Manitoba Pork wants to know how long the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus can survive adverse conditions.
It is working with the Manitoba Livestock Manure Initiative and the provincial agriculture ministry to collect manure samples and assess how long the virus can survive in a lagoon and if it is capable of infecting pigs.
About 600 sites have participated, but smaller farms have not become as involved, said Mark Fynn of Manitoba Pork.
Most of the testing involves lagoon tests to gauge the presence of the virus.
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Manure samples are collected at different depths from 12 locations where the virus was discovered in May. Manure temperature, ambient air temperature and pH levels are measured to see if they affect the virus.
Virus has been found but the researchers do not know if it is still capable of causing disease.
Farmers are also being encouraged to collect swabs from their pigs and send them for testing. This could potentially cover all pigs in the province.
Clinical signs for mature pigs are subtle and could be easily missed. A broad survey of this type could look for a wider range of stock in the province.
