Governments invest over $2 million to strengthen animal disease preparedness

Apr 07, 2022

The governments of Canada and Manitoba are investing $2.2 million to modernize the provincial Animal Health Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS).

“Manitoba’s agricultural producers are committed to the health and well-being of their animals,” said Federal Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau. “Investing in this innovative data analysis tool will help the sector quickly contain the spread of disease. It will help farmers protect the health of their animals and ensure a consistent, high-quality supply of Canadian food. Our government will continue to support initiatives that strengthen public confidence in Canadian agriculture.”

LIMS is computer-based information technology infrastructure that manages all laboratory animal disease diagnostic information and results generated by Veterinary Diagnostic Services (VDS), Manitoba’s animal heath laboratory whose existing diagnostic testing technology is at the end of its life cycle.

“This information technology modernization project will strengthen Animal Health’s ability to provide valuable and timely diagnostic and surveillance data to stakeholders and clients, which will help to improve decision making and to mitigate financial losses associated with animal disease outbreaks in the agriculture sector,” said Manitoba Agriculture Minister Derek Johnson. “It will also assist veterinarians, producers and the government of Manitoba to prevent the spread of disease and protect the health of humans, animals and the safety of the food supply.”

LIMS allows for the collection, analysis and reporting of test results for users and clients including producers, private and provincial veterinarians, livestock sector companies, commodity groups and government partners, as well as surveillance networks and researchers across Canada. The LIMS modernization will:

- strengthen the provincial animal disease surveillance program and improve overall diagnostic service delivery in the agriculture sector, and
- enhance Manitoba’s ability to prepare for new and emerging animal diseases by increasing efficiency and capacity to diagnose.

The ministers noted this initiative highlights a commitment by both governments to improve resilience and preparedness for animal disease outbreaks.

“Veterinary Diagnostic Services, and the people who work there, are critical components of disease preparedness and management in Manitoba,” said Rick Préjet, chair, Manitoba Pork Council. “Enhancing the diagnostic and surveillance data management capacity of the laboratory is welcomed by Manitoba pork producers, particularly given that effective disease response is measured in hours and not days. This is a significant investment that will pay dividends for many years to come.”

Testing by VDS supports industry-wide herd and flock disease diagnostics and surveillance programs for new and emerging diseases. Each year on average, VDS receives 17,000 submissions from veterinarians and the agriculture sector in Manitoba and reports more than 135,000 test results to clients and animal health surveillance networks across Canada.

A vendor will be selected through a public tendering process. Up to $2.2 million has been set aside for the purchase, installation and commissioning of software and equipment.

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Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”