Throughout the spring of 2005, the
Canadian Sheep Breeders Association, the Canadian
Sheep Federation, and the Ontario Sheep Marketing
Agency laid the foundations for two national scrapie
projects. The projects, funded in part by the
Advancing Canadian Agriculture Agri-Food program,
are designed to reduce the prevalence of scrapie in
Canada by encouraging individual producers to take
steps to control this disease in their flocks (please
read accompanying articles for project details).
Given the recent focus on transmissible spongiform
encephalopathies (TSE’s) in livestock industries
and with scrapie control programs in place in many
countries, these projects represent an important step
forward in maintaining and developing markets for
Canadian sheep and lamb. In May, the final financial
agreements were made with Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada to secure funding and by summer both fledgling
projects were officially underway. Below are
brief updates on project progress.
Progress on the Scrapie Flock
Certification Program Pilot Project (Project 1)
Although program information was
available and a few producers sent in applications
for the program early in 2005, many important aspects
of the program were not in development until the spring,
including:
•
hiring of a project
coordinator in April
•
developing a database for
tracking inventories of flocks/herds on the program
•
establishing laboratory services.
An agreement was made with the Animal Health Laboratory
in Guelph in June to analysis brain tissue samples
from Ontario flocks/herds. TSE testing labs
in other provinces have been approached and agreements
should be finalized by the end of the summer.
•
developing a verification
protocol detailing how the industry will manage
and document the day-to day operation of the program.
Industry is responsible for program management,
including issuing certificates. To maintain CFIA
approval we must be able to confirm with complete
and auditable documentation that what we say is
happening is happening. The verification
protocol is the blueprint for gathering this documentation.
The protocol will also help ensure that producers
are dealt with in a timely and consistent manner.
With these important aspects of the
project completed or nearing completion, provincial sheep
associations and the Canadian National Goat Federation put
forward names of producers who were interested in joining
the pilot project. In June and July, application packages
were mailed to 39 producers across the country. Currently,
space in still available for flocks on the pilot project
and interested producers should contact their provincial
organizations or the Scrapie Project Coordinators at the
numbers listed below.
Progress on the National Genotyping
Survey (Project 2):
•
In June, agreements
were reached with five labs from across the country
to analyze blood samples.
•
In June and July invitation letters
and submission forms were mailed to over 900 purebred
sheep producers informing them of this opportunity.
•
By mid July, ~350 samples had
been received by the participating labs.
•
As they are received, results will
be forwarded to a national database (https://genenovas.ca)
being developed by the Nova Scotia Agricultural College
(NSAC).
•
We are currently working with NSAC
to develop an extension program to interpret genotype
results and help producers use the genotype information
when making breeding decisions.
•
Sample collection and analysis will
be ongoing until November 2006, or until the project
objective of 36,000 samples is met (only 35,650 to go!).
