New tools being used in Manitoba appear to be helping bring the spread of PED in the province under control.
Since the end of April almost 60 swine production sites in Manitoba have been confirmed infected with Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea.
On Thursday Manitoba Pork hosted a PED information session in Steinbach to update producers on the situation. George Matheson, the Chair of Manitoba Pork, says there have been no new cases since July 14.
We’re organizing a manure management group for the infected farms. Of course equipment can become infected and we don’t want a positive farm infecting a negative farm just by the transfer of manure equipment and spreading must be done soon. Lagoons get full. That’s one approach we’re taking.
Manitoba Pork has decided to employ a Swine Health Officer, a full time position, just to manage the situation with the help of the Manitoba CVO. We’ve had three staff members, Mark Fynn, Arne Thorlacius and our General Manager Andrew Dickson who have been extremely busy for the last three months trying to get control of the situation. We’ve decided that we need a new employee for this. Also there has been a vaccine developed by VIDO out in Saskatchewan and it will be used on a trial basis. It won’t prevent it but it will reduce the symptoms and make things more manageable for an infected farm. Those are three tools that we’re using to get control of the situation.
George Matheson-Manitoba Pork
Matheson says there have been no new cases in over two weeks and the hope is that we’re looking at the start of a trend.
