Three more farms in southeastern Manitoba have been confirmed with cases of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) — all of them outside the buffer area in which six previous infected sites were confirmed earlier this month.
Two farms, a sow operation and a finisher operation “linked by live pig movements,” were confirmed with PED Friday, followed by another sow operation confirmed Tuesday with the virus, according to Manitoba Pork.
In all, the nine cases found so far in May make 2017 the worst year for PED in Manitoba, which as of now has had 19 on-farm cases since the virus first appeared in Manitoba in February 2014.
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The Manitoba agriculture department’s emergency operation centre is “continuing to operate and is assisting the affected producers and conducting full disease investigations,” Manitoba Pork said.
All veterinarians with clients within the affected areas have been made aware of the site locations, the pork agency added, including the three latest outside the five-kilometre buffer zone.
Speaking Wednesday on the industry-sponsored program Farmscape, Mark Fynn, Manitoba Pork’s manager of quality assurance and animal care programs, urged producers to review and step up their biosecurity measures.
Manitoba’s industry, he said, has “proven year after year that we do have cases here and there but we’re able to biocontain it.”
That said, “it’s a little disheartening to see the recent outbreak and how the virus has moved around in that particular area.”
He added there’s “light at the end of the tunnel and let’s just make sure we’re doing everything we can as farmers to make sure it doesn’t get into our barn and we don’t have to deal with these issues because, let me tell you, it’s a very stressful time to be involved in those things.”
In Ontario, which had seen 101 on-farm cases since the virus first appeared in Canada in January 2014, a 102nd case was confirmed last Thursday on a nursery-finisher operation in the Chatham-Kent region.
The latest case marks Ontario’s first since March and its third so far in 2017.
Manitoba Pork plans to hold a phone-in town hall meeting on Friday at 10 a.m. CT, to update producers and industry on the latest affected sites and discuss biosecurity protocols which “must be followed to prevent this disease from spreading further.”
More details on the telephone town hall meeting are available here. — AGCanada.com Network
