Ontario's pork producers advised to take precautions after new PED case emerges

Friday, November 14, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

After more than three months without a confirmed case of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, another one was identified earlier this week in Middlesex County bringing the count of confirmed cases in Ontario to 64.

The farrow-to-finish farm was confirmed to be positive for PED virus Nov. 12 after samples were submitted Monday when the pigs started having clinical signs of the disease. It’s the first case in Ontario since the summer when a Perth County farrow-to-finish farm was confirmed to have the virus on July 21. The virus was first confirmed in Ontario Jan. 22 on a Middlesex County farm.

PED does not pose a risk for food safety, human health or other animals besides pigs. But it is a significant production disease threat for the pork industry and causes diarrhea and vomiting in pigs. Mortality in nursing pigs is almost 100 per cent while older pigs can recover.

Ontario Pork says in a website notice the farmer in the Nov. 12 case and his veterinarian have developed a control and elimination plan for the farm and have notified the operation’s key service providers.

The organization is encouraging all producers to review their biosecurity procedures on their farms. “The use of unwashed trucks is a significant risk for PED transmission,” the notice says.

Dean Gurney, Ontario Pork’s manager of industry and member services, says, “we know that winter is when this virus is most virulent. It likes the cold weather.”

He adds that with the return of cold weather “we knew that this time of year we should be on the lookout and try and stress to all the producers to make sure their biosecurity is still being practiced.”

While officials don’t know how much PED virus pressure there is in Ontario now, “we’re really encouraged on how we’ve come through this summer,” he says. “There are a number of originally positive farms that are showing really good signs of having negative test results out of their farms. But we know the virus is still out there. We just need to make sure the industry isn’t complacent.”

The more than three month lull in the number of positive test results doesn’t mean the virus is gone from Ontario. “It’s still out there and we still need to be practicing good biosecurity,” he says. BF