Agriculture committee  We continue to repeat it to anybody who will listen.

Agriculture committee  I'm so glad you ended the committee on that positive note. We are very excited to be working with Animal Health Canada. CCA is a strong, supporting partner. It was raised earlier whether CFIA had the capacity to deal with multiple outbreaks or large national outbreaks. It is going to be through the collaboration at the Animal Health Canada table with the federal government, the provincial governments and all the commodities that we are going to solve these very challenging problems.

Agriculture committee  Certainly. From a beef-specific point, certainly we need more preparedness plans and response plans for foot-and-mouth disease. We need to look at our biosecurity protocols and see where there are gaps, do the science and then do the training and the extension through industry.

Agriculture committee  We do. Our position is exactly the same as that of the National Cattle Feeders' Association. What we need is the enforcement, which occurs at the provincial level, to be well understood. Animal welfare would fall under the guidance that allows drivers to make decisions in an emergency situation.

Agriculture committee  Certainly. Matt touched on the feed ban, but he was also referring to the specified risk materials in the slaughterhouses. That's what we're working on right now in order to harmonize with the United States. We've had a very effective system. The prevalence of BSE, globally, is virtually zero.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. We know that the CFIA is actively working on establishing the vaccine bank and looking at the realities. I am actually involved in a working group that is looking at the logistics of the deployment of the vaccine. There are many aspects that need to be addressed before we have the vaccine bank fully established.

Agriculture committee  We have two concerns. One of the main concerns with the humane transportation regulations is the shortened duration that livestock can be transported. The concern is that there's no scientific evidence that it improves the welfare of the cattle to have this shortened duration. It sounds good in theory, but we can't scientifically show any evidence that it's improving it.

Agriculture committee  Certainly. The beef industry is strongly supportive of the concept of increased traceability. It's an important pillar in our prevention, along with surveillance and biosecurity for preparing for foreign animal disease. We have concerns about the feasibility of implementation in the field right now with the available technology.

Agriculture committee  I think we have confidence that an aspect of the vaccine bank will go ahead. We're always looking for provincial engagement, but there's lots of room in different aspects of emergency preparedness for that to happen.