Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development and the Canadian Food Inpection Agency are reminding cattle producers in Alberta to call their veterinarians to collect brain tissue samples to be tested for Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as Mad Cow Disease.
Cattle producers play a key role in monitoring and eradicating this disease from the Canadian cattle herd by presenting eligible animals for testing.
It is very important for us to test enough eligible samples to continue to demonstrate the low and declining level of BSE in the national herd. This is essential for maintaining Canada's status as a "controlled risk" country for BSE, as recognized by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). This status clearly acknowledges the effectiveness of our BSE surveillance, control and elimination measures, and helps in securing international market access for our beef and cattle.
Producers are encouraged to call a veterinarian if they have animals aged 30-107 months that are diseased, distressed, down (non-ambulatory) or recently dead, or animals over 30 months of age with neurological signs. Producers must have possession of the animals for at least 30 days, in order to provide an adequate clinical history.
The Canada and Alberta BSE Surveillance Program continues to reimburse producers $225 for eligible samples and pay veterinarians for visiting their farms to examine cattle for BSE eligibility and for collection of samples.
Testing for BSE in the Province of Alberta is a shared commitmenet between the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development. A network of approximately 300 private veterinarians is readily available in the province to respond to producers' calls on potentially eligible animals, to examine the animals and to collect samples when eligible.
For more information, please visit :
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/general/progserv.nst/all/pgmsrv187
or contact the Canada and Alberta BSE Surveillance Program at 780.644.2148, or call your nearest veterinarian.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Monday, December 6, 2010
CCA Supports Government Investment in Inter-Provincial Trade
December 6, 2010
Calgary, AB – The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) fully supports the Government of Canada’s announcement today that it will invest up to $3 million for a series of pilot projects aimed at facilitating inter-provincial trade.
As the domestic market is Canada’s biggest market, removing any barriers to improved trade is a worthy undertaking, said CCA President Travis Toews. Indeed one of the CCA’s principles is free and competitive trade both internationally and inter-provincially.
“Increasing opportunities for provincially-inspected processing plants will increase demand and competition for Canadian cattle, particularly in regions which are not in close proximity to Federal plants,” Toews said.
The announcement follows a promise made at the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Agriculture Ministers’ meeting in July.
For further information, contact:
Gina Teel
Communications Manager
Canadian Cattlemen’s Association
403-275-8558 x 406 | teelg@cattle.ca
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Monday, November 22, 2010
BIXS Stage One Launch
BIXS stage one launch to stakeholder partners under way
The CCA is pleased to announce the stage one launch of the Beef InfoXchange System (BIXS) to stakeholder partners. These partners represent existing and, in some cases, large beef cattle databases and specific beef cattle programs.
The CCA is pleased to announce the stage one launch of the Beef InfoXchange System (BIXS) to stakeholder partners. These partners represent existing and, in some cases, large beef cattle databases and specific beef cattle programs.
The stage one launch commenced at the end of October and will continue for several weeks as stakeholder partners make the necessary preparations to batch upload individual animal data to the BIXS database.
Issues may arise during this initial launch but to-date the process has been relatively smooth, reported the CCA’s Larry Thomas, national coordinator of the BIXS and Canadian Beef Advantage programs.
In the meantime, the BIXS management team is finalizing the details of the BIXS application leading up to the program’s national launch to cow-calf and feedlot producers.
“This second stage may roll out in a couple of phases, with the initial targeted launch to cow-calf producers on high-speed Internet connections or those enrolling and submitting data to BIXS through a third party,” Thomas said.
Interested producers are urged to visit the BIXS web site often for updates on the stage two launch and to learn more about the program. For more information, visit: http://bixs.cattle.ca.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
"Healthy Animal" Youth Contest Launched
"Healthy Animal" Youth Contest Launched In Support Of National 4-H Month
OTTAWA, November 1, 2010 - The Government of Canada is proud to promote November as "National 4-H Month", and encourages Canadians to show support for 4-H by wearing green to mark "Show your Colours Day" on November 3. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency will mark 4-H month by launching an animal biosecurity contest for 4-H club members and other like-minded Canadian youth.
"Reaching out to young people who are passionate about farming and agriculture is an investment in the future of agriculture," said Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. "As a former 4-H'er, I know the positive role this organization plays in providing our youth with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed not only in the agriculture sector, but in life."
The Canadian 4-H Council has a long history of attracting new farmers to agriculture, helping to develop responsible citizens, and building confidence in youth as they learn a wide variety of skills through hands-on projects. The online contest asks young people to come up with a slogan, a story or lyrics to a song that explain how to keep animals healthy. The winning submission could be used in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's (CFIA) advertisements and national campaigns to inspire others about biosecurity.
"Having healthy animals means healthy food, healthy people and a healthy agriculture industry," explains Dr. Brian Evans, Chief Veterinary Officer of Canada and newly appointed Chief Food Safety Officer of Canada. "We challenge the young minds of today to explain to their peers across the nation that protecting animal health is important."
Contest information can be found online at www.inspection.gc.ca/biosecuritycontest. The Government of Canada and the Canadian 4-H Council encourage young people to learn all they can about biosecurity and step up to the challenge. The contest closes January 30, 2011.
"We are extremely proud of our long-standing partnership with the Government of Canada," said Judy Shaw, president of the Canadian 4-H Council. "Their help and support provides new and exciting opportunities for 4-H members across Canada to 'Learn to Do by Doing.' Whether it is national programs or club-level activities, support from the Government of Canada helps ensure that 4-H remains one of Canada's premier youth leadership organizations."
The Government of Canada has supported the Canadian 4-H Council since it was established in 1933. The Council organizes and coordinates national and international conferences, exchanges and scholarships which focus on leadership development, career choices such as agriculture, technology transfer and other pressing issues being faced by today's rural communities and their young people. Show Your 4-H Colours day is an opportunity for 4-H leaders, alumni and supporters to show their pride, spirit and enthusiasm for youth, agriculture, leadership and skills development.
To learn more about the Canadian 4-H Council, "Show Your 4-H Colours" day and National 4-H Month activities, visit www.4-h-canada.ca. For more information about Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada programs and services that support young farmers, visit www.agr.gc.ca/youngfarmers.
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For more information, media may contact:
Media Relations
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
613-773-7972
1-866-345-7972
Meagan Murdoch
Press Secretary
Office of the Honourable Gerry Ritz
613-773-1059
Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Media Relations: 613-773-6600
Ken Lancastle
Canadian 4-H Council/Canadian 4-H Foundation
613-234-4448 ext. 27
Friday, October 22, 2010
Agreement Reached for Livestock Traceability in Alberta
630 CHED.com
October 21, 2010
The Alberta government and representatives of the province's beef cattle industry have reached an agreement that will provide the foundation for livestock traceability in Alberta.
The Guiding Principles for Beef Cattle Traceability establishes an acceptable common understanding of traceability among government and industry partners as they move towards a national beef traceability system.
The Alberta Beef Producers, the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency, the Beef Industry Alliance, the Canadian Beef Breeds Council, the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency and Livestock Inspection Services all signed the agreement.
Agriculture Minister Jack Hayden says a strong traceability system enables producers to enter valuable foreign markets, China being a recent example, and receive the premium prices that their high-quality products deserve.
October 21, 2010
The Alberta government and representatives of the province's beef cattle industry have reached an agreement that will provide the foundation for livestock traceability in Alberta.
The Guiding Principles for Beef Cattle Traceability establishes an acceptable common understanding of traceability among government and industry partners as they move towards a national beef traceability system.
The Alberta Beef Producers, the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency, the Beef Industry Alliance, the Canadian Beef Breeds Council, the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency and Livestock Inspection Services all signed the agreement.
Agriculture Minister Jack Hayden says a strong traceability system enables producers to enter valuable foreign markets, China being a recent example, and receive the premium prices that their high-quality products deserve.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Field Reps Get Funding for Alberta's Beef Producers Age-Verification
Vermillion Standard
September 24, 2010
The governments of Canada and Alberta are providing more than $2 million to the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) to help Alberta's beef producers with age-verification and traceability initiatives.
"The main thing we do at CCIA is look after the animal ID database. Animal ID is mandatory across all of Canada," said Darcy Eddleston, CCIA chair. The CCIA is a non-profit, industry led organization established to promote and protect animal health and food safety concerns in the Canadian cattle herd.
"There are three pillars of traceability: animal ID, premise ID and animal movement. Age verification is not one of the pillars but we can't seem to talk about traceability without age verification," said Eddleston.
Animal ID is a unique 15-digit number found on an ear tag worn by each animal, explained Eddleston. When the producer goes into the store and buys RFID ear tags, those numbers are recorded and assigned to that producer. In the future if that animal has to be traced back for a disease reason, the number will lead back to that producer's farm. "Premise ID is a unique identification number for a specific land location," said Eddleston. "Once we have the number for that location, we have the ability to track movement." According to Eddleston, premise ID is still in the developmental phase. The Alberta government has generated premise IDs for most of the land locations in the province and the other provinces have varying levels of completion.
"What happened was the federal government turned premise ID over to the provinces," said Eddleston.
"Part of the problem from CCIA's point of view is we need to be able to integrate all the different provinces, the way they handle premise ID, into our database. Every province is doing things a little differently but in the end we'll all end up at the same spot." Animal movement is the ability to track an animal's movement from one premise to another. "We can't do movement until we get premise," said Eddleston.
"There is some movement being recorded in Alberta; any feedlot over 1,000 head has to report on a read-in basis. The industry went to a read-in basis so the average producer doesn't have to incur the cost of going out and buying a scanner so he or she can read-out the cattle when they leave the farm. Over 90 per cent of the time, when a producer sells calves they're going to a feed lot, where they're restrained and the feedlot has the ability to scan the tag anyway."
Brent McEwan, executive director of traceability within Alberta Agriculture, said the over $2 million grant will provide two years of funding for the Mobile Field Representatives (MFRs) who support producers across the province. "It's really to assist producers with age-verifying their animals," said McEwan. "All MFRs are typically available at all auction markets on sales days to help producers and enter their information into the Canadian livestock tracking system which is the CCIA database." They also help educate producers on how to keep records and address some tag issues, said McEwan. "With the number of tags and taggers out there sometimes it gets kind of confusing for producers and the MFRs certainly help out there."
McEwan said Alberta made age verification mandatory in January 2009. Feed lots feeding 5,000 head or more per year were required to report move-in within their auction markets to the CCIA database also starting in January 2009. As of January 2010, it is mandatory for feed lots feeding 1,000 head or more to report move-in, he said. "The MFRs assist the feed lots in those efforts as well," explained McEwan.
"Also, if producers are having trouble accessing the CCIA database online, all the MFRs have computers and can enter the information right then and there for producers and often even provide them a print out of their information." McEwan said his staff works closely with the MFRs to make sure the field representatives are up-to-date on the latest government programs so that they can answer any questions the producers have. MFRs are available to all producers in the province, he said. "At CCIA we're very pleased that both the provincial and federal governments saw the value of the MFRs and have contributed to the program to help move age-verification in the province forward," said Eddleston. "We're working on what the industry is capable of doing and what is required for government purposes."
September 24, 2010
The governments of Canada and Alberta are providing more than $2 million to the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) to help Alberta's beef producers with age-verification and traceability initiatives.
"The main thing we do at CCIA is look after the animal ID database. Animal ID is mandatory across all of Canada," said Darcy Eddleston, CCIA chair. The CCIA is a non-profit, industry led organization established to promote and protect animal health and food safety concerns in the Canadian cattle herd.
"There are three pillars of traceability: animal ID, premise ID and animal movement. Age verification is not one of the pillars but we can't seem to talk about traceability without age verification," said Eddleston.
Animal ID is a unique 15-digit number found on an ear tag worn by each animal, explained Eddleston. When the producer goes into the store and buys RFID ear tags, those numbers are recorded and assigned to that producer. In the future if that animal has to be traced back for a disease reason, the number will lead back to that producer's farm. "Premise ID is a unique identification number for a specific land location," said Eddleston. "Once we have the number for that location, we have the ability to track movement." According to Eddleston, premise ID is still in the developmental phase. The Alberta government has generated premise IDs for most of the land locations in the province and the other provinces have varying levels of completion.
"What happened was the federal government turned premise ID over to the provinces," said Eddleston.
"Part of the problem from CCIA's point of view is we need to be able to integrate all the different provinces, the way they handle premise ID, into our database. Every province is doing things a little differently but in the end we'll all end up at the same spot." Animal movement is the ability to track an animal's movement from one premise to another. "We can't do movement until we get premise," said Eddleston.
"There is some movement being recorded in Alberta; any feedlot over 1,000 head has to report on a read-in basis. The industry went to a read-in basis so the average producer doesn't have to incur the cost of going out and buying a scanner so he or she can read-out the cattle when they leave the farm. Over 90 per cent of the time, when a producer sells calves they're going to a feed lot, where they're restrained and the feedlot has the ability to scan the tag anyway."
Brent McEwan, executive director of traceability within Alberta Agriculture, said the over $2 million grant will provide two years of funding for the Mobile Field Representatives (MFRs) who support producers across the province. "It's really to assist producers with age-verifying their animals," said McEwan. "All MFRs are typically available at all auction markets on sales days to help producers and enter their information into the Canadian livestock tracking system which is the CCIA database." They also help educate producers on how to keep records and address some tag issues, said McEwan. "With the number of tags and taggers out there sometimes it gets kind of confusing for producers and the MFRs certainly help out there."
McEwan said Alberta made age verification mandatory in January 2009. Feed lots feeding 5,000 head or more per year were required to report move-in within their auction markets to the CCIA database also starting in January 2009. As of January 2010, it is mandatory for feed lots feeding 1,000 head or more to report move-in, he said. "The MFRs assist the feed lots in those efforts as well," explained McEwan.
"Also, if producers are having trouble accessing the CCIA database online, all the MFRs have computers and can enter the information right then and there for producers and often even provide them a print out of their information." McEwan said his staff works closely with the MFRs to make sure the field representatives are up-to-date on the latest government programs so that they can answer any questions the producers have. MFRs are available to all producers in the province, he said. "At CCIA we're very pleased that both the provincial and federal governments saw the value of the MFRs and have contributed to the program to help move age-verification in the province forward," said Eddleston. "We're working on what the industry is capable of doing and what is required for government purposes."
Monday, September 27, 2010
EBRD Trade Finance Facility for SBERBANK Kazakhstan
EBRD trade finance facility for SBERBANK Kazakhstan
$50 million to support local exporters and importers
Author(s): Ina Coretchi
Date: 22 September 2010
The EBRD is stepping up its support to Kazakhstan’s exporters and importers with a $50 million trade finance guarantee facility to SBERBANK Kazakhstan, a subsidiary of SBERBANK of Russia, to facilitate the financing of foreign trade at a time when lending to the real economy remains limited.
Founded in 2007, SBERBANK Kazakhstan offers a wide range of banking products, serving over 10,000 corporate and more than 101,000 retail clients throughout the country. It is the first foreign subsidiary of the Russia-based SBERBANK to join the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP) as an Issuing Bank. SBERBANK of Russian Federation joined the TFP programme in 2000.
The EBRD facility will support SBERBANK Kazakhstan in enhancing its trade finance services and will facilitate transactions with longer maturities.
“Through this transaction the EBRD is addressing the unmet demand for trade finance in Kazakhstan, supporting further development of trade in the region in the current market conditions. With the signing of this agreement, SBERBANK Kazakhstan becomes our new partner bank in the country”, said Rudolf Putz, Head of EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme.
“By joining the Trade Facilitation Programme as an Issuing Bank SBERBANK is gaining access to medium-term up to 3 years and long-term up to 5 years guarantee facility for our customers, participants of foreign-trade activity, at lower rates than classic financing, which will facilitate their business development”, commented Oleg Smirnov, Chairman of the Board, SBERBANK Kazakhstan.
The EBRD's Trade Facilitation Programme promotes foreign trade to, from and within the EBRD countries of operation, including Kazakhstan. Through the Programme, the Bank provides guarantees to international confirming banks, taking the political and commercial payment risk of international trade transactions undertaken by banks in the countries of operations.
According to the Trade Facilitation Programme’s 2009 annual results, Kazakhstan ranked fourth among all EBRD countries of operation in terms of the number of transactions, after Russia, Georgia and Ukraine.
The EBRD is the largest financial investor in Kazakhstan, having committed to date over €2.8 billion through 135 projects in various sectors of the country’s economy.
$50 million to support local exporters and importers
Author(s): Ina Coretchi
Date: 22 September 2010
The EBRD is stepping up its support to Kazakhstan’s exporters and importers with a $50 million trade finance guarantee facility to SBERBANK Kazakhstan, a subsidiary of SBERBANK of Russia, to facilitate the financing of foreign trade at a time when lending to the real economy remains limited.
Founded in 2007, SBERBANK Kazakhstan offers a wide range of banking products, serving over 10,000 corporate and more than 101,000 retail clients throughout the country. It is the first foreign subsidiary of the Russia-based SBERBANK to join the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP) as an Issuing Bank. SBERBANK of Russian Federation joined the TFP programme in 2000.
The EBRD facility will support SBERBANK Kazakhstan in enhancing its trade finance services and will facilitate transactions with longer maturities.
“Through this transaction the EBRD is addressing the unmet demand for trade finance in Kazakhstan, supporting further development of trade in the region in the current market conditions. With the signing of this agreement, SBERBANK Kazakhstan becomes our new partner bank in the country”, said Rudolf Putz, Head of EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme.
“By joining the Trade Facilitation Programme as an Issuing Bank SBERBANK is gaining access to medium-term up to 3 years and long-term up to 5 years guarantee facility for our customers, participants of foreign-trade activity, at lower rates than classic financing, which will facilitate their business development”, commented Oleg Smirnov, Chairman of the Board, SBERBANK Kazakhstan.
The EBRD's Trade Facilitation Programme promotes foreign trade to, from and within the EBRD countries of operation, including Kazakhstan. Through the Programme, the Bank provides guarantees to international confirming banks, taking the political and commercial payment risk of international trade transactions undertaken by banks in the countries of operations.
According to the Trade Facilitation Programme’s 2009 annual results, Kazakhstan ranked fourth among all EBRD countries of operation in terms of the number of transactions, after Russia, Georgia and Ukraine.
The EBRD is the largest financial investor in Kazakhstan, having committed to date over €2.8 billion through 135 projects in various sectors of the country’s economy.
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