| | Alberta Agriculture and Forestry is celebrating 10 years with the Premises Identification (PID) System. The PID System provides a way of linking livestock and poultry to specific pieces of land, or premises, for animal disease and emergency response situations. In the event of an emergency, the information registered in the PID System allows people responding to emergencies to quickly determine the location of livestock and to contact the primary caregiver. However, this can only be accomplished if the land locations/premises with livestock and poultry are registered into the PID System.
Through outreach and communications to primary caregivers of livestock and poultry in the 10 years since the system began, more than 43,000 premises have now been identified in the online system. Alberta has led the way in the development of an online PID system, which has now been licensed to and adopted by Saskatchewan and British Columbia for their provincial PID activities.
The information collected in the PID System is an important tool supporting the Office of the Chief Provincial Veterinarian and emergency response efforts in the province. During an animal health, food safety, or natural or other disaster risk, the PID System is accessed to identify registered premises that are, or could be affected. Identifying where livestock and poultry are at risk in relation to an outbreak, natural or other disaster allows for notification of primary caregivers.
Some examples of using this notification process were those affected by the fire in Fort McMurray (2016), poultry premises with infectious laryngotracheitis in their area (2018) and equine premises to alert them to equine infectious anemia (2018), among others.
Over the past 10 years, the PID System has continued to evolve. From the initial concept to its current operating role, Alberta’s Premises Identification System has remained an important tool for assisting with animal health, food safety emergency situations and natural disasters. We look forward to seeing how the PID System develops to further support Albertans over the next 10 years.
The challenge now will be to get smaller operations like hobby farms and acreages to register and for everyone, big or small, to keep their PID account information current.
For further information on the Premises Identification System, please visit www.agriculture.alberta.ca/premises.
All owners of livestock need a PID number. For more information on how to register call the Alberta Ag-Info Centre at 310-FARM (3276). |
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