After years of going without, Alberta may once more be home to inprovince animal diagnostic testing as early as this fall.
“A bunch of the commodities had been talking and we brought it up with the chief provincial vet and we brought it up with the ag minister and they have applied for funding because we feel we need the labs here in Alberta,” said Brian Chomlak, Alberta Beef Producer’s Animal Health and Welfare working group chair and Zone 8 director.
Dr. Gerald Hauer, Alberta’s chief provincial veterinarian, confirmed the proposal for funding has been submitted to the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency (ALMA).
Read Also
Horns aren’t unlocking anytime soon on livestock transport standards
Standards good enough meet the definition of “humane” animal transportation still vary widely between what what industry wants, what animal rights advocates want and, between the two, what federal regulators decide is good enough.
“Alberta used to have a government-run diagnostic system in place for a long, long time. It was privatized in the early 1990s. The assumption at the time was if the government got out of the business of doing it that the private industry would step in, fill the gap and continue to provide services and things would carry on,” he said.
However, private industry found that diagnostic testing services for livestock simply wasn’t as lucrative as in the companion animal world. That left Alberta large-animal veterinarians and the producers they served forced to seek the same services from other provinces. “Initially a lab did start up in Edmonton to provide that for all species, but what basically happened over time is the lab has been bought and sold a couple of different times and it actually drifted away from providing those sorts of services,” said Hauer.
Veterinarians do have options when they require testing. There are provincially funded labs in both the bordering provinces, and testing services in Ontario, Quebec and even the U.S. are used as well. However, sending samples outside the province can carry a high price tag.
“Yes it’s being done, but we would like to make it a lot simpler and we would like to be able to offer those same sort of services that the other producers and the other veterinarians enjoy in other provinces right here in our own province,” said Hauer. “It does put a little bit of an extra strain on our veterinarians and our producers so we want to be able to level the playing field.”
Speed is important
Other provinces charge separate, higher rates for out-of-province clients and in some cases, time can be even more valuable than money. In urgent medical cases, receiving a diagnosis even a few hours faster can literally be the difference between life and death.
Hauer said it’s also important to have testing services to help identify a specific illness, and alert officials to the possibility of an epidemic or new infection patterns.
Federally reported diseases such as anthrax, BSE and rabies still fall under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the national entity that operates a laboratory at Lethbridge, which is heavily involved in BSE testing and research. However, the CFIA does contract out some of its diagnostic testing to other laboratories, which could present an additional revenue stream for Alberta’s new laboratory, if approved.
With the whole world keeping a close eye on animal health issues such as avian influenza, emerging diseases are of increasing concern globally. While Hauer says Alberta is prepared, an in-province lab would help to batten down the hatches.
“We do have things in place for emerging diseases. Our current system we have what we call a Livestock Disease Investigation Network. If a veterinarian has done a bunch of work on his own and he has done some laboratory testing and still can’t figure it out, he can come to us and we will provide exactly that – looking for those emerging diseases and weird things. And having a diagnostic system would allow us to do that better.”
The province still retains much of its infrastructure, equipment and staff members from previous years of providing diagnostic testing. Those resources have been reallocated to other projects over the years, but will make the transition back to inprovince testing easier. ALMA.is anticipated to reach a decision on the matter in the near future. If approved, Chomlak says testing may begin operating as early as this autumn. “It’s a long ways from being a done deal and we’re hoping, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed, but we’ll see where it goes,” Hauer said.
———
“It’salongwaysfrombeingadonedealandwe’rehoping,andwe’rekeepingourfingerscrossed,butwe’llseewhereitgoes.”
GERALD HAUER
CHIEF PROVINCIAL VETERINARIAN
