Federal investment to help Saskatoon-based food safety group
From Global News
A roughly half-million dollar investment by the federal government will go toward making testing more efficient for a Saskatoon-based food safety organization. Prairie Diagnostic Services Inc. (PDS) will receive $549,278 from Ottawa for new equipment to “expand and modernize” its testing efficiency. The announcement was made Tuesday morning at the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine.
“With the knowledge gained from the new and more modern equipment, clients such as veterinarians, agriculture, livestock and feed producers and exporters will be better able to ensure Canada’s food safety both domestically and abroad,” said Saskatoon-Humboldt MP Brad Trost, who made the announcement.
Trost added that PDS will now be able to purchase equipment that will be able to provide services relating to bacteriology, toxicology, pathology and food testing.
“This is science spending, science spending that has real impact on Canadians standards of living,” said Trost to reporters after the announcement. “We believe agriculture is a high tech industry and it needs to be supported.”
One person who may benefit from the federal investment is Jenny Fricke, a poultry extension veterinarian in the college. She said the new equipment will shorten turnaround time as she deals with diagnosing bacterial infections, like E. coli and salmonella.