Manitoba has logged its first on-farm case of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) in over three months, in a sow barn in the province’s livestock-intensive southeast.
Southeastern Manitoba has been home to all of the province’s nine on-farm outbreaks of PED since the virus first appeared there in February 2014.
In the latest case, the provincial chief veterinary office (CVO) confirmed the outbreak on Thursday and control measures were put in place “immediately,” according to Manitoba Pork.
A plan is being set up to restrict site access, clean up the barn and care for animals on site, the provincial pork agency said.
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Other hog operations within a five-km radius of the infected site, or with direct contact to the site, are being alerted to monitor hog herds and collect samples for testing, Manitoba Pork said.
The PED virus that causes severe dehydration and diarrhea in pigs and is generally fatal in very young animals, while older animals generally recover. The virus doesn’t transmit to humans or other animals and is not a food safety risk.
The virus is believed to spread more easily during colder weather. Manitoba’s most recent previous on-farm outbreaks were in early June, at a sow barn and finisher barn respectively.
Ontario — home to most of Canada’s on-farm PED cases since the virus first appeared in the country in January 2014 — last confirmed an outbreak at a farrow-to-finish operation in Lambton County on July 14, one of three that month in the province.
On-farm cases have also been reported in Quebec and one in Prince Edward Island. No clinical on-farm cases have yet been recorded in Canada west of Winnipeg.
Alberta and Saskatchewan have detected the virus in surveillance samples, however, such as on swabs taken from hog trucks travelling in those provinces. — AGCanada.com Network
