Cereals Canada, a national cereals industry group, on Friday reported that Vietnam’s agriculture ministry has released a revised quarantine pest list due to take effect Sept. 29.

The new list, Cereals Canada said, will no longer include Canada thistle — otherwise known as creeping thistle or field thistle — which has been the subject of more-restrictive measures in bulk grain exports to Vietnam for over four years.

Vietnam in 2018 proposed new measures to block grain shipments that arrived with Canada thistle seed, to take effect as of Jan. 1, 2019.

Vietnamese officials warned at the time of “incalculable consequences” if thistle — already an established weed in Canada, the U.S. and Europe — were to get established in that country.

According to the Canadian Special Crops Association, officials in Canada were notified in March 2019 that some wheat and soybean shipments were found to be non-compliant with the new rule.

The result, Cereals Canada said Friday, was that in 2021 alone, Canada’s wheat exports to Vietnam came in at just over 20,000 tonnes, compared to more than 200,000 tonnes per year before the thistle seed restriction was tightened.

“With creeping thistle on the quarantine pest list, Canadian grain cargoes faced the risk of commercial penalty,” Cereals Canada CEO Dean Dias said in the organization’s release Friday.

“This change means that exports of Canadian cereals to Vietnam will be able to resume in bulk shipment for the first time since 2018.”

Dias said Cereals Canada had worked closely with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the federal Trade Commissioner Service and the federal ag department to help remove what he described as a “non-tariff trade barrier.”

Once the revised list is in place, however, “we look forward to the resumption of regular cereals trade between Canada and Vietnam.”

Vietnam, which along with Canada is a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) free trade bloc, is also billed as Canada’s largest trading partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

According to federal trade officials, agriculture and agri-food are considered a “priority sector” in Vietnam for Canadian business. In 2020, Vietnam’s total agri-food imports totalled US$20.9 billion, of which US$302 million came from Canada. Vietnam’s total imports of cereal grains from Canada that year were valued at US$74 million. –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, in a report dated Wednesday, said it was notified Feb. 23 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that tissues from an animal at slaughter had a positive PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test for bovine TB.

The animal in question had been in a U.S. feedlot since last September, when it was exported from Saskatchewan, CFIA said. Before export, it had spent five months in a Canadian feedlot, where all other contact animals were also destined for slaughter and none were moved to other farms.

The TB-positive heifer’s herd of origin in Saskatchewan was put under quarantine until testing could be done after spring calving, CFIA said. All animals over six months old in that herd were tested for the disease last month.

Any “reactor” animals — that is, the ones that show a response to a standard caudal-fold tuberculin (CFT) test — were taken for slaughter and post-mortem exams.

Tissues from suspect animals were then sent to the agency’s Fallowfield lab at Ottawa, where PCR tests turned up two positive cases of bovine TB on June 19, CFIA said.

In a separate notice to producers Wednesday, CFIA said the new findings “should not affect Canada’s current international status in which all provinces are considered bovine TB-free” — a status which “supports international trade for Canada’s beef industry.”

CFIA said it’s continuing to work “closely” with producers, industry organizations and provincial and federal ag and health authorities in its probe.

The agency said it’s now in the “very early stages” of that investigation — which means identifying all herds that had contact with the infected animal during its life, and testing to identify the strain of the TB bacterium to see if there are any connections to previous cases.

CFIA said it will also trace the movement of animals to and from the infected herd during the past five years to “identify and eliminate the source” and any potential spread of TB.

Quarantines and movement restrictions are placed on any implicated animals, with testing, humane destruction and disposal carried out as required, CFIA said. All animals in the infected herd will be “humanely destroyed,” and affected producers are eligible for compensation for any animals ordered destroyed.

The number of herds the probe will cover, and the time frame needed to complete it, are “not yet known.”

Canada hasn’t booked an outbreak of bovine TB in a domestic cattle herd since 2018, when four cases were found in a British Columbia herd, leading to testing for about 23,000 animals across 42 herds, with almost 1,050 ordered destroyed.

Those four cattle were found to have the same strain, believed to be “most genetically related” to strains isolated in the U.S. from fed cattle of “Mexican or unknown” origin, but no “definitive” source of infection was ever found for the B.C. cattle.

A previous outbreak in a southeastern Alberta cow-calf herd in 2016 — which turned up six TB-positive positive animals with almost 12,000 ordered destroyed out of over 34,000 tested — likewise found no “definitive” source of infection.

The strain in that outbreak was found to stem from a strain first identified in Mexico in 1997, and also had no link to any previous cases in Canada, including the 2018 case.

Bovine TB is federally reportable and has been subject to a mandatory eradication program in Canada since 1923. The disease does not pose a threat to Canadian public health, CFIA said, because of its “extremely low prevalence,” along with ongoing surveillance at packing plants and testing programs in place, and practices such as pasteurization of milk.

Human cases of bovine TB are “very rare,” the agency said. Such infections can occur through fluids from an infected animal passing to an open skin sore, or extended close contact with an animal with active respiratory TB, or consuming raw or unpasteurized products from an infected animal. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The European Union, the United States and Britain are among those tightening border controls as researchers probe whether the mutation is vaccine-resistant.

Duclos told reporters that Canada was acting quickly to protect the health of its citizens. The seven nations are South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Foreign citizens will be banned from Canada if they have been to the seven nations in the last 14 days.

Canadians returning to Canada will need to be tested before being allowed back in. Any Canadian citizen or permanent resident who has been to the countries in question and is already back in Canada will have to take a COVID-19 test and then go into quarantine for 14 days.

Canada has seen no sign of the variant, named omicron, chief medical officer Theresa Tam told reporters.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Ljunggren in Ottawa.

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Trudeau, under pressure to allow non-essential travel from the U.S., was more categorical than he had been on Tuesday, when he said announcements on border relaxation measures would come in the weeks ahead.

“I know people want to reopen (the border). But I know these people are also really afraid that we will have to pull back and reimpose restrictions if we open too quickly,” he told French-language broadcaster Radio-Canada.

Pressed for a specific timetable as to when the restrictions would be eased, Trudeau replied: “This will happen in weeks — it won’t be months, we’re talking about weeks — but it will take a few more weeks.”

Canada said on Monday it would waive quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated citizens on July 5 but made clear it would be months before U.S. and other foreign travellers could enter the country.

Trudeau said authorities were looking at vaccination rates, the spread of variants of concern and how the rest of the world was dealing with COVID-19.

Canada and the U.S. first banned non-essential travel in March 2020 as a part of the effort to fight COVID-19. The restrictions, which exclude trade in goods, are now due to expire on July 21.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Ljunggren in Ottawa.

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Canada’s air and land borders have allowed for only essential travel since March of last year, and Canadians coming home are currently required to quarantine for 14 days. If they arrive by air, they also must stay in a designated hotel until they receive a negative COVID-19 test.

“The first step… is to allow fully vaccinated individuals currently permitted to enter Canada to do so without the requirement to stay in government-authorized accommodation,” Health Minister Patty Hajdu told reporters Wednesday.

The easing of restrictions will hinge on COVID-19 case numbers and vaccinations, she said.

Canadian businesses, especially airlines and those that depend on tourism, have been lobbying for Ottawa to relax restrictions as more and more people are vaccinated. But Hajdu made clear that Ottawa would act slowly.

Asked about calls from businesses to lift restrictions starting on June 22, Hajdu said: “We do want to be cautious and careful on these next steps to be sure that we are not putting that recovery in jeopardy.”

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce welcomed the announcement but said much work still remained.

“As other countries move ahead with their reopening plans, it is critical for Canada to catch up by providing a national reopening strategy, including a plan for border measures,” it said in a statement.

By June 21, Canada is due to decide whether to extend land border restrictions with the U.S. The measures do not affect trade.

Hajdu said Canada would take a “phased approach towards adjusting current border measures.”

It is still unclear when the border rules might change for foreign travelers.

There will be as many as seven phases, with borders not fully open until some 75 per cent of Canadians are fully vaccinated, a source familiar with the matter said.

Canada is working on developing a vaccine certificate that can be presented at the border as proof of vaccination, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters.

Even if fully vaccinated, Canadians will be required to take a COVID-19 test before departure and upon arrival, and then quarantine until they receive a negative result, Hajdu said

Some 70 per cent of eligible Canadians have received a first shot, Procurement Minister Anita Anand said on Wednesday, while about 10 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Canada is due to receive millions of doses of both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in June. Canada will receive seven million doses of the Moderna vaccine, with some coming for the first time from the U.S., Anand said.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration said it was forming expert working groups with Canada, Mexico, the European Union and the United Kingdom to determine how best to safely restart travel after 15 months of pandemic restrictions.

— Reporting for Reuters by Steve Scherer and David Ljunggren.

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The federal government on Tuesday announced new rules for TFWs taking effect starting Sunday (March 21). Like other arrivals, TFWs will still be subject to COVID-19 testing at their airport of arrival in Canada and will have to quarantine for at least 14 days.

However, starting Sunday, if workers are asymptomatic and have private transport set up to take them to their places of 14-day quarantine — and are accompanied only by others who travelled with them to Canada — they may skip the immediate quarantine at a government-authorized accommodation (GAA) and go directly to that other place of quarantine.

But if arriving TFWs need to travel by public means, such as a connecting flight, to a secondary location after they first touch down in Canada, they will first be required to go immediately into GAAs to await the results of their COVID-19 tests, then continue on to wherever the 14-day quarantine takes place.

“Provided TFWs have a suitable quarantine plan and safe transportation arranged to their place of quarantine, the government intends to ensure employers and TFWs will not assume incremental costs associated with the three-day quarantine requirement at the point of entry,” the government said Tuesday. “Workers will also be provided with supports on arrival and during their hotel stay.”

For eligible TFWs who arrive in Canada between now and Sunday, the deferral that allowed them to skip the GAA step and proceed directly to their 14-day quarantines — and that was set to expire March 14 — has now been extended to March 21.

The new system applies to TFWs arriving for work in “primary” agriculture, horticulture and landscaping, or for work in other agrifood, fish and seafood occupations, such as livestock slaughter and food, beverage, fish or seafood further-processing.

“Foreign agricultural workers are absolutely essential to the successful operations of our farms, our food plants, and, as a result, our food security,” Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said in a release Tuesday.

“We are doing everything necessary so they can arrive as scheduled and in a way that is safe for their health and the health of Canadians.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Starting Feb. 22, non-essential travellers and essential workers arriving in Canada will be tested for COVID-19 upon their arrival. Non-essential travellers are required to stay in a hotel for three days as they await the results of that test, with costs to be paid out-of-pocket.

Essential workers are allowed to immediately travel, under supervision of their employer, to the location of their planned 14-day quarantine.

That will change in mid-March, when foreign workers will be required to wait for negative COVID test results in a government-approved facility, like everyone else.

Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said at a press conference Friday the temporary deferral of a mandatory, government-supervised quarantine was to allow her government to consult with stakeholders and producers to come up with a “tailored solution” for the industry.

“We are giving a heads-up of one month to the producers on what are the additional measures that have been put in place, and we’re working with them and the provinces to make it happen as smoothly as possible, and at no cost for the workers or the producers,” she said.

Bibeau said the government will cover the costs of the additional tests workers will be required to take — and the costs of hotel stays for the workers as well.

“We will have this conversation with each and every province; the cost may vary,” she said, adding the cost of the hotel stay for non-essential travellers is estimated to be $2,000.

Bibeau said she has already started consulting with provinces on what the new measures will look like in March.

“I understand how challenging this time is for (farmers) who rely on migrant workers,” she said.

Producers have criticized the federal government for failing to consult them on pandemic-related decisions, which they say would allow Ottawa to better understand how its decisions will impact farm families.

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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Global health officials are eying the animals as a potential risk for people after Denmark last week embarked on a plan to eliminate all of its 17 million mink, saying a mutated coronavirus strain could move to humans and evade future COVID-19 vaccines.

The U.S. states of Utah, Wisconsin and Michigan — where the coronavirus has killed mink — said they do not plan to cull animals and are monitoring the situation in Denmark.

“We believe that quarantining affected mink farms in addition to implementing stringent biosecurity measures will succeed in controlling SARS-CoV-2 at these locations,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture told Reuters on Tuesday.

USDA said it is working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state officials and the mink industry to test and monitor infected farms.

The U.S. has 359,850 mink bred to produce babies, known as kits, and produced 2.7 million pelts last year. Wisconsin is the largest mink-producing state, followed by Utah.

Sick mink in Wisconsin and Utah were exposed to people with probable or confirmed COVID-19 cases, the USDA said. In Michigan it is still unknown if the mink were infected by humans, according to the agency.

In Utah, the first U.S. state to confirm mink infections in August, about 10,700 mink have died on nine farms, said Dean Taylor, state veterinarian.

“On all nine, everything is still suggesting a one-way travel from people to the minks,” he said. Coronavirus testing has been done on mink that die and randomly on the affected farms, Taylor said. Like people, some mink are asymptomatic or mildly affected, he said.

The CDC said it was supporting states’ investigations into sick mink, including testing of animals and people.

“These investigations will help us to learn more about the transmission dynamics between mink, other animals around the farms and people,” the CDC said. “Currently, there is no evidence that animals play a significant role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 to people.”

Coronavirus is thought to have first jumped from animals to humans in China, possibly via bats or another animal at a food market in Wuhan, although many outstanding questions remain.

In Wisconsin, about 5,000 mink have died on two farms, state veterinarian Darlene Konkle said.

One farm is composting the dead mink to dispose of the carcasses without spreading the virus, Konkle said. Authorities are working with the second farm to determine how to dispose of the mink, and dead animals are being kept in a metal container in the meantime, she said.

“They are basically in a metal container, a roll-off type container, that is sealed off at this point,” Konkle said.

Michigan declined to disclose how many mink have died, citing privacy rules.

U.S. authorities are urging farmers to wear protective gear like masks and gloves when handling mink to avoid infecting the animals.

State officials said they are working with USDA to determine whether farmers can sell the pelts of infected mink. The pelts are used to make fur coats and other items.

“It’s our desire and certainly the owners’ desire to be able to use those pelts,” Konkle said.

The coronavirus has also infected cats, dogs, a lion and a tiger, according to USDA. Experts say mink appear to be the most susceptible animal so far.

“Whatever we learn about mink is going to help understand the virus across species,” Taylor said. “It’s going to give us a better response to people to stop this pandemic.”

Canada, at the end of 2018, was home to 98 mink farms, mainly in Nova Scotia and Ontario, down from 237 in 2014, according to Statistics Canada.

Canada’s mink farms as of Jan. 1, 2018 included an estimated 500,600 mink in total, down from 861,500 four years earlier, StatsCan said.

— Tom Polansek reports on agriculture and ag commodities for Reuters from Chicago; additional reporting by Carl O’Donnell in New York. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced Monday that the Mandatory Isolation Support for Temporary Foreign Workers Program will now run to Nov. 30, as the government extends its COVID-19 pandemic-related orders under the federal Quarantine Act to the same date.

The program provides up to $1,500 per TFW to employers who are required to isolate workers under the Act, to help cover wages, food, benefits, transportation, housing or other compliance requirements.

The $50 million program, first set up in April, provides lump-sum payments to employers of TFWs — including those working in the farming, fish harvesting and food production and processing sectors, which combined account for more than 60 per cent of workers entering Canada under the TFW program.

Funding is conditional on employers not being found in violation of the mandatory 14-day isolation protocols or “any other public health order.”

The relevant emergency order under the Quarantine Act was imposed in late March, requiring anyone still able to enter Canada by land, air or sea to self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of whether they show symptoms of COVID-19.

The now-extended self-isolation order applies to incoming TFWs and anyone else who’s still allowed to enter Canada following the March 21 ban on all non-essential entry, and exempts only certain workers such as truckers, medical personnel and firefighters.

Of TFWs on Canadian farms, 40 per cent are located in Ontario, 32 per cent in Quebec, 18 per cent in British Columbia and 2.6 per cent in Nova Scotia.

‘Adaptations’

With response to unforeseen events such as the COVID-19 pandemic in mind, Bibeau on Monday separately announced $387,000 in AgriRisk Initiatives funding for three projects, for producers in the horticulture sector to improve risk management.

The bulk of that will go to the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers (OGVG), with $225,000 allocated to develop a “risk management financial product for disease and insect infestations for greenhouses” through data modeling, frequency events and consultation with insurers.

The Canadian Horticultural Council, meanwhile, will get $123,269 to research and run a risk assessment of the Ontario horticulture sector, toward “future development of a whole-farm producer-paid top-up insurance product” via creation of a “diversity index.”

The Association des producteurs maraichers du Québec (APMQ) gets $38,660 toward development of a tool “for growers to assess their vulnerability and take the necessary actions to increase their resilience to climate change.”

That project is now complete, APMQ executive director Jocelyn St-Denis said in a government release Monday. “The extreme temperatures and drought of this past growing season have demonstrated the relevance of implementing adaptations specific to the reality of each business.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Monday announced up to $50 million for such employers to put such measures in place.

As part of its response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the government on March 25 announced an emergency order under the Quarantine Act requiring anyone still able to enter Canada by land, air or sea to self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of whether they show symptoms of COVID-19.

That self-isolation order applies to TFWs and anyone else who’s still allowed to enter Canada following the March 21 ban on all non-essential entry, and exempts only certain workers such as truckers, medical personnel and firefighters.

The funding announced Monday provides support of $1,500 for each TFW “to employers or those working with them” to make sure the isolation requirements “are fully met.”

The support would go to help pay the workers who are unable to work during the isolation period, and to provide for suitable accommodation and food during that time.

The funding will be in the form of lump-sum payments to employers, Bibeau said, retroactive to the date of the Quarantine Act order and available as long as that order is in force. It wouldn’t be available to employers who already had TFWs on site before that date.

On a call with reporters Monday, Bibeau said the government still has to find “the best mechanism” for delivering the funding, whether through the provinces or regional farm organizations, or by using federal immigration information.

It’s expected to take “a matter of days” for the delivery mechanism to be put in place and a “matter of weeks” for payments to be delivered after that, she said.

The support is available for “all food production firms that rely on (TFWs) including primary agriculture and food processing, as well as fisheries and aquaculture,” the government said.

Eligible employers must not have been found to have violated the mandatory 14-day isolation protocols “or any other public health order.” Any employer found violating the rules will face “severe sanctions and fines,” Bibeau said.

“Today’s announcement will help to protect the health of Canadians, while ensuring a steady labour supply to support our economy and ensure our food security during these extraordinary times,” Employment and Workforce Development Minister Carla Qualtrough said in a release Monday.

About 50,000 to 60,000 TFWs come to Canada each year for work in the agricultural, food and fish processing sectors, accounting for over 60 per cent of all TFWs entering Canada.

Bibeau said the $50 million budget, which would support such measures for about 33,000 TFWs, is based on the number of TFWs arriving into the spring and summer and could be increased if need be.

The federal opposition Bloc Quebecois, in a separate statement Monday, criticized the new measures as insufficient.

Public health is the purview of the government, not of producers, Bloc ag critic Yves Perron said, calling it “unfair and irresponsible to inflict such a burden on them, even with a last-minute financial contribution, under the threat of heavy fines above all that.”

While emphasizing TFWs are welcome and “absolutely” needed in Quebec, the Bloc, in its statement, said the workers aren’t subject to quarantine or COVID-19 testing before they leave their countries of origin, nor are they tested on arrival — yet untrained producers have the responsibility for isolating those workers, with no advance federal inspection of the places where they’ll be isolated. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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