Australia on Thursday said it would loosen biosecurity rules for U.S. beef, something analysts predicted would not significantly increase U.S. shipments because Australia is a major beef producer and exporter whose prices are much lower.

“We are going to sell so much to Australia because this is undeniable and irrefutable Proof that U.S. Beef is the Safest and Best in the entire World,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

“The other Countries that refuse our magnificent Beef are ON NOTICE,” the post continued.

Australia imports minimal U.S. beef

Trump has attempted to renegotiate trade deals with numerous countries he says have taken advantage of the United States – a characterization many economists dispute.

“For decades, Australia imposed unjustified barriers on U.S. beef,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement, calling Australia’s decision a “major milestone in lowering trade barriers and securing market access for U.S. farmers and ranchers.”

Australia is not a significant importer of beef but the United States is and a production slump is forcing it to step up purchases.

Last year, Australia shipped almost 400,000 metric tons of beef worth $2.9 billion to the United States, with just 269 tons of U.S. product moving the other way.

Relaxed restrictions unrelated to trade talks says Australia

Australian officials say the relaxation of restrictions was not part of any trade negotiations but the result of a years-long assessment of U.S. biosecurity practices.

Canberra has restricted U.S. beef imports since 2003 due to concerns about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. Since 2019, it has allowed in meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the U.S. but few suppliers were able to prove that their cattle had not been in Canada and Mexico.

On Wednesday, Australia’s agriculture ministry said U.S. cattle traceability and control systems had improved enough that Australia could accept beef from cattle born in Canada or Mexico and slaughtered in the United States.

The decision has caused some concern in Australia, where biosecurity is seen as essential to prevent diseases and pests from ravaging the farm sector.

“We need to know if (the government) is sacrificing our high biosecurity standards just so Prime Minister Anthony Albanese can obtain a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump,” shadow agriculture minister David Littleproud said in a statement.

Australia, which imports more from the U.S. than it exports, faces a 10 per cent across-the-board U.S. tariff, as well 50 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium. Trump has also threatened to impose a 200 per cent tariff on pharmaceuticals.

Asked whether the change would help achieve a trade deal, Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell said: “I’m not too sure.”

“We haven’t done this in order to entice the Americans into a trade agreement,” he said. “We think that they should do that anyway.”

— Reporting by Kanishka Singh, Ismail Shakil and Peter Hobson

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Tessa Thomas, a livestock and feed extension specialist with the Government of Saskatchewan, spoke about biosecurity at the Livestock Happy Hour at AIM on Tuesday, July 16. She said while biosecurity in the beef industry is not as thorough as in other livestock industries, it is just as important.

“Disease spread may not be on top of mind,” she said.

Follow all of our Ag in Motion coverage at the Western Producer.

“You get kind of used to your day-to-day routine, but you never know when disease can strike, and just some of our day-to-day actions can be improved to prevent that spread.”

When certain diseases spread, they can impact the state of Canada’s imports and exports, which means it is important to know what is going on when it comes to disease on an operation.

Thomas recommends having a biosecurity checklist. Many small things can be done, such as:

• Disinfect your boots and trailer.
• Keep animal movement and health records.
• Work with a vet.
• Have a herd health management program.
• Avoid bringing in dairy calves or calves from other farms.
• Isolate new animals.
• Isolate animals showing signs of illness.
• Avoid shared fence lines with other ranches (if possible).
• Have a disease response plan and a plan for disposing of dead livestock.
• Clean drinking facilities and feeders/bunks.
• Have a written biosecurity plan in place.

“There are a lot of small steps that we can take to make our farms just a little bit more biosecure,” Thomas said.

When disinfecting your boots and trailer, using household bleach is good enough, unless the disease is parasitic. She advised using a 1:32 ratio of water to bleach, but if you are concerned about disease, use a 1:10 ratio.

She also highlighted investigating deaths to figure out exactly what may be going on.

“Investigating deaths is something I know some people struggle with. I know there’s no way to save that animal, so sometimes it’s hard to put extra money out when they’re already dead, but it’s key to understand why that animal died, and it could save you a lot of money in the end,” Thomas said.

Though the checklist may seem like it consists of a lot of things, Thomas said the biggest thing with a biosecurity plan is that it doesn’t have to be complicated.

“You don’t have to go out of your way to make a really complicated thing. It’s easier to make something simple that you can follow and follow through with because small changes become habits. With big changes, sometimes it’s hard to follow through with things, so it’s always better to start small.”

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a June 19 notice to industry it’s the first time the virus has been detected in a commercial operation in Canada since 1973.

The disease, caused by the avian paramyxovirus type 1, is highly contagious and can infect both domestic fowl and wild birds. According to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), Newcastle Disease can present clinically very similar to avian influenza, including a drop in egg production, respiratory distress, nervous signs (such as tremors, paralyzed wings, head and neck twisting) and diarrhea. Mortality can be variable.

To minimize trade disruptions, the CFIA has set up primary control zones 10 kilometres around each of the infected premises. The agency said the infected birds have been depopulated and a thorough cleaning and disinfection of the premises must be completed to help prevent spread of the virus to other poultry premises.

Poultry producers in the area are encouraged to practice heightened biosecurity as the disease is mainly transmitted by direct contact with diseased or carrier birds. The CFIA said infected birds may shed the virus in their feces, contaminating the environment. The virus can survive for days in litter, feed, water, soil, carcasses, eggs and feathers. The disease spreads rapidly among birds in close confinement.

The virus can also spread unintentionally through the movement of contaminated material, footwear and equipment.

Most commercial broiler, turkey, layer and breeder flocks in Canada are vaccinated for the disease.

The CFIA said Newcastle disease is not a food safety concern.

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Bill C-275 would amend the Health of Animals Act and make it illegal for anyone to unlawfully enter a barn or building where livestock are kept.

The private member’s bill was sponsored by Conservative agriculture critic John Barlow and passed in the House of Commons last fall with support from both opposition and government members.

Since the Senate committee began its study earlier this year, it has heard repeatedly that the bill should apply to everyone.

Last week, legal and scientific experts said the bill is entirely about trespassers.

Jodi Lazare, associate professor and associate dean at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law, said courts look at what a law actually does.

“It’s quite clear that this bill is about shutting down activism and trespass, about protecting animal agriculture. In fact, it has been explicitly stated a few times now that this bill is about the protection of private property,” she said during testimony.

The bill doesn’t actually target the most likely sources of risk, which are the people who are lawfully entitled to be in the barn, she said.

University of Toronto law professor Angela Fernandez agreed.

“The legally present people are the problem in terms of biosecurity,” she said, adding there is a real risk that this bill, if passed, would be challenged.

Lazare added courts will look behind the name or function of a law to examine why it was passed and its practical effects. Laws have been found invalid on that basis, she said.

However, senator Don Plett said there would have been lawyers among the MPs who supported the bill. He suggested it could be improved.

Lazare said applying it to everyone would make it about biosecurity.

Amy Greer, associate professor in the department of population medicine at the University of Guelph, said she was sympathetic to the mental stress and anguish experienced by farmers who have found activists or trespassers in their barns.

However, she too said the biosecurity risk is low. The actual risk of a pathogen being introduced is the combination of the probability of transmission given an effective contact and the frequency that effective contact occurs.

“Even for easily transmitted pathogens, the current frequency of these trespass occurrences at a national scale, to me, would be incredibly low compared to the frequency of the occurrence of farm contacts for lawful reasons,” she told the committee. “As a result, the biosecurity risk associated with these trespass events is very low.”

Jan Hajek, clinical assistant professor and infectious disease specialist at the University of British Columbia, said he is among the 20 specialists who last year sent a letter expressing their concern about Bill C-275.

“The doctors were concerned that the way this bill was promoted misrepresented infectious disease risk and misused people’s genuine concern about biosecurity to pass additional anti-trespass legislation,” he said.

“In stating the need for this bill, some individuals repeatedly made unfounded claims that trespassers introduced infectious diseases on farm and pointed to devastating impact of diseases like BSE, or mad cow disease, a disease whose introduction had nothing to do with trespass.”

Hajek said the bill is unlikely to improve the health of animals but added trespass must remain illegal.

Government officials from Agriculture Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency noted that trespass is largely a provincial jurisdiction. Dr. Mary Jane Ireland, chief veterinary officer, said six provinces have passed enhanced legislation to prohibit trespassing where animals are kept.

Senators heard that biosecurity standards are voluntary and depend on species and individual producers. The CFIA does not track this information.

“We all agree biosecurity on farms is important, which is why I’m disquieted to hear you say that our standards are voluntary and that you’re not tracking the data,” said Alberta senator Paula Simons.

“So we don’t actually know how big the problems are. It would seem to be common sense that the bigger source of contamination might be from farmers not observing any standards than from protesters who have never been shown to track disease onto farms.”

Plett disagreed that trespassers have never caused a problem, citing the appearance of rotavirus for the first time in 40 years after protesters appeared on a Quebec hog farm and distemper at a mink farm in Ontario.

—Updated Oct. 6.

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“The best defense against [highly pathogenic avian influenza] is having a biosecurity plan in place,” said Mary Keena, NDSU Extension livestock environmental management specialist. “It is your job as an animal owner to create a line of separation between your clean animals and the potential unclean issues that wildlife or visitors may bring.”

The risk of avian flu transmission increases in hunting season due to increased interaction with wild birds, NDSU staff said in an article posted this month. Waterfowl, gulls, terns and shorebirds are the primary carriers of avian influenza A —the strain responsible for deadly outbreaks in poultry flocks and, more recently, milder outbreaks in U.S. dairy herds.

“Infected birds shed bird flu viruses in their saliva, mucous and feces,” said Miranda Meehan, NDSU Extension livestock environmental stewardship specialist. “If you hunt game or wild birds and own domestic poultry or livestock, do not wear hunting clothes or footwear while you are interacting with your poultry or livestock.”

NSDU extension staff recommended the following biosecurity measures:

• Avoid hauling the disease home by changing clothings and footwear before crossing the clean/dirty line to care for animals.
• Avoid driving through areas where waterfowl and other wildlife feces may be. If it cannot be avoided, clean shoes, vehicles and equipment thoroughly.
• Field dress birds where possible.
• Keep dogs away from poultry or livestock if they’ve interacted with waterfowl. Dogs aren’t a high risk to contract the virus, but may transmit bird flu to domestic flocks.
• If visitors are interacting with flocks or herds, find out where they’ve been. Require them to wash hands and wear clean or disinfected clothing and shoes.
• Clean up litter and spilled food around animal housing to reduce attractiveness for wild birds.
• Consider bringing in any free-range guinea fowl and waterfowl.

—Updated Sept. 19. Removes reference to documented cases of dogs spreading bird flu to poultry. 

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Conservative MP John Barlow brought forward Bill C-275, “an Act to amend the Health of Animals Act (biosecurity on farms),” as a private members bill. It arrived before the Commons standing committee on agriculture and agri-food on Sept. 28.

Barlow, the Conservatives’ shadow minister for agriculture, agri-food and food security, and MP for the southwestern Alberta riding of Foothills, had also put forward the previous version, Bill C-205, in 2020. The new bill takes up roughly where it left off.

It states: “No person shall, without lawful authority or excuse, enter a building or other enclosed place in which animals are kept, or take in any animal or thing, knowing that or being reckless as to whether entering such a place or taking in the animal or thing could result in the exposure of the animals to a disease or toxic substance that is capable of affecting or contaminating them.”

It applies fines up to $250,000 or up to two years’ jail time for individuals, and fines up to $500,000 for organizations.

While not explicitly mentioned, Barlow indicated the bill is in reaction to actions of activists, such as those who snuck into a turkey farm in his riding — likely a reference to a 2019 incident in which a group of activists broke into a turkey barn on a Hutterite colony north of Fort Macleod.

Barlow told the committee the bill applies existing penalties in the Health of Animals Act to people who trespass on farms in ways that contravene biosecurity practices and increases penalties to groups who encourage these actions.

While a few provinces have similar laws, “I think it behooves us as the federal government to have a national program in place that will cover all provinces and territories because that is not happening now,” Barlow said.

He added that while trespassing laws might apply to these scenarios, they only applied small fines that would not be enough to deter groups who he said fundraise off protests.

“There has to be teeth to this,” he said.

Barlow said the act would not limit people’s rights to protest, or target whistleblowers who lived or worked on the farm.

“This bill does not limit an individual’s rights to peaceful protest on public property,” he said. “This bill also does not prevent whistleblowers from coming forward when they are witnesses to practices that jeopardize our food security, our food safety or the welfare of animals. Canadian farmers and ranchers have a moral and legal obligation to look after their animals.”

Barlow also argued that the bill would help protect the mental health of farm families who feel targeted and attacked by activists.

Bill C-275 incorporates some of the amendments made to C-205 but drops a previous amendment that dropped “without lawful authority or excuse.”

When questioned about this, he told the committee that stakeholders saw this as redundant, as the bill had already been carefully worded to protect whistleblowers.

That amendment had been made by NDP agriculture critic Alistair MacGregor, who argued that references to trespassing must be removed as trespassing laws are not federal jurisdiction.

“If you are a farmer or farm employee, if you are a transport driver or if you are a protester, if you violate the biosecurity protocols in place on a farm, this law applies equally to you. That’s the main essence of my putting it forward,” he said in a committee meeting in June 2021.

In a meeting Thursday, Barlow said that on Oct. 16, the Commons ag committee would consider the bill clause by clause before returning it to the Commons to be voted on.

— Geralyn Wichers is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator.

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency in April has reported detections of high-path avian flu at 13 sites in that province, including:

• three commercial barns in the regional county municipality (RCM) of Rouville, east of Montreal, including two detected on April 3 and one on April 4;
• a backyard (non-commercial) poultry site at Sherbrooke, on April 13;
• seven commercial barns in the RCM of Les Maskoutains, around St-Hyacinthe, including one each detected April 13, 17 and 18 and two each detected April 19 and 22; and
• two commercial barns in the RCM of La Vallée-du-Richelieu, just west of Les Maskoutains, detected April 18 and 21.

The Quebec government announced April 6 it will put up $800,000 for the province’s poultry disease control team (EQCMA) to go toward producer training; updating biosecurity protocols; building up “field expertise” in cleaning and disinfection of barns; and buying and developing new systems for rapid culling on infected farms.

The province also said it would set up new supports for small farms, including the establishment of a voluntary ID registry; biosecurity training for backyard and smaller-scale poultry operations; and development of a best practices guide for construction of chicken coops.

Provincial Ag Minister Andre Lamontagne said at the time that the investment “will allow us to be better prepared and more agile during future avian flu outbreaks.”

Relatively few cases have been spotted so far this month elsewhere in Canada. They include a non-commercial, non-poultry site in central Alberta’s Lacombe County, detected Friday, and two commercial poultry barns in southwestern Ontario, one detected April 5 at Middlesex Centre, the other April 19 in Norfolk County.

As of April 19, the run of high-path avian flu through Canada that began in late 2021 is estimated to have impacted 7.596 million domestic birds on 319 premises across nine provinces. Of those 319, 58 are still under CFIA quarantine pending culls and/or disinfection.

In the U.S., the run of high-path avian flu that began there in early 2022 has so far affected an estimated 58.79 million domestic birds in 325 commercial and 507 backyard flocks across 47 states.

The most recent cases reported to the U.S. Department of Agriculture include an outbreak with no details yet available in northern Colorado’s Routt County, reported Monday; two outbreaks on commercial turkey farms reported April 19, one in southern North Dakota’s Dickey County and one in east-central South Dakota’s Beadle County; and an outbreak at a “live bird market” in Brooklyn in New York City, reported April 18. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Thursday reported three additional outbreaks of H5 avian influenza in commercial poultry flocks have been confirmed since the Easter long weekend — one each in:

• central Alberta’s Kneehill County, between Calgary and Red Deer, confirmed Wednesday with highly pathogenic H5N1;
• the Regional Municipality of York in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), confirmed Thursday with high-path H5N1; and
• Quebec’s Estrie region, where an H5 type of avian flu was confirmed Thursday in the regional municipality (RCM) of Les Sources, north of Sherbrooke.

The agency didn’t say Thursday what type of birds or how many were affected in any of those outbreaks, nor did it say what subtype or pathogenicity of the virus was found in the new Les Sources case. The Les Sources case is the second this month in that RCM, while the new Kneehill County case marks the third there.

The new cases bring the total of avian flu outbreaks in commercial Canadian poultry flocks so far this year to 34: 14 in southern Ontario, 12 in central and southern Alberta, four in Quebec’s Estrie, two in western Nova Scotia and one each in west-central Saskatchewan and in B.C.’s Okanagan.

CFIA also continues setting up primary control zones (PCZs) surrounding infected premises, in which all movement of domestic birds and poultry products — whether in, out or through — is “strictly controlled” and requires CFIA permits. As of Tuesday, CFIA had officially set up 31 PCZs across the country.

As of Wednesday, each of the 10 provinces has also now confirmed cases of avian flu in wild birds and/or non-commercial or backyard flocks in this latest run of high-path avian flu through Canada.

With strains of high-path avian flu known to have been airborne for months now in migratory wild birds in North America, and spring planting coming up quick, Ontario’s Feather Board Command Centre said in a new advisory Tuesday it’s “important to realize that tilling and planting equipment will cover every inch of fields that may have been contaminated by wild birds.”

The avian flu virus can survive for “extended periods of time” in the environment, particularly in cooler weather, according to the FBCC, the feather sector agency monitoring bird disease outbreaks in Ontario and globally.

Water, wet soil and feces contaminated with the virus can thus linger after a migrating flock has moved on, the centre said. Soil and wild bird feces can stick to tires and undercarriages of field equipment, ATVs and other vehicles and be “easily” spread to other locations.

To reduce the risk of spreading the virus, the FBCC said, farmers should wash vehicles between farms, paying close attention to the vehicle tires and wheel wells. Visible mud and other “organic matter” should be removed from field footwear, which should then be scrubbed with a brush and hose, especially in the bottom treads.

All equipment used on-farm that could become contaminated should be cleaned, the centre said, and planting and tilling equipment should be kept away from poultry barns as well as driveways and any other areas where service vehicles come through to attend poultry premises.

If possible, the FBCC said, farmers should avoid driving near any barns that contain live birds. If need be, they should drive slowly to keep from kicking up dust, and should avoid parking near exhaust fans and air inlets except when required for loading or unloading.

Also where possible, poultry producers will want to close curtains on the side of a barn facing a field in which field work or tillage is taking place, particularly if it’s in dry and/or windy conditions.

After using field equipment, farmers should shower and change clothing and boots before entering a poultry barn, the centre said.

As well, the FBCC said, farms should keep records identifying who has been on-farm and where and when equipment and vehicles have travelled. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Sunday it had confirmed high-path H5N1 in a flock in southern Ontario, a day after the Ontario Feather Board Command Centre (FBCC) published a report of two “suspect positive” cases.

CFIA didn’t give a more specific location for the confirmed property Sunday. A more detailed report from the agency on the case also hasn’t yet been published online by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) as of early Monday morning.

The FBCC said Saturday one of the two suspect cases it’s following is a poultry operation showing “increased mortality and clinical signs” of bird flu in the Wellington County/Waterloo area of southwestern Ontario, north of Kitchener.

The other, FBCC said, is a turkey operation in the Thamesford area, east of London, showing “increased mortality” among birds.

CFIA said it has placed the affected premises under quarantine and is setting up “movement control measures” for the property. The agency said it’s also recommending “enhanced biosecurity for other farms within that area.”

The new Ontario case follows a confirmed case of the virus in a wild red-tailed hawk in that province, which was reported Thursday to the OIE.

The virus found in the hawk contained “a unique constellation of gene segments,” CFIA said, some of which are of a lineage specific to North American wild birds — while other segments relate to the strain found in birds in recent months in Atlantic Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

High-path H5N1 cases in Canada since last fall have included wild birds in all four Atlantic provinces and a bald eagle in the Vancouver area, plus domestic birds at two “non-poultry” farms in Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula and two non-commercial backyard flocks in Nova Scotia.

Canada had been deemed free of high-path avian flu, however, from 2015 up until last month when H5N1 was confirmed at a commercial poultry farm and at a mixed farm with poultry, both in Nova Scotia.

After the disease was confirmed in Canadian commercial birds in February, several countries including the U.S., European Union, Japan and Korea put import restrictions in place on Canadian poultry, eggs and/or other products, or on those from Nova Scotia.

In the U.S. since February, cases of H5N1 have been confirmed in commercial poultry and/or backyard flocks in 17 states, including Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Virgina and Wisconsin. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Alan Herscovici, an industry spokesperson who operates the website Truthaboutfur.com, said early reports out of Denmark and other European countries gave Canadian producers some time to prepare.

“These farms have always had a certain level of biosecurity, but when the news came, that was enhanced,” he said.

“They’re limiting who can come on farms, even to the point of taking deliveries at the farm gate, putting off anything they can, changing clothes before going into the barns, keeping workers who aren’t feeling well out…so far the good news is that it’s working, and farmers are taking it very seriously.”

That’s mainly because it comes as no surprise to those in the industry that mink might be susceptible to COVID, he added, noting mink have long been known to catch human influenza.

He also noted the Canadian industry benefits from a relatively small size and large geographic footprint. Canada’s farms only produce about 1.5 million pelts a year, compared to world-leading Denmark’s 17 million.

Canada’s mink sector is also spread across just 40 operations, stretching from Newfoundland to British Columbia. Denmark, on the other hand, packs that production into “an area roughly the size of Vancouver Island,” Herscovici said.

Ordinarily that gives Denmark its competitive advantage. Mink are notoriously labour-intensive, particularly preparing their feed, he said. As carnivores they typically consume meat waste from other animal production that must be collected, processed and cooked before being fed.

“In Denmark they’re able to do that through co-operative kitchens, which is ordinarily to their advantage,” Herscovici said. “But now the downside is that they’re going farm-to-farm with trucks every day.”

That sort of farm-to-farm transmission was very unlikely in Canada, he said.

Herscovici also said the industry was already in the process of rationalizing overproduction, caused by a spike in fur prices in recent years. That sparked a lot of new entrants, but was oversupplying the current market.

“This could mean prices would improve, in the future,” he said, but also conceded in the short term a cull could further flood the market with pelts.

Canadian producers are well-known for quality production, he said, and the genetics of Canadian mink are especially well-regarded in the industry.

“We could find our mink are desired as breeding stock,” he said. “The goal we’ve got right now is to keep the mink healthy, and people are taking it very seriously.”

— Gord Gilmour is editor of the Manitoba Co-operator in Winnipeg.

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