It’s no shock that an isolated case of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus appeared on a Manitoba farm at the beginning of May, says Manitoba Pork.

The disease is common in the U.S. and is expected to appear from time to time.

“We’re not really surprised,” said spokesperson Mark Fynn.

“We know we have the disease in the U.S. We know our assembly yards have some of the virus. We sort of expect to see one or two pop up a year.”

A southeastern Manitoba sow-to-wean barn broke with the disease in late April and the disease was confirmed May 2.

The provincial chief veterinary officer’s office and Manitoba Agriculture imposed the usual lockdown on access to and from the farm and have traced-out people who have been in contact with the farm and checked all nearby hog farms for infection.

As of May 5, no signs of PED had appeared anywhere off the farm.

“We rarely find a smoking gun,” Fynn said, so people should not expect to find a definitive source of the disease outbreak.

The last previous Manitoba case was reported in September.

Contact ed.white@producer.com