The organization representing fairs and exhibition organizers across Canada is raising concern about implemented and proposed Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) regulations.

On March 18th, the CFIA opened a 90-day consultation until June 16th, about livestock traceability and identification.

Some of the rules place the responsibility of identifying and tracing the livestock on event organizers.

The CFIA working to streamline traceability and identification is something the Canadian Association of Fairs & Exhibitions supports, but Christina Franc, the organization’s executive director, says this kind of work should be handled by livestock producers.

She says the tagging regulations say that if an animal loses its tag on the fairgrounds or at a show, the organizers are responsible for putting the tag in with the fairground’s identification number.

She’s advocating that the farmers be the ones who replace any lost tags, and that the tags have the farm of origin’s identification number.