The Office of the Chief Veterinarian for Manitoba and Manitoba Pork Council are finalizing an action plan to be implemented in the event Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea is identified in the province.
Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea, first identified in the U.S. in mid-May, has now spread to 17 states affecting between 450 and 500 farms.
Miles Beaudin, the manager of quality assurance and labour with Manitoba Pork Council says, in the event of a break in Manitoba, the Office of the Chief Veterinarian and Manitoba Pork Council will implement a communications plan.
Last week of August we had 30 new farms being affected.
Some of the largest states being affected is Oklahoma, Kansas and Ohio and as close to us as Minnesota.
A new state was affected and that’s Wisconsin.
Fortunately no farms in Canada have been identified and we monitor closely through surveillance.
We’re urging producers to continue their efforts to maintain high levels of biosecurity within all points of production.
Council is working with the provincial government to finalize any communication plan in the event that we would break with PED and we anticipate to complete that soon and then work with our CQA veterinarians to make sure this communication plan can be rolled out and nobody’s caught surprised if we have to roll out some type of plan.
The farm being affected obviously would be notified.
We know where all farms in Manitoba are so we would be notifying farms with radiuses around the farm.
Also we would be notifying key stakeholders like feed companies, companies that deliver services to the farms.
They would also be notified and likely the area where that person markets their animals which would be outside the boundaries likely of the infection zone.
Beaudin says we do have a plan and now it’s a matter of fine tuning that plan and informing stakeholders.
