A Veterinary Epidemiologist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development reports the severity of disease in the three latest PED infected Manitoba swine farms has been quite variable.
Three new cases of PED have been detected in Manitoba over the past three weeks, the first new cases since January 2015.
Dr. Julia Keenliside, a Veterinary Epidemiologist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, told an Alberta Pork telephone town hall Friday, the severity of symptoms has been variable.
The first case was detected Thursday, May 26 in a batch farrow sow farm and the initial clinical signs were surprisingly mild. They reportedly only saw diarrhea in nursing piglets with not a significant increase in mortality. It wasn’t your typical picture of PED where we see that rapid increase in mortality and the rapid spread throughout all the piglets.
Then one week later, a feeder barn within that five kilometer radius was tested positive for PED. Being a feeder barn, the clinical signs are quite minimal because these are older pigs and often we don’t see anything or just very mild diarrhea in finishing animals.
Then a couple of days later, on Saturday, June 4, a second batch farrow sow barn tested positive. This farm is also within five kilometers of the first affected sow barn. The symptoms were reportedly much more severe in this barn which is quite interesting. They saw higher mortality rates in piglets, they saw illness in sows including vomiting.
Right now we don’t really have a good explanation about why one barn would present with such a severe clinical picture and another barn would present with a much milder one. We don’t totally understand everything about how this virus works. ~ Dr. Julia Keenliside-Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development
Dr. Keenliside says environmental surveillance sampling continues at high traffic pig sites in Saskatchewan and Alberta and so far there have no PED positive environmental samples detected in either province.
