Research expected to lay out the actual level of scrapie in Canada’s sheep herd is among the beneficiaries of AgriFlexibility funding aimed at the sheep and goat sectors.
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and southern Ontario MP David Tilson on Saturday, announced up to $6 million for four projects in the sheep and goat industries, to flow through the five-year, $500 million AgriFlexibility Fund.
The bulk of that funding, up to $4.5 million, is to back research to determine the prevalence of scrapie in the sheep herd. That data, in turn, is expected to help establish a time frame in which scrapie can be “eradicated” from Canada and international markets can be reopened.
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Scrapie is a member of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) family of neurological illnesses along with BSE in cattle, chronic wasting disease in elk and deer and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people.
Scrapie, specifically, has been a reportable livestock disease in Canada since 1945. There is no scientific evidence that scrapie can affect people.
The remaining $1.5 million will be shared among three projects, specifically:
- $733,000 for the Canadian Sheep Federation’s pilot project in which selected producers will introduce full-scale radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, to demonstrate its benefits;
- $491,000 for the Canadian National Goat Federation and CSF for industry-wide education efforts focused on identification and traceability of goats and sheep, and for more work on the CSF’s Canadian Sheep Identification Program; and
- $354,000 for development of the CSF’s On-Farm Food Safety Management System, which in turn may lead to government recognition of for the CSF’s HACCP-based system.
“Improving access to farm technology and implementing programs to address animal health issues can make a real difference to the bottom line of our farmers and improve our ability to take advantage of international and domestic markets,” said Dwane Morvik, a sheep and cattle producer from Eastend, Sask. and chairman of the Canadian Sheep Federation, in the government’s release Saturday.
Canada’s sheep industry is currently worth $124 million in annual farm receipts, the government noted.
