Manitoba’s streak without new PED cases has come to an end.
The first case of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) in 2021 was confirmed Oct. 25 in a sow barn near Blumenort in southeastern Manitoba, attendees of an eastern district meeting of the Manitoba Pork Council heard on Tuesday.
Pork council chair Rick Préjet said trace-back efforts have begun, but the origin of the infection is currently unknown.
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“In the days to come, we’ll be getting more information and finding out more,” he said.
The council is urging producers, particularly in that area, to be on high alert against potential vectors that might allow the virus entry.
It is the province’s first newly reported PED case since July 2020, when the virus was detected in a finisher barn in the Interlake.
The last two years, in general, have been positive news for the pork industry on PED. Coming off it’s worst ever year for the virus in 2019—a year that saw 82 new cases, including the province’s first in the west-central and northeastern regions—PED cases dropped to only three new infections in 2020. As well as a finisher barn in the Interlake, two nursery operations (one in the northeast, one in the southeast), came up positive for PED.
The industry is, “going the right way,” Préjet said, noting that recent track record.
Serious outbreaks in 2017, and again in 2019, led the pork sector to clamp down on disease prevention, including more emphasis on biosecurity and producer outreach, evaluating procedures and the introduction of the Manitoba Co-ordinated Disease Response online portal, designed to disseminate educational resources and infection risk information quickly to producers.
As of February 2021, 182 of the 192 Manitoba locations with a history of the virus at that time had clawed their way back to presumptive negative status. Farms must have proven through testing that the virus is not in existence in any animals or contact areas to reach that status, although manure storage may still be a PED risk. The province estimates it might take four to six months after infection for a barn to reach that point.
The new case brings the province’s PED history up to 193 cases since 2014, when it was first detected.
“We had a good record going this year,” pork council general manager Cam Dahl also said during the Oct. 26 meeting. “We still have a good record, it’s just not perfect.”
For more information, see the print edition of the Manitoba Co-operator.
