An Animal Health Surveillance Veterinarian with Manitoba Agriculture says time will tell whether PED will ultimately be eliminated from Manitoba.
Last April the first of what would grow to 80 cases of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea, becoming the largest animal disease outbreak in the province in 30 years, was reported in southeastern Manitoba.
Dr. Glen Duizer, an Animal Health Surveillance Veterinarian with the Chief Veterinary Office of Manitoba, told those attending the 2018 Manitoba Swine Seminar last week in Winnipeg the outbreak peaked at the end of June before tapering off with another bump in mid-September.
I think the good news is that, of the 80 sites, 44 of them have reached presumptive negative status which is good news. They really have worked very hard. The producers, herd veterinarians, service providers, transporters, you name it, feed companies have all worked very hard to try to contain this disease and we understand the amount of work it takes to get it out of a farm so we think it’s great that 44 of them have reached a presumptive negative status. On average that takes four to six months to get there so we think we’re in pretty good state at this point.
I think we’ve had only one farm that had a recurrence of the disease but, again, probably not surprising considering the number that we’ve had that one would actually have that and frankly it didn’t lead to any disease spread and it was contained very quickly. I think that we’ve come a long way from this outbreak and I would be just speculating to say that we’re out of the woods yet but I remain hopeful.
This upcoming year will really be the telling piece though. I think that we will have to wait and see if all the changes that have been made within farms, around farms, with all the service providers and that type of thing will be effective on preventing the disease from coming back.
Dr. Glen Duizer-Manitoba Agriculture
Dr. Duizer says aggressive biosecurity remains the best defense against the spread of this infection.
