Canadian Food Inspection Agency
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Chapter 9 - Emergency Situations
9.1 Introduction
An emergency is defined as "an abnormal situation which requires prompt action beyond normal procedures to limit damage to persons, property, or the environment." (CFIA Emergency Book).
Under the Emergency Preparedness Act, the CFIA is mandated to prepare for and respond to emergencies involving food safety, animal health, plant health or any other situation related to one of the Agency's 14 programs.
Emergency response is based on four pillars: prevention, preparation, response and recovery. Prevention (mitigation) in this context would involve measures to preclude a disease or condition from entering the country, and thus includes import controls and bio-security. Preparation involves developing contingency or response plans, training staff and exercising the plans. Response, when the event actually happens, is intended to control and limit the damage. While primarily the role of the emergency response team, the veterinarian or inspector-in-charge may in fact be on the team, and their immediate actions can have a significant impact on the ability to get control of the situation. Recovery would be a multi-agency effort to return the agricultural community back to a pre-outbreak condition. The focus of this chapter will be preparation and initial response.
In a registered establishment, one might encounter various urgent situations including animal diseases (domestic or foreign, zoonotic or not), food borne diseases, chemical contamination, leaks or spills, structural damage, floods or fires etc. Natural or accidental disasters are not within the scope of the program concern, and will be dealt with through the normal emergency response channels. Our role in these situations would be primarily related to the safety of the food products in the establishment. Food recalls, are the responsibility of Food Recall and Emergency Response. (See section 9.6, Chapter 3, section 3.10, also Food Recalls: Make a Plan and Action It! Manufacturers' Guide http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/recarapp/rap/mgguide.shtml).
The primary focus of this chapter, then, is to guide the operator, the veterinarians and inspectors through procedures to prepare for and to immediately respond to diseases of animals beyond the routine production disease they see and deal with regularly. The Health of Animals Regulations define "disease" as "any reportable disease or other serious epizootic disease to which an animal or germplasm is susceptible and which can be transmitted by the animal or germplasm." The reportable diseases and immediately notifiable diseases lists can be found in section 9.4.
Slaughterhouses may well play an important role in the detection of foreign disease of livestock. Some diseases, such as avian influenza, would more likely be detected on the farm, but others, such as foot and mouth disease, may well be first recognized at a federally inspected abattoir.
