by SUSAN MANN
There could be more cases of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus turning up in Ontario than just the one found on a Middlesex County farrow-to-finish operation Wednesday, says Ontario’s chief veterinarian Greg Douglas.
But the virus isn’t going to spread from this farm “because there aren’t any movements coming off this farm,” he says. There is a question as to what extent the virus exists now in the Ontario and Canadian environment. The pressure from the virus in swine agriculture is intensifying and “we might get other cases just because of that,’ he notes.
The province is continuing to work with the farmer in this case and “explore our options in terms of how we might decrease the viral load,” he says. The province’s efforts are centred on containing the virus.
The farmer in this situation is disappointed but calm. “You can well imagine how you’d feel when you’re the first case in Canada, ” Douglas says.
The Ontario agriculture ministry isn’t identifying the farmer for privacy reasons but Douglas says “this is a closed herd,” and that means pigs aren’t coming on the farm. “The sows that he has inside the barn stay there. He doesn’t have breeding stock coming onto the farm.”
However, last week some pigs did leave the farm, he adds.
Currently, the Middlesex County hog farmer is voluntarily not shipping hogs to market but the farm isn’t under quarantine. “He doesn’t have any marketing scheduled for the next couple of weeks so that works in our favour,” Douglas says. “He has no need to move pigs in the next couple of weeks. Our solution, in terms of what we do based on some of the ongoing work we’re doing, has to be done in the next little while.”
Ontario Pork communications and consumer marketing manager Mary Jane Quinn says the ministry hasn’t given the farmer’s name to the organization. “We have just said to the ministry to let the producer know that Ontario Pork’s thoughts are with this producer. If the producer wants to reach out to Ontario Pork, we are here to help support with resources and things like that.”
The investigation into pig and people movement at the farm continues, she says.
Canada’s chief veterinarian Harpreet Kochhar says it’s the Ontario agriculture ministry that’s taking the lead in managing the investigation and the response to the PED detection. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency supports and will continue supporting the agriculture ministry’s response to the situation.
“Any time they (the Ontario agriculture ministry) want to get detections confirmed, our laboratory will be available to do that,” he says. “That’s been our main role into this one.”
As for pork farmers in general, Quinn says there’s a bit of fear and speculation in the community about what this (the confirmed PED case) means for the industry.
Susan Murray, Ontario agriculture ministry spokesperson, says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Winnipeg laboratory has confirmed the Ontario lab’s finding that the sample taken from the Middlesex County hog farm is PED. “They were using the same test so there wasn’t really much doubt” that the sample was confirmed to be PED.
PED is transmitted from one pig to another and through inanimate objects, such as boots. The virus doesn’t pose a human health or food safety risk but it is a production limiting disease causing vomiting and diarrhea in pigs. It doesn’t pose a risk to other animals besides pigs.
In the United States, more than one million pigs have already died since the virus was first reported there last spring. The virus is now in 23 states.
Martin Rice, Canadian Pork Council executive director, says they’re not aware of any implications for Canadian pork exports. “The U.S. has not lost any markets that we’re aware of for pork.” But Mexico has put restrictions on U.S. pig genetics, such as semen and embryos, into its country.
PED has been found for a long time in Europe and Asia. “It’s not something that was first discovered in North America,” he says.
Since PED isn’t a World Organization for Animal Health-listed disease like foot and mouth disease, it’s really up to countries to deal with it on their own and there’s no basis for countries to implement international trade restrictions for animal health protection, Rice says.
Although the initial finding of the disease was in Ontario, the situation is becoming more national, Rice says. In Quebec, Richard Vigneault, spokesman for meat packing and food processing company Olymel, says some PED virus was found on an unloading dock Tuesday at the company’s facility northeast of Montreal. But the virus wasn’t found on an animal at Olymel.
“We gave that information to the authorities on Tuesday night,” he says. The company has increased the frequency of its testing, along with enhancing its biosecurity measures and its cleaning and disinfecting procedures. In addition, the company is working with Quebec’s swine health team, ministry of agriculture and other officials.
Olymel representatives are also monitoring the confirmed presence of PED on the Ontario farm in Middlesex County.
Asked if the two cases are linked, Vigneault says he couldn’t say. There’s currently an ongoing investigation “to identify the source of the virus” at the Olymel plant.
Olymel is still receiving hogs and conducting its business but under enhanced biosecurity control and monitoring, he says.
Now that PED has been confirmed in Ontario, Mike DeGroot, Ontario Pork national biosecurity coordinator, says farmers should review their biosecurity protocols with their herd veterinarian and look into any changes they can make. Farmers should particularly review biosecurity protocols “around pig transport because that’s one way that we know that the virus is easily moved around.”
Farmers can do visual inspections of trucks coming on to their farm to ensure the trucks have been washed and disinfected. “A lot of it is working with the transporter and having confidence in the transporter you work with that they’re following protocols correctly,” he says, adding farmers should talk to their transporter to ensure the company is washing and disinfecting trucks.
DeGroot says of the trucks returning from delivering hogs in the United States “we’ve got it set up now that most of them should be getting washed properly.” The trucks are either washed in the United States or once they return to Canada.
There isn’t readily available biosecure truck washing facilities in the United States. “A lot of them are privately owned and it’s difficult for our transporters to get in there. Some of the washing is done here in Ontario,” he says.
Farmers should also continue focusing on the foot traffic and people going in and out of barns. For dead stock, farmers should ensure they’re not picking up bugs through third-party pick up and removal of dead animals. Trucks collecting dead animals aren’t typically cleaned, he says. “But a good strategy is to have the pick up done off farm so those trucks aren’t coming right” close to the barn site.
Talking to feed service and other service providers is also a good idea to ensure they’re aware of the farm’s biosecurity protocols and they follow them when they arrive, DeGroote says.
Materials for the biosecurity standard are on the Canadian Swine Health Board website at: www.swinehealth.ca.
If PED starts to spread in Ontario, farmers need to confirm pigs they source from other farms are negative for the virus when bringing new pigs on their farm, he explains.
Quinn says another tip is farmers shouldn’t wear their barn boots to meetings, as now is the time when all of the association meetings are being held. BF
Comments
This is not the 1970's anymore. Todays producers dont wear their barn boots to meetings anymore. They probably even shower before they leave their property. What an irresposible comment from Ontario Pork.
For some reason biosecurity doesn't seem to help with this one. There's already been a vet who showered in and out of a farm with PED using all the protocols then went to another one 6 hours later and showered and disinfected in again, swabbed his nostrils and mouth in the shower and was still carrying viable virus from the first barn,
You,d have us believe the virus isn,t going to spread because"there aren't,t any movements coming off this farm". I bet there are people coming and going every day. Makes about as much sense as a highly biosecure naturally or power vented facility. Give me a break. I hope they used there $1000 dollar cheque from ontario pork for a nice steak dinner. That's right SM, every hog farm got a thousand dollar cheque for a biosecurity self assessment.
A few regulars on this site have worked to pit farmer against farmer. The comment above is now common practice. Attacking a group of hard working, law abiding, producers that has suffered setbacks and is now bracing for disaster is just wrong! It's just as wrong as cheering when supply managed farmers suffer losses in trade negotiations.
You of course are right,there is nothing more stressful than having animals dying on the farm,especially young ones and knowing you can't really do anything about it.Farmers have to support one another.
l am sure that the US took precautionary measures and it still spread like wildfire between states.The Canadian Pork Industry is so integrated with the US its hard to imagine PED won't have some impact up here.Hard to imagine there will not be some compensation forthcoming if the losses get as bad as the states.
You maybe want to check your recent history . The last time that was tried we ended up with a gutted RMP program..
Anonymous comment modified by editor in accordance with our guidelines.
Agreed.
Seems there are certain commodities especially livestock, who when asked to share their RMP calculation #'s either can't find them or won't be transparent with them. Can someone please why all commodities aren't required to be transparent with their #'s?
Is ontario pork a government agency?
It's not what you know anymore, it's what you don't know.......
Second outbreak confirmed on a farm in Ontario .
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