The number of active outbreaks of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) on hog farms in Canada has shrunk to a few in Eastern Canada, with affected sites elsewhere now believed negative for the disease.
Manitoba Pork announced Wednesday that the last of the premises to report a PED outbreak in that province in 2020 has now achieved “presumptive negative” status.
Manitoba has reported 192 premises with PED since the disease arrived there in 2014. But no hog herds in the province are currently reporting positive for the disease, the agency said.
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“Coming into spring 2021, it is critical that we do not let our guard down and enhance biosecurity on our farms to prevent PED and any other pathogen from entering the farm,” Manitoba Pork said Wednesday.
In Ontario, where the PED virus (PEDv) was first confirmed in Canada in January 2014 and went on to cause outbreaks at over 150 sites, just four farms are currently considered positive for PED, according to Swine Health Ontario.
Those include a farrow-to-finish operation and a finishing farm in Lambton County, a farrow-to-finish site at Middlesex and another hog operation in the Niagara region.
As of Dec. 29, 2020, Quebec was reporting just one site positive for PED, a finishing operation in the Estrie that had been confirmed on May 7 last year.
Alberta has had just four PED outbreaks in hogs, all in early 2019, and all of which have since been deemed presumptive negative, according to the Canada West Swine Health Intelligence Network. Prince Edward Island, the only other affected province, had just one outbreak in 2014 in a herd since deemed negative.
According to Manitoba Agriculture, a hog farm which has previously been confirmed positive for PED can be deemed “presumptive negative” after the farm has put measures in place to eliminate PEDv from all pigs and pig contact areas and the virus is confirmed absent through repeated animal and environmental testing.
Depending on herd type and stage of production, a PED-infected premises can take four to six months to reach presumptive-negative status, but PED risk may still remain in the manure storage system on a presumptive-negative farm, the province said.
The coronavirus that causes PED can affect hogs at any age, leading to watery diarrhea and vomiting. It’s most damaging on farrowing operations, as it’s often fatal to newborn pigs under seven to 10 days old.
PEDv is not known to affect people or any other species and is not considered a food safety issue. — Glacier FarmMedia Network
