The manager of the Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network says advance warning has given Canada an advantage in dealing with Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea.
Last month the first cases of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea in Canada were identified in Ontario and last week new cases were confirmed in Manitoba and Prince Edward island.
CSHIN manager Dr. Chris Byra notes the virus caught the U.S. by surprise and, by the time it was diagnosed, it had been in the country for a period of time so for the first few months there was no coordinated approach to controlling the infection or conducting research.
I think in a sense Canada had the opportunity to see what was happening there, establish protocols and establish strategies that we would use if the disease hot.
Leadership in dealing with this is kind of in place with the Canadian Swine Health Board and the Canadian Pork Council from a national perspective and then within provinces the pork boards and the provincial governments are very rapidly working together on these.
So part of the experience from the U.S. that has been beneficial to us is that we could see mistakes made or ways that it could have been done better and we had six months to develop plans on our side of the border.
In addition then the response and the communication is much more coordinated as will be the investigations and research into this.
Just this last week we had a telephone call with our American counterparts and we’re starting to coordinate our activities north and south of the border as well, especially in terms of answering questions that we have to come up with answers for.
Is feed involved for example, what are the new genotypes and what does that mean, will vaccine be effective?
There are a number of questions that require research and we are working with our American counterparts.
Dr. Byra says there is evidence biosecurity measures will prevent the infection from spreading so there is still optimism that we’re going to be able to eradicate the disease.
