Blood plasma feed ingredient still suspect in deadly pig virus

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Updated: Wed. Feb. 19, 2014

Original story published Tues. Feb. 18, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s preliminary test results show porcine blood plasma, an ingredient used in feed for just weaned pigs, may be a vector that could contribute to the spread of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, says Canada’s chief veterinarian Harpreet Kochhar.

But “the feed, as such, has not been implicated,” says Kochhar, adding they just got these results 30 minutes before the Ontario Pork telephone meeting started at noon Tuesday. The one-hour meeting was held to update producers on PED in Ontario. So far, there are confirmed cases on 16 farms in the province along with PED virus being found at Ontario assembly yards, processing plants, throughout the transportation system and in feed samples.

Kochhar says the results are “very preliminary” and CFIA is continuing its tests. He speculates there could have been contamination of the plasma after production or “there is some compromise in the plasma production.” The plasma in piglet feed is “sprayed at a very high temperature, which should kill the virus,” he notes.

“There are more things we need to get to in terms of getting a very clear picture whether feed itself could be a contributing vector or a vector for the disease transmission,” he says. “But one of the products introduced in the feed, the porcine plasma, seems to be indicative as a vector, which could be actually transmitting the disease.”

The CFIA is testing feed after samples from Ontario farms with confirmed PED cases were found to contain PED genetic material. The testing is being done at the CFIA lab in Winnipeg by feeding the product to “the pigs of the susceptible age and see if that product is able to replicate the disease symptoms,” he explains.

The feed CFIA researchers are using to give one group of pigs tested positive for containing the PED viral genetic material but that “does not prove that it is infective or not,” Kochhar says. Another group of pigs were given just the plasma.

Earlier this month, Cambridge-based feed manufacturer, Grand Valley Fortifiers, voluntarily withdrew three nursery feed products that contained porcine blood plasma from the market, called customers and told them not feed the product any more and to substitute it with another of their products that doesn’t contain animal byproducts.

Grand Valley Fortifiers urged other feed companies to also withdraw their plasma-containing feeds.

Kochhar says he’s “very confident” that since Grand Valley Fortifiers has voluntarily withdrawn its product “we are using our judgment and prudence to make sure that if there is a possibility of that feed being available on any of the farms we are not actually feeding the pigs with that.”

In other PED news, Cathy Furness, Ontario agriculture ministry lead veterinarian, planning and preparedness, says of the 16 confirmed cases 11 are farrow-to-finish herds, four are wean-to-finish herds and there is one finisher herd. The smallest herd has 150 sows, while the largest has 2,500 sows. There are also PED cases in large nursery operations “as well as finisher sites. These sites have been multi-site operations as well as herds contained in a single unit.”

Some of the herds are open, while others have been closed for “a considerable period of time,” she says, noting all of the herds with confirmed PED have different types of feeding systems from compete feeds to liquid feeding systems while other farmers mill their own feeds. “We’ve also noted differences in biosecurity practices between the herds.”

Furness says the virus on the first confirmed 500-sow farrow-to-finish farm in Middlesex County in January “has been sequenced and it’s virtually 100 per cent similar to that of the U.S. strain.”

There has been a variety of ways the disease is affecting pigs on farms. In the first herd, the producer noted there was scouring in only two litters on Jan. 21, when he reported symptoms to his veterinarian and samples were sent to the Guelph animal health lab for testing. The lab subsequently confirmed PED in the herd. Within 24 hours of the two litters having scouring, the farmer noticed there was scouring in all of the litters in his farrowing room.

That’s in contrast to another farmer who first noticed the disease in older piglets and diarrhea wasn’t observed in the newborn piglets until six days after the disease hit the farm. “”In general, the mortality in piglets has been 100 per cent,” she says.

The virus doesn’t affect food safety and isn’t a risk to human health. Pork is still safe for consumers to eat.

In the nursery barns, one producer saw only mild signs of diarrhea and vomiting and samples were later confirmed to be PED positive. Another farmer had extensive vomiting, diarrhea and appetite reduction among pigs in his nursery barn “that has lasted between four to seven days,” Furness says.

In grower and finisher pigs, “there have been reports of mild diarrhea and a reduction in appetite to more significant signs of vomiting and diarrhea,” she says.

Tim Pasma, Ontario agriculture ministry lead veterinarian of epidemiology, says the Ontario swine industry is very highly integrated “and so in our cases we have lots of common linkages between cases and this involves feed suppliers, assembly yards and slaughter plants. These are all part of our ongoing investigation.”

He says farmers should work closely with their veterinarian and be vigilant in watching for diarrhea in their animals. The provincial agriculture ministry covers the costs of testing for PED in herds. BF

Update: Wed. Feb. 19, 2014

Four more cases of PED in Ontario  

by SUSAN MANN

The provincial agriculture ministry is reporting four more confirmed cases of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus on Ontario farms, bringing the number of confirmed cases in Ontario to 20.

Three of the cases are on farrow-to-finish operations in Oxford County, while the fourth one is on a farrow-to-wean operation in Perth County. They were all confirmed Feb. 18, the ministry says in its PED section on its website.

There is also one confirmed case on a Manitoba farm and one on a Prince Edward Island farm. Those cases were confirmed Feb. 14.

The Ontario agriculture ministry says since Jan. 25 off farm sampling continues at Ontario assembly yards, trucking yards and processing plants. Some positive samples have been found, while there are also many negative samples.

In cases where positive samples are found, cleaning and disinfection are heightened, the ministry says. “All parts of the supply chain are encouraged to maintain strict biosecurity to limit the virus’ spread.” BF