But 80 infected premises remain in the province
By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com
Manitoba’s swine industry hasn’t seen a new case of porcine epidemic virus in nearly two months, according to Dr. Glen Duzier, Manitoba’s chief veterinary officer.
The last reported case of PED occurred on Oct. 24, Duzier told an Alberta Pork telephone town hall on Dec. 14.
That case was confirmed on a finisher operation.
About 80 premises (25 sow herds, 16 nurseries and 39 finisher operations) in the southeastern part of the province remain under surveillance, but some of the operations are almost completely free of PED.
“Of the 80 (premises), 48 of them have been confirmed to have reached a stage where the disease is being cleaned up,” Duzier said during the conference call. “Of those 48, 24 of them have reached a point where all animals, all staff areas, all contact areas, pretty much everything outside of the manure handling and the manure storage is considered negative for PED.”
Alberta’s pork sector is also clear of any cases of PED or porcine deltacoronavirus, according to Dr. Julia Keenliside, a veterinary epidemiologist with Alberta Agriculture.
Alberta Agriculture collects more than 200 samples per month from processing plants, trucks, truck wash stations and assembly yards.
The surveillance shows that the province’s pork industry is quiet on the disease front.
“No news is good news for us,” she told the Dec. 14 conference call. “Everything (in Alberta) is negative.”
But there is one virus sprouting up in the U.S. that hog producers in Canada need to be aware of.
Investigators looked into 200 cases of Seneca Valley Virus in the U.S. in 2015, Dr. Keenliside said, compared to more than 300 this year just in the state of Wisconsin.
There are no cases of the virus in Canada, she added.
Seneca Valley Virus can cause blisters on the snout and hoofs, mimicking foot and mouth disease.
The symptoms of Seneca Valley Virus could “trigger a foreign animal disease investigation by the federal government in both the U.S. and Canada when we see blisters,” she said during the conference call. “Foot and mouth disease is a huge trade issue. It would mean borders are shut down because cattle can get infected too.”