The Chair of the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board is encouraging pork producers in Saskatchewan to maintain their focus on biosecurity in response to a new wave of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea infections in southeastern Manitoba.
Since April 30 nine swine operations in southeastern Manitoba, including six within a five kilometer area and three outside that zone, have been confirmed infected by Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea.
Florian Possberg, the Chair of the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board, says for some operations PED is a million dollar disease hit, it’s an animal welfare issue and it’s a stress on workers in affected barns.
We continue to monitor for the PED bug. It has shown up on some trailers at times, a couple of times, over the last couple of years. It’s just a reminder of how much we need to be vigilant.
A lot of the operations that move animals into susceptible areas not only use very thorough washing but have installed bake units as well to bake the trucks and trailers to greatly reduce the infectiousness of the PED bug. Saskatchewan and, for that matter, Alberta and B.C. have been able to remain PED free.
We’ve been successful so far in keeping PED out but the challenges they’re having in southeastern Manitoba is just a reminder of how vulnerable our industry is and that really the biosecurity needs to be at a very high level. You just can’t let down your guard.
~ Florian Possberg, Saskatchewan Pork Development Board
Possberg says Saskatchewan producers have been working very hard to avoid PED and having it this close to home is a reminder of how vulnerable the industry is.
