Virus returns with cooler weather | Hog official says now is the time to redouble efforts to ward off disease
A second case of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in Manitoba’s hog production heartland in September has officials urging farmers to crack down on biosecurity lapses.
The fall and winter infection season is imminent, and farmers and truckers have no time to relax.
“Our fear is that after a couple of months people get slack about biosecurity,” said Andrew Dickson, general manager of the Manitoba Pork Council. “You have got to maintain your biosecurity standards.”
The two cases, which were discovered within a week of each other in late September in the Red River Valley, worries hog industry players because so much of the industry is based there.
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Farms are close to each other there, rather than being spread out like they are in southwestern Manitoba or the rest of the Prairies.
The valley’s farms had not been affected by the PED epidemic raging south of the border, even though hogs from that region continuously flow into Minnesota and Iowa.
Manitoba’s two previous PED cases were in the southwest and associated with an assembly yard.
However, the two cases in the late September were found in neigh-bouring barns after producers no-ticed signs of possible infection.
The pause in infections over the summer is not a surprise. Veterinary officials say the disease, as with human influenza and colds, has trouble surviving and spreading in warm conditions.
However, the virus becomes stable, stronger and able to spread with alarming speed and severity when outside temperatures drop.
Hog industry players across North America are monitoring infection reports to see if the expected surge in outbreaks occurs as the weather cools.
Dickson said Manitoba farmers are still fortunate that so few infections have been discovered in their province and have every reason to believe they can keep the disease out this year after stomping it out on the two new infected farms.
Manitoba has only a few places where disease can enter, including a handful of crossings to the United States and one main one to Ontario at West Hawk Lake.
As well, the Manitoba industry is structured in a way that allows farms to stay clean. Much of the farrow-to-finish industry is controlled by 85 Hutterite colonies, each of which operates independently and can manage its own exposure.
Maple Leaf Foods and HyLife own one-third of the sow herd, and they have expertise and a closed system that can eliminate most risks.
“In their systems they have people, staff, to control this,” said Dickson.
“Very rigid. They’re prepared to pour resources into this.”
That leaves independent producers and service providers, most of whom are following tight biosecurity rules. However, Dickson said fatigue with wearing booties and disinfecting trucks might be reducing some people’s standards, and now is the time to redouble those biosecurity standards as the seasonal risk grows.
For example, Dickson said some farmers appear to be doing their own truck-washing. He said it’s OK to do that, but not at a lower standard than at a professional truck wash.
Dickson said two workers at a professional truck wash take about two hours to clean and disinfect a truck, but some farmers are doing their own in about half an hour, which isn’t good enough.
He said only rigorous biosecurity will eliminate PED from Manitoba and stop it spreading.
“This is the only way you’ll control this disease.”
