Alberta Pork producers are demanding Alberta Pork stop the use of porcine blood plasma in piglet diets because of its possible connection to the recent case of the highly contagious virus porcine epidemic diarrhea.
“There seems to be a very good link between PED and this blood plasma. Let’s get onto one page. Let’s be thinking forward and agree not to use it. We can’t say 100 percent this is where the PED came from, but there are way too many links that are coming from blood plasma,” said John Waldner, Hartland Colony’s pig barn manager, during the Western Hog Exchange’s annual general meeting in Red Deer.
“The pork industry in Alberta has been very good to us. If there are a couple more producers that would break with PED then we are putting the entire industry at risk in Alberta.”
A case of PED was confirmed on a southern Alberta hog farm in February. It was the first case of the disease since 2022.
Blood plasma is a highly digestible protein for piglets that start out from switching to milk to solid foods. It has been shown to give nursery piglets a boost. The farm that tested positive for the virus used a spray-dried porcine blood plasma in its feed.
During a presentation by Javier Bahamon, Alberta Pork’s quality assurance and production manager, Marc Barmentloo, a hog producer wanted to know why Alberta Pork wasn’t doing more to stop the use of porcine blood plasma in feed.
“There are rumours that you guys don’t want to do nothing. That is a very big risk. Alberta Pork should be on top of it. You guys do a great job with preventing (African Swine Fever) to come in, but you do nothing to prevent PED from coming here in Alberta. The blood plasma companies that trade in it should burn to the ground tomorrow,” said Barmentloo, of Tofield.
Stopping its use in feed should be Alberta Pork’s number one priority, he said.
Martin Van der Velde of Lacombe said Alberta Pork has had the same discussions about banning the product for 14 years and more action needs to be taken.
“It is time something should be done. Fourteen years is a long time to be talking about it.”
Sandra Spruit, an Alberta Pork director said the organization has discussed the potential problems associated with porcine blood plasma over the years, but it hadn’t been a priority until recently.

“Obviously all members put it on our radar again. We have had the discussion. We would like to post on our website ‘Do not use it’, but we can’t,” said Spruit.
“We put ourselves in harm if we do that. We got to find other ways to do that. Other ways would be to put it in finisher contracts that you can not feed it in the (Canadian Pork Excellence) program, but we’re not the only ones who design the CPE program. It would have to go higher up and that is with the government it takes time. It is not as the board we don’t talk about it and brainstorm about it. It is on our radar and we have to take more action towards it, I agree.”
Bahamon said there is always a concern about risk when a biological product is introduced into the barn. The link to the latest PED case is strong, but it is not the only possible reason for the PED outbreak.
“We found the link, we found other links and the most suggestive one is this, but you can not completely prove it,” said Bahamon.
Producers need to ask themselves if the risk of feeding porcine blood plasma outweighs the risk of potentially introducing the disease into the barn, he said. The product is not banned in Canada and PED is only a reportable disease in Alberta.
“We are asking producers to follow bio-security. Some producers follow bio-security, some producers don’t follow bio-security. The producer has the decision making tools. They can decide if it is good for them or not. We don’t ask producers if they are using it. In Canada it is a product that can be legally used. There is not a way we as Alberta Pork can regulate that part.”
Waldner said despite having only a single case of PED, the potential damage to Alberta’s hog industry is still high if the blood plasma product is still used.
“Let’s not kid ourselves, the risk is not gone. It is like playing Russian roulette and who is the unlucky one who will be next. Ask the producers who have broken with PED. Ask if the risk is enough. It is not worth it. There are feeding programs out there that don’t require blood plasma and they work very good. We at Hartland have been Porcine blood plasma free since 2014 and we have a very good production barn. It is not needed.”
Peter Hofer, of Alix Colony said the discussion around banning the porcine blood plasma shouldn’t simply be an Alberta discussion. Pigs are trucked to the slaughter plants from Saskatchewan where PED cases are also rare and producers are also concerned about the disease.
Ian Moon, manager of hog procurement with Olymel said discussions are underway in both provinces about ways to ensure the provinces remain PED free. “As you pointed out we raise a lot of pigs in Saskatchewan. There are discussions between the boards and we’ll see where it goes. The discussion is not about the nutritional value, it is about the bio-security risk.”
Pork producers in Manitoba have started to face increased PED challenges. There are more than 100 cases in Ontario and it is endemic in US hog barns.
“We’re trying to protect Alberta from PED. If it ever gets out of hand you will never be able to retrace your steps,” said Waldner. •
— By Mary MacArthur