Better safe than sorry: how are we doing when it comes to animal disease outbreak preparedness? - Todd Bergen-Henengouwen

We all know how hard it is to fight back when a disease outbreak occurs. Since emergency events present themselves at different levels and involve varied approaches, knowing how to best manage them is crucial not only for swine producers, but for the entire Canadian industry. However vital they may be, animal disease outbreak preparedness and responses are often overlooked, as they are not generally a part of farmers’ daily routine.

Nonetheless, it is very critical to have measures in place for when they are needed – it's like with health insurance: you don't really need it, until you do! To dig into that quite interesting topic, we invited Todd Bergen-Henengouwe, who has been involved with the Animal Health Emergency Management (AHEM) Project for the last four years. In this episode, we ask him the same question that is probably on your mind right now: are we fully prepared to protect ourselves from animal disease outbreaks?

What you’ll learn:

• How is Canada handling swine disease outbreaks?
• Emergency animal disease preparedness
• Protecting our borders from foreign animal diseases
• Key aspects of animal disease preparedness
• Canadian response to animal diseases
• Managing diseases in pig barns

Meet the guest:

Todd Bergen-Henengouwen

Experience

• Current: Resource Development Activity Lead for the AHEM Project; Consultant for Serecon and Farmer Hand at BH Farms
• Past: Farm Input Analyst for the Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development; Policy and Environment

Background

• B.Sc., Agricultural Business Management (University of Alberta)

Hobbies: I enjoy playing a variety of sports (basketball, volleyball, curling, soccer) and raising my family.

Favorite Book: www.animalhealth.ca (for more information on AHEM resources). My personal best: John Wooden, with Steve Jamison.

Favorite Quote: "Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming." - John Wooden

Tip for success: Hard work will get you far in life.

Connect with our guest on Social Media: LinkedIn / Twitter