Producers want violators of biosecurity and transportation rules punished
RIDGETOWN, Ont. — Governments must enforce protocols and pig movement as a way to tackle North America’s No. 1 swine disease, says an American veterinarian.
“I think we can eradicate PRRS (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome), but we need more oomph to get everyone to participate,” Dr. Tim Loula of the Swine Vet Centre in St. Peter’s, Minnesota, told the recent Southwest Pork Conference. “We need to get government involved.”
Loula applauded the co-ordinated approach being taken in Ontario to eradicate porcine epidemic diarrhea.
“We want you to go negative here in Ontario,” he said. “That will be a tremendous thing for the North American industry. If you guys can get rid of it, it would be setting a great example for the rest of us.”
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Still, Loula said PED is a secondary consideration compared to PRRS.
“PED is bad but it tends to be over with in a hurry. PRRS sticks around and it can be worse, especially if you’ve got a more virulent strain.”
He referred to an operation where 100 sows died in one day.
PED cases have subsided since the peak of the epidemic last winter in the United States. They briefly reached epidemic proportions in early February but have since fallen off.
Veterinarian Brent Jones said the pattern has been similar in Ontario. The crisis peaked last March, subsided over the summer and only in recent weeks picked up with 10 sites identified since Dec. 1.
Three of those sites have since tested negative, and the rest are well on their way to being cleared, he said.
“We think transportation is connected with at least seven of those 10 cases.”
One herd infection was caused after a gilt escaped during transit during a brief stop at a small, provincially inspected abattoir, Jones said. It picked up the PED virus on the abattoir’s grounds and brought it to a PED-free facility.
There was an audible groan from producers at the meeting upon hearing of that incident.
Jones said it’s the kind of story that emphasizes the importance of biosecurity. The pig intended for slaughter should have been dropped off last. Alternatively, the heavy cost of the PED herd infection could have been avoided had the gilt been slaughtered at the abattoir.
Loula said sanitation, biosecurity and proper pig flow are important ways to control disease.
Systems are being put in place in Ontario and the United States to stop trucks that deliver pigs, feed and other services from coming into direct contact with barns and farm trucks. These systems can be simple and inexpensive. The idea is to have an intermediary structure or chute through which animals move and that can be washed and disinfected.
Loula said U.S. producers are in-stalling air filtration systems along with Dutch-bench entry systems and rigorous sanitation protocols. These filter the air coming into barns and exhaust air as people enter and pigs exit. Pushing warm air out of a barn’s loading point has an added benefit in winter.
“The pigs load easier. They don’t going out into cold air,” Loula said.
There is also an emphasis on washing livestock transport trucks, whether they’re used internally or by outside companies.
Loula described one 30,000 sow operation where the cost of a wash bay and an adjacent high-temperature drying bay was initially estimated at $1.5 million but eventually came to $3 million.
A thorough washing job is required along with a drying period and use of a disinfectant. In Ontario, two disinfectants were tested through the province’s Area Regional Control and Elimination program for PRRS and PED.
Accel and Synergize both performed well when combined with thorough washing. Accel may have the added benefit of being able to decontaminate small pieces of organic matter, Jones said.
The program is part of the Ontario Swine Health Advisory Board, which is directed by the Ontario Pork Industry Council.
One of the primary functions of advisory board is to share disease status information among producers to address PRRS and PED in a co-ordinated fashion. The ultimate goal is to sign up as many producers as possible.
Dr. Lori Moser, managing director of the pork industry council, said 800 pig sites have been enrolled. .
Jones said PRRS can only be controlled in Ontario, while there’s a reasonable chance that PED can be eliminated.
The OSHAD program is also looking at the “fire hose” wash alternative to wash bay facilities. Currently there are not enough wash bays in the province to deal with all trucks transporting pigs.
“When we’re talking about the fire hose wash, we’re looking at it as some-thing to use when making one-way trips,” Moser noted.
Trailer testing, improving pig flow protocols and depopulation strategies are also part of the advisory board program.
Loula said the U.S. might have been further along in addressing PED if not for last summer’s exceptionally strong prices, which discouraged producers from depopulating their barns.
Instead, many adopted a feedback regimen, in which they purposely infect sows and gilts with PED to induce an immune response. Some of this may have been happening anyway, he added.
A study conducted at the University of Minnesota found that the PED virus can survive in manure pits for up to four months.
“We’re at break even now in the U.S. We went from making $70 a pig last summer to making zero,” Loula said.
Packers were also doing well last summer, he added, earning as much as $30 per pig, which is up from the $8 to $10 that producers can live with.
In the longer term, a new packing plant that the Clemens Food Group plans to open in 2018 in Coldwater, Michigan, could lead to increased production in the region.
