The hog industry spent millions on truck washes to contain the deadly virus and it’s ‘only a matter of time before we get a disease in cattle’
Manitoba’s hog industry has invested millions of dollars in truck and trailer washes to prevent the spread of deadly diseases such as porcine epidemic virus.
A provincial veterinarian said companies that transport cattle should follow the sector’s lead and invest time and money in cattle trailer sanitation.
Otherwise, a deadly cattle disease may be inevitable.
“The industry norm is to not sanitize the trailer as much as we do for swine…. We’ve gotten away with it for generations,” said Wayne Tomlinson, who spoke at a feedlot and cattle backgrounding workshop in Brandon Oct. 28.
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“It is only a matter of time before we get a disease in cattle … that’s highly contagious…. It will probably be a new disease that we’ve never heard of before.”
The Manitoba government in-vested $825,000 in March to im-prove and expand truck washes in Brandon and Blumenort, Man. The washes have baking bays, where temperatures can reach 71 C to kill hazardous viruses such as PED.
Tomlinson said hogs are more susceptible to contagious diseases than cows, but viruses spread rapidly on trailers when cattle are together, especially when they are commingled from different farms.
“You take bugs from a whole bunch of different (farms) … then you put them on a cattle trailer where it’s hot and humid. They’ve got nose to nose contact and they are going to share those bugs,” said Tomlinson, who compared a cattle trailer to a kindergarten classroom when it comes to being an incubator for disease.
“By the time they get from the auction mart to your feedlot, they have shared every bug. If one of them has (it), they all have it.”
Viruses and pathogens can linger, even when temperatures drop to -30 C, if a cattle trailer isn’t sanitized after dropping off a shipment.
“PED virus does very well in cold weather. It doesn’t do well in hot weather. It depends on the pathogen,” Tomlinson said.
Cattle producers can take steps to improve biosecurity on their farms, aside from livestock transport.
The Growing Forward 2 program provides financial assistance for farmers who want to build a quarantine pen.
“So when you notice that animals are sick … you can… have a separate watering system and separate pen where there isn’t nose to nose contact with healthy animals,” said Linda Fox, Manitoba Agriculture’s livestock specialist in Ste. Rose du Lac.
Handling dead cattle is another on-farm biosecurity concern, Fox said. For example, a front-end loader should be sanitized when it is used to move a dead cow.
Tomlinson said a contagious and deadly disease is possible if cattle trailers aren’t sanitized, but the persistence of pathogens in trailers may also be having detrimental effects right now because the feedlot industry suffers if animals get sick on a trailer.
Sick animals require treatment, gain less weight and compromise feedlot profitability.
