The federal government will spend $76 million over the next four years to combat a disease that has been described as the swine industry’s BSE.
The money will be used to fund research into and control measures for porcine circovirus associated diseases (PCVAD).
The incidence of PCVAD, which used to be called multisystemic wasting syndrome, has been on the increase across the country in recent years, after bursting onto the scene in Quebec during the winter of 2004-05.
Frank Marshall, a veterinarian from Camrose, Alta., said a conservative estimate is that PCVAD has resulted in losses of $34 million to hog producers in Alberta alone in the last year.
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“This disease has been around for some time, but in the last five years it has mutated enough to the point where we are getting epidemic death loss,” he said.
Mortality rates on farms in his area of Alberta can range from 30 to more than 60 percent.
Animals affected by the diseases exhibit a wide variety of symptoms, including anorexia and rapid weight loss, lack of thrift, skin discolouration, respiratory problems and diarrhea.
The federal money will be used for herd inoculation, research, biosecurity and long-term risk management.
Marshall said newly available piglet vaccines have been a “godsend” to the industry, reducing death rates to less than one percent and enabling pigs to grow 20 percent faster.
Christian Paradis, federal secretary of state for agriculture, said the government will do what’s necessary to protect the hog sector’s profitability.
“We recognize the challenge that producers are facing and through this initiative we will work with industry and veterinarians to give producers the necessary tools to aggressively combat these diseases,” he said.
Canadian Pork Council president Clare Schlegel welcomed the federal funding, saying that while PCVAD do not threaten human health, they have had “severe economic impacts” on producers.
Among the measures producers can take to combat PCVAD are: vaccination against porcine circovirus type 2; control of other infections such as porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome; early identification and removal of PCVAD cases; minimal mixing of pigs; and improved biosecurity.
