Dealing with zoonotics requires a harmonized approach

When an animal disease outbreak occurs in Canada it is natural to question Canada's game plan for preventing and managing zoonotics. Zoonotics are any infectious diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans, or vice versa. Avian flu can be classified as a zoonotic because certain strains of avian flu are known to have infected humans. Tuberculosis is also a zoonotic; estimates are that "10% of human tuberculosis cases were related to cattle tuberculosis and raw milk consumption", which is why milk pasteurization was made mandatory.

Who in Canada is responsible for preventing and managing disease outbreaks and more specifically, zoonotics? A March 2008 report by KIS Collaborator Patricia Farnese and B. von Tigerstrom analyzed the legal framework for animal health in Canada to answer this question. As it turns out, there is dual jurisdiction, with both provincial and federal laws and regulations regarding animal health in place, In some instances provincial regulations are more stringent than the federal ones. However, if a conflict ever arises over which regulation to follow, the federal regulations always supersede the provincial regulations. The report concludes that dual jurisdiction results in a duplication of efforts between the province and nation for the most part, but examples exist where disease surveillance done at the provincial level is not required at the federal level.

The province of British Columbia is one such example; BC monitors diseases that are more prevalent in its turkey populations and those diseases are not required to be monitored at the federal level (p.18). This imbalance in disease surveillance and reporting raises a red flag. If both the provincial and federal levels have jurisdiction, yet there is no designated lead agency, the potential exists for each level to delay a response to an animal health crisis because of a mistaken assumption by each level that the other is handling the crisis. To counteract this potential for disaster, the report suggests harmonizing legal frameworks and improving information sharing.