Farms.com Home   News

Positive Environmental Sample of PED Underscores Need for Stepped Up Biosecurity

The chair of Sask Pork says an incident earlier this month where a washed truck in Saskatchewan was diagnosed as suspicious for PEDv demonstrates the need to stay on top of biosecurity.
In mid-July Saskatchewan's Chief Veterinary Officer reported a sample taken from a truck in Saskatchewan that had hauled pigs in Manitoba and Ontario and was washed in Ontario was diagnosed as suspicious for PEDv.
Saskatchewan Pork Development Board chair Florian Possberg says, although follow up tests at the National Lab in Winnipeg were inconclusive, the incident underscores the need to up our game in terms of sanitation.

Clip-Florian Possberg-Saskatchewan Pork Development Board:

Saskatchewan is one of the places in North America that has not had an active case of PED in any farm.
We think that that has quite a bit to do with the level of biosecurity we've enforced in our industry here.
We know of producers and I know our own operation, we not only use a high level of washes for any trucks coming to our farms but we also have the trucks and trailers washed that go into areas of either the U.S. or eastern Canada that we know have active infections and that's pretty standard in the industry now.
We're really taking sanitation to a whole new level to not only protect our own farms but to protect others down stream from us in terms of where our trucks go.

By  Bruce Cochrane


Trending Video

Advancing Swine Disease Traceability: USDA's No-Cost RFID Tag Program for Market Channels

Video: Advancing Swine Disease Traceability: USDA's No-Cost RFID Tag Program for Market Channels

On-demand webinar, hosted by the Meat Institute, experts from the USDA, National Pork Board (NPB) and Merck Animal Health introduced the no-cost 840 RFID tag program—a five-year initiative supported through African swine fever (ASF) preparedness efforts. Beginning in Fall 2025, eligible sow producers, exhibition swine owners and State Animal Health Officials can order USDA-funded RFID tags through Merck A2025-10_nimal Health.

NPB staff also highlighted an additional initiative, funded by USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Veterinary Services through NPB, that helps reduce the cost of transitioning to RFID tags across the swine industry and strengthens national traceability efforts.

Topics Covered:

•USDA’s RFID tag initiative background and current traceability practices

•How to access and order no-cost 840 RFID tags

•Equipment support for tag readers and panels

•Implementation timelines for market and cull sow channels How RFID improves ASF preparedness an