Storage and Maintenance of Air Monitoring Equipment for CFIA Emergency Responses

CFIA must respond to animal health emergencies to prevent the spread of disease, and in some cases, eradicate the disease and the infected animals. For confirmed cases of Notifiable Avian Influenza (NAI) in poultry, this requires the interior of barns to be flooded with lethal levels of carbon dioxide gas (CO2). During the euthanization process the air in the barn most be continuously monitored to ensure that CO2 levels are adequate and remain elevated to humanely euthanize the birds. For occupational health and safety reasons, before staff are allowed to re-enter the barn the barn is ventilated to remove the lethal level of CO2. Once the barn is ventilated and CFIA staff are permitted to work in the barn they must wear a personal air monitoring device which serves as an alarm to ensure they are working in an atmosphere with adequate O2 levels and that other values of potential toxic gases are below threshold limits. RKI Eagle and RKI Eagle-2 gas monitors and RKI GX6000 personal portable six-gas monitors were purchased for the task. The CFIA’s air monitoring equipment requires monthly servicing and maintenance (charging of all batteries and replacement as necessary, calibration of all the sensors within the units to the specified 6 gases). CFIA has identified an operational requirement to maintain the air monitoring equipment as per the manufacturers’ specifications and recommendations. Not having the air monitoring equipment in a usable state ready for immediate deployment means a significant delay in CFIA’s response capability and an increased risk of spreading disease.