3.B.2.1 MICROSCOPÍA ELECTRÓNICA DE BARRIDO

Between 2002 and 2006 there was significant variation in Salmonella isolation rates between the Atlantic Provinces (Fig. 3). As shown in Fig. 3, except for 2002 New Brunswick consistently had the highest isolation rates, with a five year high of 24.6 isolates per 100,000 population occurring in 2006. In contrast Newfoundland and Labrador consistently had the lowest rates, with a five year high of 16 isolates per 100,000 population occurring in 2006; a increase of over 6 isolates per 100,000 population from 2005 (PHAC, 2007). All of the provinces except Nova Scotia experienced increases in the isolation rates between 2005 and 2006. Prince Edward Island (PEI) saw the largest increase over the five year period, from 10.2 isolates per 100,000 population in 2002 to 22.4 isolates per 100,000 population in 2006. As shown in Table 5, PEI does have a smaller population than the other provinces and is thus more prone to variability in their isolation rates.

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Figure 3. Rate of Salmonella Isolations per 100,000 Population from 2002 to 2006 in Atlantic Canada; Data taken from the NESP (PHAC, 2007).

NB= New Brunswick, NS= Nova Scotia, PEI= Prince Edward Island, NL= Newfoundland and Labrador.

Table 5. Human populations of Canadian Provinces in 2006 (Statistics Canada, 2009).

Province Population (thousands)

British Columbia 4,243.6 Alberta 3,421.3 Saskatchewan 992.1 Manitoba 1184.0 Ontario 12,665.3 Quebec 7,631.6 New Brunswick 745.7 Nova Scotia 938.0

Prince Edward Island 137.9

Newfoundland and Labrador 510.3

Northwest Territories 43.2

Nunavut 30.8

Yukon Territory 32.3

Nova Scotia had the highest proportion of Salmonella identified as SE in Canada during 2006, with 33% (n=34) of all samples testing positive (PHAC, 2007). In the same year, New Brunswick, PEI and Newfoundland were the only provinces in Canada which did not have SE as their most frequent

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 R ate o f Sal m o n e lla Is o lation p e r 100, 000 Pop u lation Year NB NS PEI NL

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serotype. It was the second highest occurring isolate in New Brunswick and PEI with 19% (n=35) and 26% (n=8) of samples testing positive, respectively. In Newfoundland and Labrador, SE was only the fourth most frequent occurring isolate in 2006, with 14% (n=5) of all samples testing positive; however, it was isolated in two less samples than the most common isolate S. Heidelberg. In contrast, in New Brunswick there were fewer than half the number of SE isolates (n=35) than S. Heidelberg isolates (n=72) in 2006.

Broilers:

CIPARS has monitored Salmonella levels in retail chicken meat in New Brunswick, PEI and Nova Scotia in previous years (Table 4). The large increase in isolates between 2004 and 2007 is due to the introduction of enhanced Salmonella recovery methods in 2007 (CIPARS, 2010a). The large increase between 2008 and 2009 may, in part, be due to the increase in the sampling size.

In total approximately 80 million kgs of eviscerated chicken were produced in Atlantic Canada in 2008 (CFC, 2009b). New Brunswick produced almost 44% of the total, with Nova Scotia accounting for roughly 35%. PEI produced the least amount of chicken meat (3.7 million kgs) out of all the Canadian Provinces. Only minor growth in production occurred between 2007 and 2008 in Atlantic Canada, at an average of 243 thousand kgs per province. The number of producers has also remained relatively constant in recent years, with Nova Scotia decreasing only slightly from 85 producers in 2005 to 83 in 2008 and New Brunswick dropping one producer since 2005 to the 35 producers registered in 2008. Newfoundland and Labrador has had eight producers for almost a decade, with an average farm size of 2.3 million kgs live weight in 2008. PEI has had only seven producers for almost two full decades with the average farm size stabilizing in recent years to approximately 700 thousand kgs live weight.

Currently there are no specific programs in place to control SE in Atlantic Canada. The individual provincial marketing boards do administer the CFC’s Safe, Safer, Safest™ OFFSAP program. This program is explained further in the national protocols for Canadian chicken farmers section.

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are the only two provinces to have broiler hatching egg producers that are not part of CHEP, while PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador currently do not have any hatching egg producers (CHEP, 2010).There is currently discussion about Nova Scotia and New Brunswick joining CHEP. Currently, there are no provincial level broiler hatching egg producer

organizations in Atlantic Canada. As such, it is unknown what biosecurity or good management practice programs broiler breeder farms are using and if there are any control programs specific for SE in place.

Table Eggs:

The combined allotted quota for the Atlantic Provinces in 2010 is just under 8% of the total table egg production in Canada (EFC, 2010). Nova Scotia has the largest amount of quota (243 million eggs),

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followed by New Brunswick (138 million eggs), Newfoundland and Labrador (108 million eggs) and PEI (40 million eggs), which has the smallest amount of quota out of all the Canadian Provinces. None of the Atlantic Provinces have quota for eggs destined for processing. The number of layers per producer has increased in the last three years in all of the provinces. Newfoundland and Labrador saw the largest gain in average size as it went from eleven producers in 2007, each averaging roughly 31,000 hens, to only seven producers in 2009 that averaged nearly 48,000 hens, the highest in Canada. New Brunswick saw a decrease of one producer a year between 2007 and 2009, which dropped the total down to fifteen producers. Their average flock size subsequently increased as well. Nova Scotia and PEI each saw only one producer leave between 2007 and 2009 and had steady increases in average flock size. Nova Scotia saw significant trade in eggs in 2009, with interprovincial exports totalling 72.4 million eggs and imports equalling 58 million eggs, with the primary trading partner being New Brunswick. Subsequently, New Brunswick saw similar levels of trade but was a net importer instead of exporter, with 52.3 million eggs leaving the province and 73.4 million eggs entering it. PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador saw only minor movements of eggs into and out of the provinces.

All of the provincial egg marketing boards in the Atlantic Provinces participate in and administer the SE control protocols, the SC-SC™ and the SC-SCP programs that were created by the EFC. Currently there are no SE control programs in place that are unique to the individual provinces. The SE, SC-SC™ and SC-SCP programs are fully explained in the national protocols for Canadian egg farmers section.

Legislation:

There is legislation pertaining to regulation of the various poultry marketing boards in Nova Scotia (Natural Products Act, 1989), New Brunswick (Natural Products Act, 1999), PEI (Natural Products Marketing Act, 1988), and Newfoundland and Labrador (Natural Products Marketing Act, 1990). Legislation regarding SE control in poultry currently does not exist in any of the Atlantic provinces.

New Brunswick created the Poultry Health Protection Act which aims to protect poultry in the province from disease and gives power to inspectors to act in the case of suspected disease, but is not specific to SE. Similar legislation exists in Newfoundland and Labrador with a few additions occurring with regards to sanitation towards poultry products sold to humans (Poultry and Poultry Products Act, 1990). The Livestock Health Act also gives officials in Newfoundland and Labrador the authority to act in case of a disease outbreak. However, both of these pieces of legislation are set to be repealed and replaced with the Animal Health and Protection Act which has a clause allowing the province to create regulations that make a disease reportable (HANL, 2010). Legislation specific to poultry in PEI was repealed in 2005 (Poultry and Poultry Products Act, 2005). Nova Scotia has legislation in place that regulates the grading and sales of eggs (Regulations Respecting the Grading, Packing, Marking, Inspection, Advertising and Sale of Eggs, 1997) and the grading and sale of carcasses (Dressed and Eviscerated Poultry Regulations, 1979). There is also the Meat Inspection Act in Nova Scotia which details the licensing and requirements needed for abattoirs to operate in a sanitary manner.

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poultry slaughter facilities and the necessary equipment and procedures the abattoir must have to be licensed (Meat Inspection Regulations, 1996).

Territories: