The Manager of Swine Health Programs with Manitoba Pork says producer participation in the Manitoba Coordinated Disease Response is speeding up the response to the spread of disease.
Manitoba Pork is encouraging the province’s pork producers to participate in the Manitoba Coordinated Disease Response, a password protected on-line information sharing platform designed allow pig producers to share disease information.
Jenelle Hamblin, the Manager of Swine Health Programs with Manitoba Pork, says the MCDR is a one stop shop for information related, at this time, to Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea.
The nature of our production, pigs are moving very quickly in our sector and keeping ahead of disease is so important so the more timely the information to a producer on a disease risk, the better they can prepare. We have had new cases of PED confirmed in the past and, if they were signed on to the MCDR, it was very quickly that we were able to get that information shared more widely with producers through the platform. As well, when we update the platform, then we’ll send them a direct email letting them know that the MCDR has been updated just in case they’re not logging in right at that point in time so they do get a direct email once a case has been confirmed so new information has been added to the MCDR in a timely way.
If they’re not in an information sharing agreement or they don’t have that agreement signed we’re really limited with the information that we can share so that just puts us at a bit of a disadvantage to get that information out quickly. If we have those agreements in place it really helps us to communicate faster and more effectively. We have learned and we have seen how the MCDR can be useful to get information out to a larger group of people so the more we can reach with this important information the better.
~ Jenelle Hamblin, Manitoba Pork
Hamblin says the focus right now is PED but in the future the hope is to expand to include other disease issues, such as PRRS. For more information visit manitobapork.com or contact Manitoba Pork directly.
