Reading Time: 2 minutes 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 […] Read more

PED cases fan out in southeastern Manitoba

Regional-level biosecurity urged against PED in Manitoba
Reading Time: 2 minutes Producers in southeastern Manitoba’s “hog alley” are being urged to keep animal movements to a minimum and limit contact with hog operations in an area that’s seen five on-farm cases of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) this month. The province’s chief veterinary officer on Thursday confirmed positive test results for PED at a sow operation in […] Read more

Manitoba confirms fourth PED case of year
Reading Time: 3 minutes Another finisher barn in southeastern Manitoba has tested positive for porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) in the province’s fourth on-farm case of the disease this year. Manitoba Pork Council general manager Andrew Dickson said barn staff noticed symptoms Sunday. Tests were taken the following day with results confirmed Tuesday. “That doesn’t mean every pig in the […] Read more

More PED cases turn up in southeastern Manitoba
Reading Time: 2 minutes A hog finisher operation and a sow operation in Manitoba’s southeastern “hog alley” have been confirmed with cases of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), both within close range of the province’s first case in over seven months. According to Manitoba Pork, the province’s chief veterinary officer on Monday confirmed positive test results for PED at a […] Read more

Response seen curbing PED spread from Manitoba case
Reading Time: 2 minutes The “quite early” catch and quick response for Canada’s latest outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), in a sow barn in Manitoba’s “hog alley,” are expected to keep a lid on the virus’ spread beyond the one site. The province’s chief veterinary officer (CVO) on Tuesday confirmed PED-positive tests at the southeastern Manitoba farm, and […] Read more

No point in quarantine for verticillium wilt, CFIA says
Reading Time: 3 minutes Slapping federal quarantines on canola fields with verticillium wilt wouldn’t serve much purpose, since the yield-robbing fungi is already in all of Canada’s major canola-growing areas, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says. While the agency itself is recommending against regulation, CFIA on Wednesday posted a draft of a risk management document on verticillium wilt, seeking […] Read more

Keeping out the invaders
Biosecurity: Provincial organizations encouraged to promote a national on-farm biosecurity standard
Reading Time: 2 minutes This growing season, potato producers in Canada will be on the lookout for dickeya, an emerging blackleg pathogen in the U.S. that caused significant crop losses in the country’s northeastern region in 2015. Preventing new diseases like dickeya and keeping old adversaries like late blight in check are important reasons why growers subscribe to farm […] Read more

Heading off a stem rust pandemic
Only two older wheat varieties are resistant to Ug99, a devastating race of stem rust which threatens to spread around the world
Reading Time: 5 minutes Working under tight security in their plant science laboratory at Morden, Man., Tom Fetch and his scientific colleagues look as if they’re handling extremely hazardous material. After changing into hospital scrubs in a locker room, Fetch and his team deactivate an alarm system and go through four doors to enter the laboratory. The Level 3 […] Read more

Feedlots sought to take in TB-quarantined cattle
Reading Time: 2 minutes Prairie cattle producers whose herds are stuck under federal quarantine while officials trace out cases of bovine tuberculosis (TB) could soon have a option to house animals at an approved feedlot. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Friday said it is working with beef cattle industry representatives to find one or more feedlots where it […] Read more

Avian flu risk higher with fall migrations
Reading Time: 3 minutes Poultry farmers in Ontario are being warned to keep biosecurity top of mind as wild birds get ready to fly south this fall. “With the fall weather quickly approaching, resulting in colder temperatures and wild bird migrations, the threat of re-emergence of (highly pathogenic avian influenza) is real,” the Feather Board Command Centre, the emergency […] Read more