The Chair of Manitoba Pork says, eradicating Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea from the province will be a challenge but he’s confident it can happen.
Since the end of April almost 60 swine farms in southeastern and south central Manitoba been infected with Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea, however over the past three weeks there have been no new cases.
George Matheson, the Chair of Manitoba Pork, says producers have been extremely focused on improving biosecurity.
There are 10 buffer zones. A buffer zone is created when there is a PED outbreak at a farm. From there you draw a five kilometer radius to make sure you’re in contact with producers in that region who may become positive and also the negative ones as well so that all precautions can take place to keep it from spreading.
It won’t be easy but we’re following Ontario’s example. They had this approximately 18 months ago. It got as high as 150 cases and they’ve stated that they’re down to 15 infected premises so a reduction of infected farms by 90 percent. We find that to be pretty impressive. If they can do it why can’t we?
It will not be easy. Once the pigs are moved out it will take a thorough cleaning multiple times before negative pigs can return to the farms so that the whole cycle doesn’t begin again. It will take a lot of work, a lot of effort, a lot of coordination but it has been done in other places. It can be done here.
~ George Matheson, Manitoba Pork
Matheson notes a manure management group is being organized to help avoid manure from infected farms spreading the virus to uninfected farms, a newly developed vaccine is being used on a trial basis and Manitoba Pork has hired a new staff member who will work directly with the Office of Manitoba’s Chief Veterinary Officer to help coordinate efforts to manage the infection.
