Review Terms for Factor Applicability to Canadian Context

[chapb]

Terms for Factor Applicability to the Canadian Context

Purpose

We are looking to develop the terminology used to describe factor applicability to the Canadian context. We consider the applicability separately in three different time periods: Past, Present, Future. This avoids us requiring terms referencing potential changes between time periods.

Suggested Terms

These terms can be applied nationally or regionally depending on the circumstance; the terms 'standard' and 'uncommon' should not be interpreted in a geographical context. For example, a standard practice implemented only in Alberta is still considered a standard practice, even though it may not be used in other regions.

• Standard Practice

  • These practices are widely adopted in industry, or are common responses to predictable exogenous events.
  • e.g. biosecurity practices, therapeutic antimicrobial use, endemic disease treatment.

• Uncommon Practice

  • These practices are adopted by a subset of industry, are used for production of a niche product, or are responses to unpredictable exogenous events.
  • e.g. alternative health products, probiotics, competitive exclusion products, unusual disease treatment.

• Banned

  • These are practices that are not used in Canada, or are not permitted by strongly enforced policy.
  • e.g. use of banned drugs

• Discouraged

  • These are practices that are discouraged by legislation or industry bodies, are recognized as “bad-practice”, or are being phased out of practice in pending legislation or industry action.
  • These include practices not currently used in Canada, but would otherwise fall into this category if adopted.
  • e.g. use of Category I antimicrobials for growth promotion.

• Not Adopted

  • These are practices that have not been considered, or could not be practically implemented in Canada.
  • e.g. out-wintering in extreme conditions.

• Unknown / Other?

[chapb]

@rreidsmi, if you have a chance to review this before Tuesday's iAM meeting, that'd be great!

[phillipsclynn]

Anne Deckert kindly went over these terms with me and provided some feedback (overall, she thinks they're great as is), which I'll get into below, as well as some additional thoughts I had after speaking with her.

Anne's Main Feedback:

• We may want to eventually have the ability to stratify these by geographical region (by CIPARS region, no need to stratify by province), as there are many practices that differ across the country, such as the age of the barns, the size of the herds, biosecurity, how far away other barns are...
• Not Adopted could potentially be separated into something like Not Adopted (impractical) (this would include practices like out-wintering that are not feasible in Canada) and Not Adopted (feasible). An example of the latter: certain vaccines are not adopted in Canada because there's not enough interest or urgency to make the emergency approval (or full approval) worth it. In Europe/the USA, though, outbreaks might be more frequent, which would increase urgency of uptake. Other practices may be in progress (i.e. loose housing or gestation-crate-free housing for pigs, which is on track to be mandated by 2029 once the necessary barn renovations can be accomplished)
• Some processors/brands discourage or endorse certain practices more than others (i.e. Maple Leaf Foods, etc. vary)
• A bit of a side point: we may want to think about putting a time limit on the older factors we evaluate in the models. The older the data, the more confounders there are (genetics of animals, the way the barns are built, infectious diseases, etc.)

After-thoughts I had:

• Could add an "Encouraged" category as a counterpart to the "Discouraged" category. Hierarchically, it could go below Standard, but above Uncommon. These would be things that, like the removal of gestation crates, are sort of "in progress". Vets may be currently trying to raise awareness about them, or industry bodies might be encouraging the adoption of them. This is different from a potential Not Adopted (feasible) category in that it is actively under consideration.
• Do we want to have the option to index factors by year the data was published?

And, finally, some examples of pig factors that would be good examples for each of these categorizations:

• Discouraged: colistin use
• Standard Practice (more like between Standard and Uncommon, used to be Not Adopted (feasible), and then was adopted as producers became more aware): "Danish entry" biosecurity, where a changes of clothes and shoes is required upon entrance into the barn. At the start of the CIPARS monitoring programme, it wasn't seen very often, but now it's become much more common.