Canada could be free of porcine epidemic diarrhea cases by next summer.
It’s possible, said swine veterinarian Dr. Egan Brockhoff.
Efforts to eradicate the virus in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba are going well, and Prince Edward Island has eradicated it at the one hog operation infected last year.
“If this winter goes really, really well in Ontario, there is an expectation that the summer of 2016 could be our eradication year for PED in Ontario and certainly, fingers crossed … Canada could be PED free on all farms,” Brockhoff told those on an Alberta Pork conference call Oct. 9.
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Eradication would be a spectacular success story, given the virus’s ease of spread and the fact that PED is considered endemic in the United States, which has major pig trade with Canada.
Brockhoff said Quebec had eliminated the virus from 14 of 16 sites once infected, and the other two should test negative shortly. Control efforts constitute “just a phenomenal success story in Quebec. They have been aggressively testing trucks for PED coming out of Ontario.”
As for Ontario, which had the bulk of the country’s PED-infected premises, Brockhoff said about 75 percent of those are now negative for infection.
Manitoba, which had five infected hog operations, has declared one of them free of the disease and another two should be proven negative shortly, said veterinary epidemiologist Dr. Julia Keenliside.
She noted that surveillance programs continue to detect evidence of PED in Manitoba, primarily on sites that have regular contact with trucks travelling from the United States.
“I think that is a reminder for everyone in Western Canada that that’s probably our weak link, is our portal with the U.S. through that traffic through Manitoba,” said Keenliside.
She said Manitoba Agriculture’s tests on manure from a site that last tested positive for PED in February had troubling results.
“The manure has sat throughout the summer and they … found that all of the samples were still positive, and many of them strongly so, so this serves as a warning that stored manure even after several months can still be a source of PED when we’re cleaning up these farms,” she said.
“So manure remains, I think, one of our biggest risks for spreading and transporting this disease into Canada.”
PED can travel in manure stuck to trucks, trailers, boots and other surfaces.
The virus has killed millions of piglets in the U.S., and Brockhoff said there are still positive cases in 34 states.
However, he said the U.S. is making progress in battling the virus, and vaccine development has played a pivotal role.
In most cases, available vaccines are used to control infection rather than prevent it.
“The overwhelming thought is still the vaccines probably have the greatest value when they are administered in the herds that are already positive,” he said.
Vaccines are available, which bodes well for Canada should there be more cases.
“We do feel we have stronger tools today than we did two years ago, so that’s great news,” Brockhoff said.
