The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in an email on April 8 that new admissibility requirements for commodities originating from Greece have been set up in CFIA’s Automated Import Reference System (AIRS).

WHY IT MATTERS: Data from Greece’s tourism industry show over 300,000 arrivals in that country from Canada in 2024 alone.

According to the World Organization for Animal Health, Greece began reporting cases of foot-and-mouth disease on March 15 with nine infected cattle at a farm on the island of Lesvos, marking the country’s first such cases since 1994. Its most recent cases, in sheep and one cow on the same island, were reported March 29.

Greece’s cases so far have all occurred on farms in the northern regions of that island, in the Aegean Sea off the west coast of Turkey. So far, 438 animals in total have been confirmed infected.

The findings make Greece the fifth European Union member country currently under foot-and-mouth restrictions from Canada. Hungary, Slovakia and Cyprus all reported cases last year, while Bulgaria is the lone EU member country “not usually considered free” of foot-and-mouth disease.

Germany regained disease-free status last month, while CFIA’s restrictions on Austria were lifted last September.

While findings of the disease in Greece are so far limited to Lesvos, Canada’s new restrictions apply to the entire country, unlike certain other nations such as Brazil, Argentina and Peru in which CFIA classifies some but not all provinces or states as free of foot-and-mouth disease.

What products are prohibited?

At-risk commodities covered by Canada’s import ban include live animals and germplasm; animal products and byproducts; uncooked meat and meat products; raw milk and milk products made from raw milk, such as unpasteurized cheese; unprocessed manure; laboratory material; blood products; livestock feed and equipment that has been in contact with affected animals; raw or unprocessed pet foods; raw hides, skins, wool, antlers, horns, hooves; and any other non-heat-treated products or byproducts from vulnerable animal species.

Species vulnerable to foot-and-mouth disease include hogs, cattle, bison, sheep, goats, camelids (llamas, alpacas) and cervids (deer, elk, moose) among others.

CFIA’s restrictions apply to any at-risk products dating as far back as 28 days before the first symptoms were detected in an affected country.

Foot-and-mouth disease, according to CFIA, is a viral disease characterized by symptoms including blister-like sores on the tongue and lips, in the mouth, on the teats and between the hooves; foot lesions, accompanied by acute lameness and reluctance to move; and loss of appetite or milk production. The virus can spread between animals through direct, indirect or airborne transmission.

Canada is free of the disease and has not reported any cases of the disease in livestock since 1952, when an outbreak in southeastern Saskatchewan is believed to have originated with a visitor from an infected farm in Germany, carrying the virus either on clothes or an infected sausage.

Advice for farmers visiting Greece

Canadians are still free to travel to Greece, but CFIA recommends they avoid visiting farms when doing so. Travellers who do visit farms should make sure clothes and footwear worn during those visits are free from soil or manure. Footwear should be cleaned and disinfected, and dry-cleaning of the clothes worn is recommended.

Travellers should also avoid contact with susceptible animals, including farm and zoo animals and wildlife, for 14 days after returning to Canada.

For farmers who travel to Greece, contact with farm animals is not recommended for five days upon return to Canada, when “strict personal decontamination measures” are applied to clothes and footwear, CFIA says.

Travellers also must declare all food products upon arrival in Canada. Generally, CFIA says, meat and dairy products from foot-and-mouth infected countries won’t be allowed, but foods that are “cooked, shelf-stable, commercially prepared and hermetically sealed” may be.

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Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne made the announcement March 17.

“Agriculture is without a doubt one of the most important and investable sectors in our economy,” said federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald in a news release.

“The pace of technological advancement we’ve seen across the industry in recent years has been impressive, and investments like this will continue to accelerate innovation.”

The federal cash is part of an $50 million equity commitment alongside Idealist Capital to support the next phase of Solugen’s growth and commercial expansion.

Solugen produces and commercializes Azogen, a fast-release liquid ammoniacal nitrogen fertilizer derived from hog manure.

The investment will allow Solugen to expand capacity at its existing plant in St-Patrice-de-Beaurivage, Que. and construct a second facility in the province.

Solugen was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Lévis, Que. Its Azogen is produced through a fully circular process. By converting manure into high-performance fertilizer, it reduces greenhouse gas emissions associated with conventional fertilizers, the news release said.

The funding comes through the Canada Growth Fund, a $15 billion, arm’s length public investment vehicle launched by the federal government to attract private capital and invest in Canadian projects and businesses.

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Swine Innovation Porc (SIP) on March 18 said it will provide up to $150,000 for a three-year research project led by Dongyan Xu Niu, a microbiologist and associate professor in the University of Calgary’s faculty of veterinary medicine.

Niu’s project will look at a new and different way to fight Streptococcus suis, a bacteria well known to cause respiratory infections, meningitis and sudden deaths in piglets after weaning.

WHY IT MATTERS: Canada’s hog farmers are mindful of over-reliance on antibiotics and could benefit from another way to keep S. suis in check.

The Calgary researchers plan to engineer beneficial lactobacillus bacteria to deliver enzymes that can specifically target and break down the S. suis pathogen, SIP said.

The team plans to identify and optimize these enzymes, integrate them into lactobacillus strains and then evaluate their ability to protect piglets from infection.

S. suis bacteria are endemic to Canada, colonizing most hog barns and spreading through contact with healthy carrier pigs after weaning, when antibodies from mother sows are unavailable to piglets. The bacteria are also known to be zoonotic, meaning they can cause severe infections in people who’ve had close contact with infected pigs.

“Strategic research investments like this help ensure Canadian producers have access to innovative tools and solutions to address priority health challenges in the barn,” SIP chair Mark Ferguson said in a release.

The funding for Niu’s project comes via SIP’s Advancing Swine Research Call for Proposals, which backs one- to three-year projects and runs until 2028. SIP said its support for this project is expected to mobilize up to $419,580 in total funding for it.

The U of Calgary project “reflects the type of collaborative, forward-looking research we aim to support” through the call for proposals, SIP general manager Daniel Ramage said in the same release.

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• The February live cattle contract gained 2.525 cents per pound at 234.900 cents. Feeder cattle were up 0.900 cents in the March contract at 360.175 cents per pound.  
• Extreme cold temperatures and precipitation ranging from snow in the north to freezing rain in the south may disrupt cattle markets heading into next week, accounting for some of Friday’s activity as participants squared positions. 
• Positioning ahead of the monthly cattle on feed report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture was another feature. The report was released after the markets closed, with placements of 1.55 million head in December down five per cent from the same month a year ago. 
• There were a total of 11.5 million head of cattle and calves on feed in the U.S. as of Jan. 1, 2026. That was down three per cent from the previous year. 
• The USDA reported wholesale boxed beef prices were mixed, with choice boxes up $1.25 at $368.70 per hundredweight and select boxes down $0.43 at $361.30/cwt in the morning report. 
• Lean hog prices were weaker Friday, backing away from nearby highs with the nearby February futures down 0.125 cents per pound at 88.350 cents per pound and the April futures down 0.175 cents at 96.175 cents per pound.  

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• The February live cattle contract lost 3.900 cents per pound at 232.150 cents. Feeder cattle were down 8.100 cents in the March contract at 356.450 cents per pound.
• Tight cattle supplies in the U.S. and expectations for rising beef demand should remain supportive for cattle prices going forward, said analysts.
• Mexico confirmed eight new cases of New World screwworm near the Texas border.
• The USDA reported wholesale boxed beef prices were higher, with choice boxes up $1.61 at $362.38 per hundredweight and select boxes up $0.48 at $360.19/cwt.
• Lean hog prices were up 0.475 cents per pound in the February contract at 88.275 cents per pound. Rising carcass cutout prices were tied to the strength.

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“Oftentimes, when I ask people how their ventilation is in their barn they tell me pigs aren’t chilled, they’re not heat stressed in the summer. And that’s not ventilation. That’s temperature,” said speaker Nathaniel Stas, technical services director at the Pig Improvement Company (PIC). “And temperature and ventilation, even though they’re heavily correlated, they can battle against each other.”

WHY IT MATTERS: Lack of balance between temperature and ventilation can hit at pig growth efficiency, sow lactation and feed intake.

If the temperature is too hot, there are more gasses output from pigs as they grow, such as ammonia, CO2, and hydrogen sulfide.

Stas also urged producers to remember the pigs’ natural body heat and how that will increase in warmer barns.

He equated growing pigs to teenagers who leave the house without a jacket when the temperature is below freezing. Both are at key points of growth, and growing increases warmth. As such, he suggested barns should be set to 10-14 Celsius instead of 20 C, which will make the pigs much happier in their active growth stage working to convert feed into muscle or, in the case of sows, into piglets.

• READ MORE: Pigs have their say when setting the temperature

“Per pound or per kilogram of animal, a young pig is more efficient … it converts heat faster than a heavy weight animal, and therefore it produces more heat per kilogram of animal,” Stas explained.

Meanwhile, he noted, “Ventilation in a farrowing room or a nursery is even more critical, even more fine tuned, because that pig is producing that much more heat, more gasses because of that per kilogram or per pound of animal (heat generation principle).”

Ventilation

Ventilation comes as a need to control humidity and the gasses given off by the animals that rob oxygen and make it hard for the pigs to breath. If the farmer is having difficulty stomaching the air in the barn, then the pigs probably need a change, too.

Fans, soffit vents, and gable openings all constitute ventilation, but fresh air intakes are also required. The fresh air mixes with the air of the barn and all must be exhausted out at the proper speed and with an adequate volume of air, calculated at cubic feet per minute.

Air is meant to move like water, Stas noted. If it’s moving too slowly around the fresh air inlet or there’s too many obstacles, other sections of the barn become dead zones with poor quality air. Air moving too quickly, and the areas become too cold, causing inefficiencies as both the heaters use more power and the pigs use more feed to stay warm instead of grow.

• READ MORE: Building smart barns for smart farms

Air speed should be measured frequently. Air is a constant and easy to measure as the distance of the barn never changes, he told the crowd. Air moves two feet for every 100 feet per minute of airspeed that a fan is set to.

“So most farms are going to be 600 to 800 feet per minute,” Stas said. “That means that air is going to go 12 to 16 feet before it starts to tumble and roll.”

For it all to work effectively, adequate air pressure is required. A vacuum must be created by the fans and air intakes for proper flow. If not, whether coming in by holes and gaps or open doors, air becomes “sporadic” and will ricochet in any direction, making ventilation ineffective.

“A roll of duct tape and a can of spray foam can be a producer’s best friend,” Stas noted.

Test the pressure via static pressure monitors or by opening and closing the door. If the door slams shut, pressure is too high, but if it doesn’t have any pull or drag on it, pressure is too low.

The other key to an effective system is equipment maintenance. Stas warned that an eighth of an inch of dust on a fan can rob it of up to 40 per cent of its power. Dusting and testing belts and motors plus cleaning soffit vents can be a game changer on the ventilation system.

Humidity

Along with ventilation and air speed, Stas identified humidity levels as a top priority.

“Humidity is a great proxy to determine if air quality is good,” he said.

“We can measure gasses. It’s more expensive to measure gasses but if our humidity is good in our barn — and by good, I mean 50 to 65 per cent in any swine facility — then we’re doing a pretty good job of ventilating that barn anytime it’s cold outside or cooler than we want it to be inside.”

Humidity should be measured each day, at the same time, just like temperature. Using a rolling average from every three days, adjustments to ventilation should be made. If humidity is higher than the recommended 65 per cent, for example, ventilation would need to be increased.

Cost of business

To producers, this may sound like extra work and an additional cost of fuel, but Stas said these should be considered typical costs of production. Without necessary adjustments the pigs aren’t growing as much, and therefore aren’t maximizing their potential as income drivers.

“What we’ve come up with for research and in the information we’ve collected, is for every 15 per cent added humidity, it’s about three per cent (effect) in average daily gain,” he said.

“And you can correlate that to the sows as well, because it’s a water-to-feed ratio impact. The humidity goes up, pigs don’t fill as well, they can’t breathe as good, and so their intake goes down.”

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The first 15 are already out. From tariff tensions to invasive wild pigs to weather, here’s a taste of what farmers wanted to read most over the last year:

No. 25 — Port of Churchill searches for year-round trade: In November, KAP hosted Arctic Gateway Group’s CEO to talk future plans for Manitoba’s northern port. Part of the big expansion planned is a goal to keeping the ice open, and trade flowing, all year long.

No. 24 — Weather school: It’s all about the clouds: Do you know your cumulus from your nimbostratus? This piece from way back in 2020 re-emerged on our most-read list for 2025.

No.23 — Fishing the deep water of Manitoba: Want fishing success farther from shore? Our outdoors columnist Tim Sopuck ran readers down some tips and tricks for catching deep water fish in Manitoba.

No. 22 — Manitoba’s wild pigs not headed for population boom, expert says: The co-ordinator for Manitoba’s Squeal on Pigs program says our cold climate situation isn’t comparable to U.S.

No. 21 — We’ve seen trade wars before, but this time is different: Throwing back all the way to January for this one. This early 2025 editorial looked down the barrel of changing U.S. trade policy and what it could mean for Canadian agriculture.

Nov. 20 — Riverside Hutterite Colony gets top honours: It was a western Manitoba sweep at this year’s Royal Manitoba Winter Fair Pork Quality Competition back in spring.

Other highlights so far include beekeepers battling for survival, more trade and tariff stories and Manitoba’s first bovine tuberculosis case in years.

Want to see the full list? Check out our top stories landing page in the top-left corner of our website. Keep checking back until Jan. 31 as we unveil our top 10.

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The February live cattle contract lost 0.475 cents per pound at 226.675 cents. Feeder cattle were down 2.875 cents in the March contract at 330.425 cents per pound.

An estimated 600,000 head of cattle were federally inspected for slaughter last week, reported the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That was down slightly on the week.

The USDA reported wholesale boxed beef prices were mixed, with choice boxes down $0.30 at $360.90 per hundredweight and select boxes up $1.21 at $348.60/cwt.

Lean hog prices were up 0.125 cents per pound in the February contract at 82.400 cents per pound. The USDA reported federally inspected hog slaughter last week at 2.702 million head, which was up by 98,210 head from the same week a year ago.

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The markets advanced for the fourth consecutive session as prices recovered from a steep slide that began in October after U.S. President Donald Trump said beef prices were too high.

“With the cash prices moving up, that’s giving a little bit better tailwind,” a broker said.

CME February live cattle futures ended 3.150 cents higher at 227.150 cents per pound after reaching the highest since Nov. 12 at 227.375 cents. CME January feeder cattle closed up 2.475 cents at 339.050 cents per pound after trading up to 340.075 cents, the highest since Oct. 27.

In the cash market, cattle traded for about $220 per hundredweight this week in northern areas such as Nebraska, up about $10 from last week, brokers said. The increase reflected demand from meatpackers, they said.

Packers slaughtered an estimated 115,000 cattle on Friday, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. That was up from 109,000 cattle a week ago, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday, data showed.

Traders were monitoring cold weather across the central U.S. that could slow weight gain in livestock. In the Midwest, extensive snow cover was expected through next week, weather firm Vaisala said.

Meatpackers slaughtered an estimated 476,000 hogs, up from 402,000 a week ago, according to the USDA.

In other news, Catalonia’s regional government said it would investigate a research center outside Barcelona after Spain’s Agriculture Ministry said a recent swine fever outbreak could have been caused by a laboratory leak.

— Reporting by Tom Polansek

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WHY IT MATTERS: African swine fever has been devastating for pork sectors in countries where infections have been found. Wild pigs — which were found to be infected in Spain — are also a potential disease vector of concern for the Canadian hog industry.

Spain, the European Union’s top pork producer, is trying to reassure trading partners after 13 wild boars tested positive for the virus in hills outside the city. The disease is harmless to humans but can be deadly for pigs and wild boars.

Genome sequencing by a Madrid lab showed the strain was “very similar” to one first detected in Georgia in 2007 and now widely used in research and vaccine development, the ministry said. Other cases in Europe belong to a different genetic group.

“The discovery of a virus similar to the one that circulated in Georgia therefore does not rule out the possibility that its origin may lie in a biological containment facility,” the Agriculture Ministry said.

Until now, Catalan officials suspected the virus had spread after a wild boar ate contaminated food, possibly a sandwich brought from abroad by a truck driver.

“The report suggests that it is possible that the origin of the virus is not in animals or animal products from any of the countries where the infection is currently present,” the ministry said.

It did not name any laboratories in its statement. But Catalonia’s top agriculture official, Oscar Ordeig, said the regional government would open an investigation of the state-funded Centre for Research in Animal Health (Cresa).

The centre is located next to the Autonomous University of Barcelona and within the six-km confinement area imposed by authorities after the outbreak. Ordeig said other laboratories could also be investigated.

The World Organization of Animal Health in 2017 designated Cresa as a research centre into swine fevers.

The laboratory did not immediately respond to a request for comment but it told the news verification website Maldita.es it had found no evidence of being the source of the outbreak.

The “Georgia 2007” strain of swine fever spread to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia and Belarus and reached eastern EU states in 2014, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

It reached China in 2018, causing huge losses. Chinese pig meat production dropped by 27 per cent in 2019.

— Reporting by Charlie Devereux, Joan Faus and Jesus Calero

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