Heroic efforts to keep a deadly hog disease at bay in Canada may be for naught due to pending regulatory moves by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Ironically, the very federal agency tasked with keeping animal disease out of the country could increase the risk that porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) virus will become a greater threat in Western Canada.
As PED ravaged the American pork industry, infecting thousands of hog operations and killing millions of piglets, Canadian swine health agencies, provincial pork groups and veterinarians collaborated to limit damage.
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And despite the ease with which PED can move, just over 100 operations were affected and only seven barns in Manitoba lost pigs to the virus. Other western provinces are infection free.
Hog transport trucks travelling to and from the United States are deemed the most likely vector for virus spread, so emergency measures at the main Manitoba border crossing ensured the trucks were sealed upon entering Canada and then taken directly to a wash station for thorough cleaning, disinfection and drying.
From there, the trucks travel to hog operations throughout Western Canada.
The emergency measure was a success, judging from current PED infection numbers.
But as of Oct. 1, the CFIA says it will enforce regulations that transport trucks be washed on the American side of the border. That sounds like a good idea, except there are few U.S. truck washes that can adequately do the job.
And that means transports that appear clean might still carry the virus. It also means they will have to be washed again on the Canadian side if producers want to be certain of cleanliness.
Why is the CFIA cancelling the emergency protocol? As has become commonplace when seeking information from that agency, the CFIA did not respond to queries.
In a notification to the industry, it said its plan would reduce the risk of disease transmission. The Canadian pork industry disagrees.
George Matheson, chair of the Manitoba Pork Council, said it appears to be an effort on the CFIA’s part to avoid liability should the virus become widespread in Canada.
He also said the emergency protocol incurred no major cost to the agency beyond periodic inspections. Manitoba Pork paid for the tags and private industry paid for the rest. So, cost to federal taxpayers does not seem to have been a factor in the decision.
Manitoba Pork has asked the CFIA for an extension of the emergency protocol while it explores options to keep Canadian pigs free of PED. One of those options is to build an adequate truck wash station in North Dakota, near the busiest border crossing for returning hog truck traffic.
That way, the CFIA regulations could actually work to reduce the risk of viral spread.
The requested extension should be granted.
