Farmscape for August 30, 2005  (Episode 1899)

Effective October 1st all swine producers validated under the Canadian Quality Assurance program will be required to source replacement stock or feeder animals from other fully validated CQA farms.

Canadian Quality Assurance is the Canadian swine industry's national on farm food safety program.

A newly updated producer manual and on farm assessment form, which is now in the process of distribution, will replace the current package effective October 1st.

Previously farms on the program could source stock from other farms as long as those farms had also registered for CQA.

Canadian Pork Council National CQA Coordinator Dawn Lawrence says, under the updated package, those source farms will need to be fully validated under the program.

Clip-Dawn Lawrence-Canadian Pork Council 

It brings the whole system into the chain of production so that we know that pigs, right from the time of birth, will have been raised under a production system that meets the standards, meets the requirements of the CQA program.

Currently a farrow to wean operation does not necessarily have to be part of the CQA program and what this does is it closes up those loops and it makes sure that all of the farms receiving livestock are receiving information that's necessary and that the suppliers are fully participating in the program and understand where it is that we're coming from on different issues.

It's important to note that this is strictly for live animals so producers who are receiving semen or any producers who are receiving embryos for an embryo transplant program don't need to be receiving semen and embryos from CQA registered farms, only for the movement of live animals.

It will be up those introducing new stock to verify that their supplier is a fully validated CQA producer.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council