What may well be the first of several or many Town Hall phone-in’s depending on PED virus infections in Manitoba saw over 200 people call in to mostly listen to excellent presenters and credible and informed people hosted by the Manitoba Pork Council on January 31.
Karl Kynoch, chair of Manitoba Pork, had invited all industry stakeholders to participate in a teleconference on Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) to allow producers to find out the latest news in how this disease is spreading in the U.S. and now into Ontario.
Manitoba Pork and government officials outlined what measures the industry is taking to test for the presence of the disease in Manitoba, and what they will do if a case of an infection on a farm in Manitoba.
Kynoch reminded all producers they need to work closely with their veterinarian to ensure they are meeting the very highest bio-security standards on the their farms.
“We can contain this disease and herds will recover if everyone co-operates for the good of the community,” says the MPC chair.
Dr Glen Duizer, the provincial animal surveillance vet says it is crucial to find the cases really early in getting the jump on this disease, if it comes to Manitoba.
“From the perspective of the provincial government and chief veterinary office, it is not a provincial reportable disease, however, its close relation to TGE allows us some leeway and we are treating any pigs with signs of TGE, and this should be reported to us,” said Duizer. “That is a benefit to producers because it allows us to follow up and get the testing and diagnostics done rapidly. If it is the PED virus we can work with industry to also respond rapidly.”
He says vets in the province know if they see those signs, they will report immediately to CVO. The province is supporting 100 per cent the diagnostic and sampling costs for this to happen quickly, while the farmer pays any vet costs.
“For samples in any case that is a suspect re PED pigs, or if you see something on your farm that is suspicious, in nursery pigs, get on it and report it,” Duizer said. “Surveillance is incredibly important getting the high contact, high risk areas under surveillance as quickly as possible.”
The province is working with industry and the three western provinces to get a coordinated surveillance plan out right away, expecting to have the first stages of that working plan out in the first week of February.
“Our focus will be to work with the slaughter plants, assembly yards, and truck wash stations to get an effective surveillance program as quickly as possible,” he adds. “The response plan in Manitoba if we do get a positive animal within a herd, will be to work closely with the Pork Council, attending farm vet with the herd, and the producer to have key approaches to containing it on the site right away, to establish a zone right around the infected farm, and to notify producers in that zone as quickly as possible.”
That way those producers can ramp up their biosecurity protocols immediately. Then work with the vet, and producer, and find out where the other contacts are and get those under surveillance as quickly as possible, too, says Duizer.
“If we get a positive case, we will work very quickly to make sure that any herds that have contact or in a region close to that zone to keep the herd under test,” he says. “To find the disease as quickly as possible, is the key.”
Should it infect multiple farms, they have strategies and plans in place to make sure to maintain pig flow. Including the service, feed components, and trucks working together and people travelling in the infected zone can move in and out in such way as to maintain biosecurity as much as possible.
“This is to help maintain the disease on the infected farms and help them get back on their feet after the infection as quickly as possible,” said Duizer.
He says the key point critical to all this is farm biosecurity and can’t stress enough this is the only way to protect the farms.
“Truckers and producers have received many messages that a producer has the right to turn a truck away, if not cleaned to your satisfaction,” he says. “That said we are working with truck wash stations that are doing their very best to make sure they clean and disinfect those trucks cleaned before they come onto your farm.”
These wash stations segregate trucks returning from the U.S. and making sure there is special attention applied to them.
“What comes on to your farm is both your responsibility and opportunity to say yes or no,” he says. “We will provide you with as much info to make sure you can make a good decision in that regard.”
Duizer makes one other point that it is up to the industry to let non-producers know it is not a disease that affects human health, or not a food safety risk, and not a disease that is any concern to any other species of animals.
“It is important that we have the public comfortable with what we are doing from that side,” he says. “We know that within this industry we know and understand it, but when talking to those on the outside, they need to have a level of assurance, we’re doing all we can and their food is safe.” •
— By Harry Siemens