Canadian bovine tuberculosis incident confirms urgent need for renewed livestock traceability system.

In November 2024 testing of tissue collected from a six year old cow after slaughter identified evidence of bovine tuberculosis (bovine TB). The Canadian Livestock Traceability System (CLTS) was used to locate the farm of origin in Saskatchewan, and an investigation begun.

Our first concern is for the well being of the ranching families who now have to undertake the most difficult task of animal stewardship. An animal owner is not only responsible for that animals welfare in life but are responsible, when necessary, for its humane death. As ranchers, every member of the Flokk team has completed this difficult task themselves. As rural Canadians we are confident the communities and families of the impacted families will offer the support, emotional and practical, they now require.

The mental health impact of herd depopulation to a ranching family is devastating. The first lesson of this incident must be that Canada must proactively develop and apply every practically implementable technology and practice that minimizes herd depopulation.

In February the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reported the investigation no longer is contained to the herd where the infected animal detected at slaughter originated.

From the 2025-02-25 CFIA Industry Notice “Saskatchewan cattle herd declared infected with bovine tuberculosis”:

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) investigation and testing following a November 29, 2024, case of bovine tuberculosis (bovine TB) has detected the disease in the birth herd of the infected animal.

There have been three additional confirmed cases in the animals tested to date. All animals over twelve months of age will be tested to determine the prevalence of the disease, and the entire herd will be humanely depopulated.

…

The three infected animals were not born in the herd currently being tested. The disease investigation and applicable movement controls will immediately include the source herds of the infected animals.

The CFIA investigation will include:

• the testing of herds that have been in contact with infected herd,
• the tracing of animals that left the infected herd in the last 5 years and the testing of implicated herds as required,
• the tracing of animals that provided animals to the infected herd in the last 5 years and the testing of implicated herds as required.

(emphasis ours)

Regrettably, the CFIA can not reliably complete the plan of investigation they propose.

In 2013 there were significant deficiencies identified in Canada’s livestock animal identification and traceability system during investigation post recovery from the Canadian BSE crises. To resolve these deficiencies several amendments to Part XV of the federal Health of Animals Regulations were proposed in 2020, released for consultation in 2023, but never implemented.

In brief, Canada’s current traceability system can, in the majority of cases, reliably identify the farm where a livestock animal was born. This happened successfully in this incident when bovine TB was detected during slaughter, and has now been done to locate the farm where the three infected animals under investigation were born.

But currently, between birth and arrival at a processing facility (e.g. a feedlot or auction yard) no movements of an animal are reported. This can be, as in this case, the entire lifetime of a bred cow. The necessity to report these movements is the essence of the amendments, under consideration since 2016, to Part XV.

Absent these improvements there is no authoritative and independent record, reported at event occurrence, for the hopefully two ( but potentially more) herds involved whether:

• cattle from a herd under investigation were ever sent to, or received by, another herd
• other animals were ever transported with cattle from the herd
• cattle from the herd ever participated in a livestock exhibition or show
• cattle from the herd ever attended a veterinarian clinic
• cattle in the herd were ever located in leased pasture, potentially at significant distance from the farm of origin, where there was potential exposure to cattle in adjacent pastures

We have no knowledge of the herds or operators involved. We have absolutely no reason to anticipate that ranch operators, today or in future, will not provide, to the best of their capacity, full cooperation with the CFIA and other authorities to resolve this incident.

However this investigation is now irrecoverably compromised because:

• cattle movement and location history has to be recalled retroactively, likely from memory
• parties must overcome the, innately human, desire to protect others, often family and neighbours, from inclusion in an investigation that could result in herd depopulation
• there is no capacity to discover oversights by correlating animal movements provided by the farms(s) under investigation with those reported by independent parties not under investigation.

Risk to the public from this incident is low. Again, from the 2025-02-25 CFIA Industry Notice:

Low risk for the public

…

Human cases of bovine TB are very rare. … Generally, bovine TB does not pose a threat to public health in Canada because of the extremely low prevalence of the disease, the abattoir surveillance and testing programs in place, and practices such as pasteurization of milk.

However impacts of the compromised investigation include:

• The only possible outcome is best effort, not assurance, that every Bovine TB infected animal has been culled from the national herd. Assurance that products sourced from bovine TB infected animals do not enter the food system is solely dependent on testing during animal processing, such as detected the original infection.
• Canada is unable to prove to to our export customers that every Canadian cow with bovine TB has been, or can be, found and addressed. This is unacceptable while our major export customer, the US, actively seeks any justification to constrain Canadian imports.

RBC Thought leadership recently confirmed that renewed Canadian food quality and safety assurance is necessary to secure, and sustain, export market access.

Finally, from the 2025-02-25 CFIA Industry Notice:

Laboratory culture results from the November 29, 2024 infected animal found a strain that has never been identified in animals or humans in Canada, and the origin of the strain is unknown. It is not closely related to any of the recent strains in Western Canada.

While origin of the strain remains unknown this investigation must continue. And the issues identified here will continue to compromise the investigation.

Canada’s first priority is to resolve, to the best of our capacity, the current incident. However with similar urgency Canada must renew its livestock animal traceability technologies and processes.

Resolving the deficiencies identified in 2013 is no longer sufficient. Every one of the factors that went into designing and implementing the current system commissioned a quarter century ago; technology, stakeholders, society and consumer expectations, and opportunity to incentivize participation, are now obsolete.

The CFIA led plan (expanded regulation) ongoing since 2013 to resolve Canada’s traceability deficiencies has failed and will fail. Flokk proposes a new approach that:

• Is industry led rather than government led.

• Applies collaborative standards rather than regulation.

• Identifies, and applies, non-punitive incentives to ensure animal movement reporting is provided.

• Can be rapidly implemented (Q1 2027).

• Realizes, from the perspective of the rancher, an integrated and actionable solution that addresses:

  • livestock animal identification and traceability,
  • export market sustainment, diversification, and expansion,
  • sustainability,
  • and, optionally, antimicrobial resistance management.

• Proactively identifies, develops, and mobilizes technology that:

  • reduces cost,
  • accelerates implementation, and
  • improves results.

• Improves productivity of a vital and large ($24B) Canadian industry.

• Commercializes innovative Canadian AgTech solutions that, proven at scale in Canada, can be taken to global markets facing these same challenges.

In January 2025 Flokk identified the risk arising from these deficiencies continuing, the reality that conditions for the regulation based plan to conclude would never be realized, and that a new plan was required, in our discussion paper “Time to pull this calf ourselves: Canada’s livestock industry must find our own path to traceability”.

We are keen to hear from, and engage with, others with interest in pursuing this opportunity. We would be pleased to receive your initial inquiries at info@flokk.ca.