Special Welfare Concerns in Countries Dependent on Live Animal Trade: The Real Foreign Animal Disease Emergency for Canada

Abstract

Any outbreak of an Office International des Epizooties trade-disrupting (previously List-A) disease, such as classical swine fever or foot and mouth disease in a previously disease-free region can have severe consequences for nonhuman animal welfare. In addition to animals destroyed for the purposes of disease eradication, certain preexisting trade patterns may result in welfare slaughter programs affecting many more animals than the disease eradication effort. Welfare slaughter is the destruction of healthy animals to prevent overcrowding on farms under movement restriction and as a consequence of loss of access to live animal export markets. Governments of European countries have anticipated welfare slaughter as part of their disease eradication preparedness. The concept of welfare slaughter and the resource implications thereof have not been included in current, published, livestock disease emergency-planning documents in Canada or the United States. Animal welfare, specifically the killing of healthy animals (not foreign animal disease eradication) has been the focus of public concern in recent disease-eradication efforts in Europe. North American organizations responsible for livestock exotic disease emergency preparedness need to expand their plans to include welfare slaughter.