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COVID-19 and farm workers: How do we manage on the farm?

Keeping up to date with COVID-19 details and recommended protocols is challenging for everyone at this time. CAHRC has created a dedicated web page with the latest information, recommendations, employee management tips, tools (posters, policies) and links to authorities. These details will help you respond to the pandemic and limit the impact and spread of

(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Ontario offers cash for abattoir upgrades

Applications now being accepted through April

Ontario’s 123 provincially-licensed abattoirs can now start applying for a piece of $2 million in federal/provincial funding to step up food safety, biosecurity and animal welfare measures. The Ontario and federal governments on Wednesday announced applications for cost-share funding can be submitted between now and April 30, “as long as funding for the initiative is


Hogs on a stock trailer bound for a Toronto packing plant accept drinks from Toronto Pig Save members in 2013. (Screengrab of Toronto Pig Save video via YouTube)

Ontario draws new legal lines against on-farm trespass

Ontario has introduced a legislative package setting up new legal boundaries around livestock in that province, whether on farms or in transit. The Security From Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act, introduced Monday by Agriculture Minister Ernie Hardeman, is expected to “address the unique risks and challenges associated with trespass onto a farm or into

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney steps up to speak at Jumbo Valley Hutterite Colony on Oct. 3, 2019. (Video screengrab from Alberta.ca via YouTube)

Alberta proposes heavier penalties for on-farm trespassing

Alberta’s government proposes to discourage future on-farm protests — events in the style of an occupation held early last month at an Alberta Hutterite colony’s turkey farm — on pain of new penalties. Speaking Thursday at the Jumbo Valley colony near Fort Macleod, Premier Jason Kenney, Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer and Agriculture Minister Devin Dreeshen


Manitoba hog producers outside the core PEDv area need to reconsider their biosecurity measures to keep the disease at bay.

No rolling the dice on PED says Manitoba Pork Council

PEDv has broken into both central and northeastern Manitoba, and barns in newly impacted areas might not be ready for the threat

Barns dodging PED might owe that to luck rather than robust bio­security. Andrew Dickson, the Manitoba Pork Council’s general manager, warns that some barns outside southeast Manitoba will need to heighten their guard if they hope to repel a serious risk of the disease. “We’ve got odd stories of people saying, ‘Well I’ve never got



“There certainly could be risk factors that they maybe didn’t fully address last time around, but in many cases you’re also looking at larger farms in swine-dense areas and those in themselves are risk factors.” – Dr. Glen Duizer, Manitoba CVO.

Another 2017 for PEDv?

Manitoba’s CVO says the carry-over of 2017 is lasting longer than expected

It’s shaping up to be another bad year for PEDv in the province’s pork sector. In fact the province says it could easily be on par with 2017, the province’s worst year. On June 18, Dr. Glen Duizer of Manitoba’s Chief Veterinary Office (CVO) said 2019 cases were comparable to the same point in time

pigs on the farm

Manitoba Pork pushing online disease response program as PEDv cases climb

Participation in the Manitoba Co-ordinated Disease Response program has grown to 79 per cent in the southeast

The Manitoba Pork Council is hoping to get the final few southeastern hog producers signed on to the first line of defence against PEDv. About 79 per cent of those producers have signed on with the council’s Manitoba Co-ordinated Disease Response program (MCDR). The online information-sharing platform includes information on biosecurity, manure spreading and outbreak


Editorial: A fine balance

Where does one individual’s rights end, and another’s begin? One famous definition runs like this: “The right to swing my arms in any direction ends where your nose begins.” It’s a straightforward common-sense approach that attempts to balance individual liberty with the rights of others. However, it’s also a very simplistic black-or-white view. The reality

“If their current actions result in spread of the ILT, and commercial flocks are affected, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, saying, ‘I am sorry, I guess we should have put down our flock,’ really won’t help.” – Wayne Hiltz, Manitoba Chicken Producers.

Food or pet?

Poultry disease sparks a 
battle of philosophies in 
southeastern Manitoba

A case of the deadly infectious laryngotracheitis virus in a small flock of chickens near Steinbach has put the birds’ owners at odds with the province’s commercial poultry industry. Owner Raelle Schoenrock says she will not be euthanizing her flock of about 50 birds because this goes against the farm’s mission as a sanctuary for