Canadian Breeders and CEM Hassles
Canadian horse breeders are calling for efforts to streamline semen importation requirements that have been implemented by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in response to the "outbreak" of contagious equine metritis (CEM) in the US. The new regulations and increased paperwork are causing tremendous problems for breeders trying to import semen in a timely manner. Any delays in clearing semen shipments at customs can result in decreased viability of the semen as well as problems scheduling personnel to perform insemination of the recipient mares. Sometimes, samples can't get through at all. Breeders shipping semen from the US must get health papers (sometimes from someone a few hours away) to send with shipments. Many of the challenges are simply logistical and bureaucratic problems that should be able to be addressed with some common sense and willingness to help. Regulatory and industry personnel need to figure out ways to address these problems without compromising the health of Canadian horses.
While important regulations should be reviewed to see if they can be more practical and efficient, it is critical that biosafety not be sacrificed for convenience. The impact of a single case of CEM in Canada would be tremendous. It's increasingly clear the the CEM situation in the US is not completely understood. It is not a readily definable outbreak with a clear source that can be tracked. Rather, this disease appears to be have been present in the US for a few years (at least), and that efforts to get the situation back under control will be very complicated. A "loose" effort in Canada could have disasterous effects.
Many equine veterinarians are concerned that the regulations currently in place are not adequate to prevent CEM from entering Canada. One major concern is the failure to evaluate horses moving across the border. The current regulations only deal with horses from farms where CEM has been diagnosed - it's far from certain that US authorities know where all the CEM-infected animals are. Since transmission of CEM is more likely during live breeding than artificial insemination, horses from these farms are a big concern. This is also potentially a situation where well-intentioned rules could have the wrong effect. Some people are shipping their horses to the US for breeding, because sending them down and bringing them back up doesn't require any extra precautions for CEM if the farm is not a "known" CEM farm. If there are some breeding farms that are infected but not identified, which is definitely possible, then the unregulated movement of these breeding animals could create a very hazardous scenario.
