Ottawa Funds Poultry Code of Practice Revision Process
By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com
The federal government is providing $2.2 million to the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) to update the Code of Practice for the poultry sector, which is expected to be completed by 2015.
Parliamentary Secretary Pierre Lemieux made the funding announcement on behalf of Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz at the Poultry Industry Council headquarters in Guelph, Ontario.
“This investment will help the industry enhance its competitiveness both at home and abroad through promotion of assurance systems that will benefit the entire value chain,” Lemieux said in a release.
The Chair of Chicken Farmers of Canada (CFC), Dave Janzen, praised the government’s support, adding that “the Codes provide us with the ability to create and maintain sound, science-based animal care programs.”
According to the release, CFC’s Animal Care Program (ACP) is modelled on the poultry Code of Practice, and once the Code is revised, ACP will be updated to include the new changes. The poultry industry says the vast majority of Canadian chicken farmers, 95 per cent, are certified under the ACP.
The development process was initiated by CFC in 2011. It is typical for the entire review process to update Codes of Practice to take approximately three years to complete, from start-to-finish. The current Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Chickens, Turkeys and Breeders from Hatchery to Processing Plant was last updated in 2003.
Codes of Practice are guidelines for the care and handling of farm animals. Canada’s Code development process, which is led by NFACC, go through a rigorous examination of science and consultation with industry stakeholders, including a 60-day public comment period.
The Code of Practice for pigs was released earlier this year, while several other commodities, including poultry remain under revision, but are expected to be released sometime next year.