to avoid regulations in this area, because of how important of an issue antimicrobial resistance is,” Fynn added.
Producers also expressed concerns about the regulation of zinc — something that’s currently being hashed out in Ottawa, Dahl told the Co-operator.
Producers give zinc supplements to pigs, particularly piglets, to help prevent diarrhea, Dahl said.
The industry considers it a valuable alternative to antibiotics. However, some research is indicating zinc may also be contributing to antimicrobial resistance, he said.
Manitoba Pork will have more conversations with regulators about producers’ need to use zinc, said Dahl, adding he was confident they could find a balance.
“If it’s any consolation, they’re not just pointing fingers at us,” Rick Bergmann told the assembled producers.
Bergmann, who chairs the Canadian Pork Council, said he’s been at the table with federal representatives and seen many other sectors represented around the table.
According to a 2018 report from the Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance (CIPARS), the most recent numbers available, Canada averaged 149 milligrams of antimicrobials sold per population control unit (mg/PCU) that year. This compared to the median average of 62 mg/PCU in European Union countries the year before.
That Canadian number used European weights in the calculation. Using Canadian weights, the same report noted Canadian usage at 133 mg/PCU.
