Canada Drives Toward Livestock IP Tracing

OTTAWA - Jul 13/12 - SNS -- Canada's livestock industry received a $765,000 subsidy from the Canadian government to help with the creation of a national livestock traceability system called the Canadian Agri-Traceability Services (CATS).

Of the total, $500,000 is going toward creation of the new data system; while $265,000 is being paid to the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) and Agri-Traçabilité Québec (ATQ) to help improve their data management capabilities.

In acknowledging the subsidy, Steve Primrose, board member with the Canadian Livestock Dealers Association and past chair of the CCIA Board of Directors said it will go a long way to "help build a multi-species traceability system which will allow Canada to manage risk proactively and respond to demands from governments and buyers for demonstrable assurances on food safety and biosecurity."