A personal account of Dr John Carrs’ recent trip through customs and immigration at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.

Dr. John Carr, an international livestock veterinarian, consultant, and lecturer from Australia and no stranger to hog producers in Canada said the biosecurity at airport customs isn’t good enough.
Dr. Carr landed at the Toronto airport recently around 9 pm, not that late, in his opinion, and not that full, but busy enough and attempted to make a point of how vital the hog industry is to Canada and biosecurity is critical.
“I came in from a flight from Poland, via Ukraine, before that, in Australia. I’m coming from Asia as far as they would know and through Ukraine, through Poland, which both of these countries have African Swine Fever,” he said.
“So, I get into immigration. Of course, John wants to be a good boy because John would love to come back to Canada. So I tick all the boxes and one of the boxes is, are you going to visit a farm in Canada? The answer is yes. Do you have any contact with livestock? And the answer is definitely yes. So, it was a bloody big tick. And then, always beside the point at that point, I write the word vet because then that explains to the customs people why would I tick this.”
Dr. Carr walked up to the customs booth, and there is no one behind him and speaks to the first customs officer, and said, “I’m a swi … “And he said, “That’s fine, thank you, next.”
“And I looked at him, and he looked at me, and he said, “That’s fine, thanks.” And I said, “Oh right.” And what I was trying to say to him is I’m a swine veterinarian but only said half the word and he waved me on,” said Carr.
Next, Carr asked if he could take a photograph of the African Swine Fever poster and the officer said yes.
“So, I stood there and took a photograph. Now, how many people are interested in the poster? On the piece of paper, it says that I’m a swine veterinarian. I’ve come from an African Swine Fever positive country, and I’m going to a Canadian pig farm. And the only approach I have was, “I’m a swi …” and it is acceptable for me to come into the country,” explained Dr. Carr.
After the photograph, Dr. Carr spoke to the first officer’s superior, nice lady, very polite. And he said to her, “I have a problem.” And she said, “What’s that?” I just felt that it was cursory that of all the people who come into Canada, I could have at least been asked a couple of questions. Have you been to an African Swine Fever positive farm? Can I see your boots? Can I have a look inside your case? Are you carrying any pork? I mean, I’m a pig veterinarian, I love pork. Why would I not be carrying pork? Because I don’t want to import it but how do they know all of that? And she saw me taking the picture.”
After approaching her verbally several times and speaking to her for about five minutes, she indicated they are too busy and said they couldn’t interview everyone.
“And so, I made some other comment, and she said, ‘I would advise you to move on, sir.’ It just isn’t good enough,” said Dr. Carr. “I mean, seriously. I said to her, “You do realize you’re going to threaten our entire industry.” And she said, “We’re just too busy. We have a poster.” And it isn’t good enough.
All this is happening about the same time the Feds are announcing a $31 million dollar program to step up biosecurity at airports using sniffer dogs and planning for a big international African Swine Fever conference for the end of April in Ottawa.
“But I think the border patrol guys at that point let themselves down. They need to take this more seriously. And it’s not just the cost to the farmer. You’re looking at rural Canada, a lot of guys work on the farm. Their wives work in shops; their kids buy things at the shops; the pig industry is an integral component of Canada life. And if you take that away, a lot of small, rural Canada is going to suffer,” he said. “I give lots of talks about African Swine Fever at the moment. But what I do know when I talk to the Chinese and now the Vietnamese, if they could go back in time and stop the thing coming across their border, they would do so. We have the opportunity at the moment to stop it from coming across our borders. We must do so. There is no option. There is zero tolerance.”
He said while the relative risk is small, the fallout could be devastating should ‘Heaven forbid’ an outbreak occur in Canada.
“To delay me by two minutes at the airport is inconsequential to the potential loss to this industry. And I should have at least been able to say that I was a swine vet. Not just a swi …” he said.
The situation in China is, and Carr said, “The bottom line is we have a duty of care to our Chinese friends.”
When asked what should the Canadian pork industry do and what is he recommending producers do?
“The least we can do is not get greedy, not get stupid, but fill the farm. I know we’ve had a period of bad times and people are drawing in their horns a bit and trying to save costs and everything else and I understand,” said Carr. “I am recommending that we fill the farm. Breed the right number of gilts, breed the right number of sows. Fill the farm. Because then if the price A) goes silly, we can capitalize on it. B) if China needs, Asia needs and maybe Asia, not just China, Asia needs food, as I say, we have a duty of care to step up to the line and say Canada is here to help. And we are very good at producing excellent quality pork, what can we do to help?” •
— By Harry Siemens