News - Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea

The manager of animal health and welfare programs with Manitoba Pork says stepped attention to transportation biosecurity will be key to keeping Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea off Manitoba hog farms as the weather turns colder.

Farmers at Keystone Agricultural Producers general council meeting this past week supported a resolution calling on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to halt a plan that pork producers believe will put their industry back at risk for porcine epidemic diarrhea virus.

Research conducted on behalf of the Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Imitative has shown the virus responsible for PED is capable of surviving over Manitoba winters in earthen manure storages.

The manager of animal health and welfare programs with Manitoba Pork says farms in the province that had been infected with PED no longer pose any risk of transmitting the virus.

A Veterinary Epidemiologist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry says U.S. traffic coming into Manitoba continues to pose the greatest risk for exposing the western Canadian swine herd to PED.

The American Association of Swine Veterinarians expects the winter of 2015 to be a benchmark period in terms of understanding what the future will look like from a PED standpoint.

The Executive Director of the Swine Health Information Center says early awareness of pending disease threats is the key to being prepared.

Environmental testing has shown that PED, TGE and Delta Coronavirus remain a threat in western Canada.

An Alberta based swine veterinarian reports tremendous progress has been made this summer throughout North America in the effort to contain and eliminate the virus responsible for Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea.

Manitoba Pork is calling for an extension of a regulation designed to reduce the risk of spreading PED into Canada.