A Tillsonburg, Ontario based swine veterinarian says, while it’s unlikely Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea will be eliminated from Ontario, the virus is containable.
“Lessons Learned From PEDv on the Ground” was among the topics discussed last week in Winnipeg as part of the 2015 Manitoba Swine Seminar.
Dr. Sue Burlatshenko, with Goshen Ridge Veterinary Services in Tillsonburg, the veterinary practice involved in the first diagnosis of PED in Ontario just over one year ago, says last summer there was still some very positive thinking that we would eliminate the virus by fall or by winter but that hope has waned.
Being a sort of a sour scientist sometimes, it’s a coronavirus, it loves cold weather, it transfers very easily so my comment was at the time, well, I think I’m going to wait and see what happens during the winter and then we’ll know better.
Unfortunately we’ve had some more breaks this winter in Ontario so it appears that this is a virus, as in the United States, that we’ll be living with.
It’s still going to be there.
I don’t think we’re going to get it moved out but it’s certainly containable.
I really think that and I’ve said this many times, I really think that the pork industry across Canada has done a magnificent job of providing information and science to swine producers across the country and that everybody took significant effort to try and keep the virus off of their farm.
I think that’s why we can pat ourselves on the back a little bit and say we’ve kept it to this level.
It could have been much much worse and unfortunately for the Americans they were ahead of us so we could see what was happening and it allowed us to prepare and get our teams in place and I think that’s why we’ve managed to keep it where it’s at.
Dr. Burlatshenko acknowledges there is a large gap in our knowledge but we do know, when it comes to PED, cleanliness is next to godliness so keep on cleaning and disinfecting.
