The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), in collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and Canadian Nursery Landscape Association (CNLA), has released the sector-specific biosecurity guides for nursery producers. The guide supports the National Voluntary Farm-Level Biosecurity Standard for the Greenhouse, Nursery and Floriculture Sectors that was released in March 2016.
The Standard was developed by the Greenhouse, Nursery and Floriculture Biosecurity Advisory Committee (GNFBAC), which includes members from sector associations, producers, academia, and federal and provincial specialists. After the 2016 release of the Standard, the members of the GNFBAC formed three separate sub-committees to each develop a voluntary, sector-specific biosecurity guide to assist producers in achieving the target outcomes described in the Standard.
The nursery sector Biosecurity Guide, in combination with the Standard, will assist producers by:
• Raising awareness of biosecurity risks and the measures that can help reduce the risk of pest introduction and spread.
• Providing a nationally consistent approach to develop and implement a biosecurity plan in the nursery sector.
The Standard and nursery sector Biosecurity Guides are voluntary and can be adopted in their entirety or can supplement existing on-farm biosecurity programs. Funding to develop the Standard and producer biosecurity guides was provided under the Growing Forward 2 Agricultural Policy Framework.
CNLA extends their sincere thanks to the Biosecurity Subcommittee for sharing their time and expertise on behalf of the nursery sector in the development of the Standard and Producer Guide: Anita Heuver, Jeanine West, Guillaume Gregoire, Garth Nickerson, Len Smit, Dave Woodske and Rita Weerdenburg.
The Standard and Producer Guide are available as on-line or PDF documents.
Nursery Sector Biosecurity Guide (PDF)
Nursery Sector Biosecurity Guide (online)
Greenhouse Nursery Floriculture Biosecurity Standard (PDF)
Greenhouse Nursery Floriculture Biosecurity Standard (online)