The chair of the Canadian Swine Health Board says early detection and quick response are key to limiting the losses that would be caused by an outbreak of foot and mouth disease.
The first in a series of Swine Health Awareness Bulletins designed to keep the pork industry informed of emerging or potential health threats deals with swine vesicular diseases several of which produce symptoms similar to foot and mouth disease, including fluid-filled blisters in the mouth and on the snout, feet and teats of recently farrowed sows.
Canadian Swine Health Board chair Florian Possberg says, because food and mouth disease is so rare, it’s something producers don’t see very often.
The issue around swine vesicular disease is the most severe form of it is foot and mouth disease which can really devestate a whole livestock industry for a country.
But there are other conditions that mimic what you would expect from foot and mouth disease so our bulletin is really to provide information to alert producers as to what to look for in terms of what this condition is.
One of the real keys of dealing with this disease is early detection and control so, if we can provide information to producers so they can actually identify suspicious cases and engage our veterinarians and soon in identifying the disease very early on, we can sort through things much better than having it get out control.
Possberg says the Canadian Swine health Board is focusing on early detection to get on top of any outbreak.
He says, if you can get early detection of the disease and can quarantine affected areas to prevent it’s spread, it’s possible to make a potentially huge problem much more manageable.
The bulletin is being distributed to industry stakeholders and being made available through the Canadian Swine Health Board web site.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
