From farms to feed mills to transport, people involved in the pork industry say biosecurity has been tightened, with sales of disinfectants and truck cleaning washes booming as farmers try to fend off the virus.

Farm owner Ma, whose 4,000 herd pig farm was visited by Reuters last year, says she is disinfecting inside and outside pig barns every other day, instead of once or twice a week.

She has also invested in her own truck for delivering pigs to the slaughterhouse and bringing in feed supplies to try to prevent contamination.

“We don’t let other trucks come in. It’s safer to have your own truck,” Ma told Reuters by phone, adding that nobody is allowed to visit in case they bring in the virus.

The change in mindset comes as the disease – which is not harmful to people but kills almost all pigs it infects – has reached every province of the country. There is no cure and, importantly in changing long-term habits, no vaccine.

Official June data released in mid-July showed China’s pig herd — the world’s largest at over 400 million head a year ago — has since shrunk by more than a quarter, although some industry insiders say the numbers may be far higher.

Standards of cleanliness on farms, many of which are small-scale, vary widely, say industry participants, while trucks that transport pigs, feed and other supplies are often not properly cleaned and disinfected between trips.

African swine fever, which spreads through blood, faeces, and other fluids, can last for months on farm surfaces or equipment that has not been properly cleaned.

“We see some significant step-ups in biosecurity measures. People are now recognizing that something needs to be done,” said Matthias Arnold, an executive at the Material Protection Products unit of German chemicals firm Lanxess, which sells a popular disinfectant.

Sales of gluteraldehyde, a chemical proven to kill the virus, are up three or four times since last year, said Pan Yunping, general sales manager at Jiangsu Kangbat Biotechnology Engineering Co Ltd in China’s eastern Jiangsu province.

Demand for Belgian firm CID Lines’ Cid20, which also contains aldehyde, has more than doubled from last year, and the firm is unable to meet demand, said Niu Yufeng, China business development manager.

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“You walk into a barn at feeding time and you won’t hear a sound,” she said.

Burlatschenko was the first veterinarian in Canada to diagnose this silent killer called porcine epidemic diarrhea when it was detected on an Ontario farm a year ago. Since then, she and the pork industry have worked to contain the virus which kills nearly all infected piglets under seven days of age.

But it’s an uphill battle because PEDv is a “stinky” virus which is difficult to work with immunologically. As a result, scientists have yet to develop a vaccine for it, Burlatschenko said.

For now, the best producers can do to prevent its spread is to practise strict biosecurity, emphasize sanitation and control anything going in and out of their barns, she said.

Burlatschenko, who operates a swine veterinary service in Tillsonburg, Ontario, updated producers on PEDv during a presentation at the recent Manitoba Swine Seminar in Winnipeg.

PEDv is a coronavirus producing severe diarrhea in pigs. It has a very high mortality rate of up to 100 per cent in suckling pigs. The PED virus is present in parts of Europe and in many Asian countries.

Originated in China

The first North American case of PEDv was detected in the United States in May 2013. According to genetic tests, the strain originated in China but no one knows how it crossed the ocean. Since its arrival, PEDv has carved a deadly swath through the U.S., killing millions of baby pigs and inflicting huge losses on producers. As of last month, 33 states had at least one confirmed case of PEDv.

The disease has inevitably crossed the border into Canada. According to the Canadian Pork Council, Canada has had nearly 100 cases of PEDv since its discovery in Middlesex County, Ontario on January 22, 2014. Most are in Ontario, with other reported cases in Manitoba, Quebec and P.E.I.

Interviewed after her presentation at the swine seminar, Burlatschenko said Canadian producers received a heads up from the situation in the U.S. They realized the disease was coming and were able to “batten down the hatches” in preparation.

When PEDv finally did arrive in Canada, the industry had biosecurity measures in place to limit its spread, she said.

“I think we have just been amazingly successful because we haven’t had the big explosion like the U.S. had to endure.”

The PED virus is primarily spread through manure. It is highly concentrated and virulent. Scientists believe one thimble-full of feces could contain enough virus to infect all the pigs in the U.S.

Provincial hog-marketing boards and the Canadian Swine Health Board stress the importance of sanitation and limiting access to farms in order to control the spread of the disease.

There’s also some suggestion PEDv can be spread through infected feed. Burlatschenko said one surge of cases involving 17 Ontario herds may have originated from a batch of creep feed containing dried blood plasma protein infected with PEDv.

The PED virus survives and spreads well in cold weather. Burlatschenko said producers had hoped the worst was over when the number of cases dropped last summer. But they spiked again in recent weeks, especially in Quebec and Ontario which are experiencing a cold winter.

Burlatschenko said pork producers need to get used to the idea that they have yet another virus to deal with, along with TGE, PRRS and circovirus. She expressed confidence PEDv can be managed because the industry has developed techniques to handle it.

“It’s become our new normal,” Burlatschenko said. “It’s not one I like. But as with circovirus, PRRS or anything else, we learn to adapt to the virus, work with it and deal with it.

“It is a new virus in North America, yes, but it’s not the end of the world. We can work with it, we have the technology, we can manage it. There are far more serious things out there than PEDv. Keep it in perspective.”

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Grumbling by the United States and New Zealand about subsidies for Canadian hog farmers doesn’t match the reality of a declining Canadian swine herd.

Recent media reports quoted American and Kiwi farm or political spokesmen suggesting the upcoming Trans-Pacific Pact trade talks would be a good opportunity to force Canada to get rid of so-called subsidies to pork producers, claiming those subsidies give Canadian farmers an unfair advantage.

The programs in question were set up in the late 2000s to reduce production in face of low world prices by culling herds and to assist with the losses caused by a serious swine flu outbreak. They were transition programs that allowed farmers to downsize their operations on a controlled basis.

“We take issue with suggestions that Canada is providing countervailable subsidies to Canadian pig farmers,” said Canadian Pork Council executive director Martin Rice.

“In the 2004-05 countervailing (and anti-dumping) duty investigation, the U.S. Department of Commerce concluded that countervailable subsidies are not being provided to producers or exporters of live swine from Canada.”

As well, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled in 2005 that the U.S. industry was neither being injured nor being threatened with injury from imports of live swine from Canada, he said. “Since those decisions in 2005, the Canadian swine herd has actually declined by 20 per cent,” Rice said. “Further, Canada’s production has declined significantly relative to U.S. pork production.”

While the size of the Canadian herd has dropped sharply and will likely be squeezed further by rising feed costs from this summer’s drought, U.S. pig numbers are barely below what they were in January 2006. “The facts show that Canadian programs are not distorting world pork trade,” Rice said.

The main support for livestock producers comes from AgriStability, which works like an income insurance program to prop up producers through low prices. Farmers and governments contribute and the money is available in lean years. It is generally considered as far less generous than what American producers get via the Farm Bill.

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Russia s animal and plant health watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said Oct. 31 it had registered three new outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF), of which two were spotted in the south of the country and one in the Kursk region on the border with Ukraine. In all three cases the outbreaks of the disease, lethal to pigs, but harmless to humans, took place at small backyard farms, the watchdog said.

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Canadian swine producers can now vaccinate for mycoplasma pneumonia when they process baby pigs. A new label claim makes RespiSure-ONE by Pfizer Animal Health the only vaccine approved for administration at one day of age, the company says in a release.

Vaccination as early as one day of age with RespiSure-ONE effectively generates long-term protective immunity in young pigs against M. hyopneumoniae. This bacterial pathogen is the cause of one of the most common diseases in the swine industry, reducing average daily gain, decreasing feed efficiency and possibly leading to secondary respiratory diseases. Pigs may be infected with the pathogen within the first three weeks of life, making early protection a key to keeping pigs healthy and productive throughout their life.

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Epidemics in recent years, such as SARS and the H1N1 swine flu, are estimated to have caused billions of dollars in economic costs.

Some 700 million people keep farm animals in developing countries and these animals generate up to 40 per cent of household income, the report by the International Livestock Research Institute said.

“Wealthy countries are effectively dealing with livestock diseases, but in Africa and Asia, the capacity of veterinary services to track and control outbreaks is lagging dangerously behind livestock intensification,” John McDermott and Delia Grace at the Nairobi-based institute said in a statement on the report.

“This lack of capacity is particularly dangerous because many poor people in the world still rely on farm animals to feed their families, while rising demand for meat, milk and eggs among urban consumers in the developing world is fuelling a rapid intensification of livestock production.”

Seventy-five per cent of emerging infectious diseases originate in animals, they added. Of these 61 per cent are transmissible between animals and humans.

“A new disease emerges every four months; many are trivial but HIV, SARS and avian influenza (e. g. H5N1) illustrate the huge potential impacts,” McDermott and Grace wrote in the report.

HUGE ECONOMIC COSTS

Epidemics like SARS in 2003, sporadic outbreaks of the H5N1 avian flu since 1997 and the H1N1 swine flu pandemic of 2009 racked up enormous economic costs around the world.

While SARS cost between $50 billion to $100 billion, the report cited a World Bank estimate in 2010 which pinned the potential costs of an avian flu pandemic at $3 trillion.

The report warned that rapid urbanization and climate change could act as “wild cards,” altering the present distribution of diseases, sometimes “dramatically for the worse.”

The two researchers urged developing countries to improve animal disease surveillance and speed up testing procedures to help contain livestock epidemics before they become widespread.

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The finding, published in Science June 18, supports the theory that flu viruses infecting swine can swap genes with other viruses that are in pigs, including more dangerous bugs like the H5N1 or H9N2 bird flu viruses.

Malik Peiris, an influenza expert who worked on the study, said the discovery underlines the importance of disease surveillance in pigs.

“It demonstrates the pandemic virus can easily go back to pigs. Once it does so, it can reassort with other pig viruses and give rise to potentially unexpected consequences,” said Peiris, a microbiology professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Peiris and colleagues, including Guan Yi at the University of Hong Kong, have found pandemic H1N1 viruses in nasal swabs taken from apparently healthy pigs at a Hong Kong abattoir during routine checks since October 2009.

“From genetic analysis, what it suggests is each of those viruses we found in pigs all came from humans,” Peiris said in a telephone interview.

“It is not surprising because the pandemic virus emerged from pigs, so it is not surprising that it goes back to pigs.”

GENE SWAPPING

A sample isolated from Hong Kong pigs in January 2010 carried genes from three viruses – the pandemic H1N1, a European “avian-like” H1N1 and a so-called “triple reassortant” virus containing bits of human, pig and bird flu viruses which was first discovered in North America in 1998.

“This suggests that the pig is a place where the pandemic virus might actually change and reassort and get new properties possibly,” Peiris said.

“The pandemic virus in humans has been extremely stable. It hasn’t changed at all even though people were concerned it might reassort and mix with human viruses … but it seems that it can mix with other flu viruses (in a pig).”

Genetic research has suggested that H1N1, first identified in people in April 2009, had in fact been circulating for at least a decade and probably in pigs. Despite tight controls on herds to protect them from people, little checking is done globally to see whether food herds are infected and if so, with what viruses.

LITTLE CHECKING

Studies in the past year have turned up pigs in Canada and other countries infected with the pandemic H1N1 virus, evidently carried to the animals by people.

“I must emphasize the point that it doesn’t mean that pork is dangerous to eat at all (if well cooked). What it means is it is important to carry out systematic surveillance in pigs so we know what is going on in pigs in regard to influenza viruses in general and the pandemic virus in particular,” Peiris said.

Pigs are the reservoir of many human, bird and swine viruses and experts often refer to them as an ideal mixing vessel for new, and possibly more dangerous pathogens.

Asked if there was a possibility of the H1N1 getting mixed up with the H5N1, Peiris said: “That is certainly a possibility, that’s why we need to keep track.

“If it is quite able to readily reassort and pick up genes from pig viruses, you might have other combinations of genes that can arise. Unless we are alert to it, we potentially could have a virus that is … more virulent coming back to humans.”

Although H5N1 is a mostly avian virus, it causes more severe illness in people than seasonal flu and kills 60 per cent of the people it infects. It has infected 499 people and killed 295 of them since reemerging in 2003.

The World Health Organization said early in June that the H1N1 pandemic was not yet over although its most intense activity has passed in many parts of the world.

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Producers can expect to see profit margins of $20 to $25 a hog for most of 2010, beginning this spring, according to a Manitoba Pork Marketing Co-op outlook.

The expected average fixed forward contract price from May 1 to Nov. 27 is $146 a hog, producers at a co-op district meeting last week were told. That’s better than the three-year average of $128 a hog or the five-year average of $136 per animal.

It’s welcome news for hog farmers accustomed to losing up to $50 per animal from a combination of low prices, high costs, food safety scares and trade woes.

Now comes the hard part: burrowing out from under a mountain of accumulated debt.

“It’s going to be an uphill battle,” acknowledged Perry Mohr, the co-op’s CEO.

It’ll take at least three to five years of sustained profits for producers to recover from the financial storm of the last 3-1/2 years, Mohr said as the co-op began its annual round of district meetings March 2.

While expressing guarded optimism, Mohr warned producers have had their hopes dashed before. The industry was poised to recover 12 months ago until the H1N1 flu arrived on the scene. Dubbed “swine flu,” the virus caused consumers to avoid pork, market prices fell and herd liquidation continued.

But barring unforeseen setbacks, underlying economic factors make an industry recovery look real this time, Mohr said.

The number of pigs in Canada is the lowest in a decade, due partly to government programs helping producers leave the industry and resulting in lower supplies for increased demand.

A program to reduce the national sow herd by 10 per cent removed 128,225 sows by paying producers $225 per animal to idle their barns for three years. Another 339,190 pigs have been removed under a separate hog transition program after three rounds of tendering. One more round is scheduled.

The Canadian swine herd is 4.5 per cent lower than it was a year ago, Statistics Canada recently reported. The U. S. herd is down two per cent. As a result, pork supplies are down 7.2 per cent from last year, Mohr told the meeting.

Corn and soymeal prices are trending lower, also aiding producers’ profitability. Pork demand, which slumped during H1N1, is expected to increase 3.5 per cent in 2010.

Consumers often choose pork during a recession because it’s less expensive than beef and there’s lots of cheap pork around, said Mohr.

The world recession itself appears to be easing, enabling consumers to improve their spending power. But there are also some factors which could dampen recovery, he cautioned. Competing meat supplies could prove a challenge. Poultry supplies could increase after China recently imposed import duties. Cattle inventories are not shrinking as fast as previously thought because of lower feed prices.

The Canadian dollar continues to trade strongly against the U. S. dollar, which is negative for prices. The U. S. country-of-original labelling rule has disrupted many weanling contracts with American finishers. At least two major U. S. packers have stopped buying Canadian slaughter hogs because of the rule.

Despite the industry downturn, the Manitoba Pork Marketing Co-op finished 2009 with its best year ever, the meeting heard. MPMC issued two pool price rebates worth $600,000 or roughly 50 cents per hog marketed. That offset the levies which producers paid to the co-op and essentially meant they marketed for free in 2009, Mohr said. ron@fbcpublishing.com

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“H1N1 has been another poster child for active, ongoing risk management.”

If there was any lingering doubt of the huge economic and psychological blow dealt to the pork industry in the wake of H1N1 influenza, it was quickly erased for those attending the Banff Pork Seminar, a leading seminar for the pork industry held annually in Banff, Alberta.

Two speakers who presented on “What the next pandemic may bring” offered a sobering picture of both the market cost of H1N1 and the new era of pandemic concern it has further ushered in. The silver lining is market recovery in recent months and lessons learned that can help the industry prepare for future challenges.

Economist Ron Gietz of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development presented data and analysis that estimated the market cost of H1NI, illustrating dramatic losses on a number of fronts, from a major and immediate impact on the hog futures market to slashed exports and overall reduced prices.

Gietz pegged total H1N1-related economic damage at $1.3 billion for the North American pork industry from May to October 2009. “Hog producers were the big losers, arguably to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars,” he says.

In the futures market, a key indicator is the lean hog futures trade, which showed plummeting values in the months immediately following the news of H1N1 in late April. “The loss in value was stark,” says Gietz. “Every contract until the fall closed out sharply lower than its trading value on April 24, when H1N1 first made news.”

Persistent media use of the term “swine flu,” which became a major focus of industry frustration and damage control efforts, likely dealt a crushing impact, observes Gietz.

“It hardly seems likely that a relatively mild new flu strain with the name of H1N1-or perhaps Mexican flu would have had any lasting impact on world pork trade, or hog and pork markets, even if discovered in the occasional swine herd.”

Markets over the fall and winter for the most part have recovered from H1N1-related losses, he observes. While producers and their industry had little control over the H1N1 situation, lessons reinforced included the importance of ongoing risk assessment.

“H1N1 has been another poster child for active, ongoing risk management. There’s no such thing as certainty in the markets and we need to be prepared for anything.”

Soren Alexandersen of the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), offered a global picture of current and emerging zoonotic disease threats, further reinforcing the increased importance of preparedness and surveillance in this new age.

Zoonotic diseases are those involving micro-organisms capable of causing disease in both humans and animals, and their importance is becoming increasingly critical on both a local and global scale, says Alexandersen. Of particular concern are those considered “transboundary” or able to spread across national and international boundaries.

The CFIA is among those monitoring all current and emerging threats, while aiming to ramp up their pandemic readiness, he says. The future is likely to see additional novel and emerging pathogens at a rate of one to three pathogens per year of which most will have zoonotic potential.

“Based on what is known from the past, most of these novel pathogens will be viruses, most of ten RNA viruses, with an or igin in wildlife and often driven by human activities including population growth,” says Alexandersen.

The most efficient way to counteract novel pathogens is to discover them early, says Alexandersen. Canada advocates being part of internationally co-ordinated efforts to do that under a “one-world, one-health” concept, he says. “We need to have excellent surveillance. We need to be as well prepared as possible.”

Of interest, the origins of the new pandemic H1N1 virus remain in question, he reported. H1N1 contains genes of several known viruses of swine, avian and human origin. “It is important to note the ancestor to this virus may have been present 10 to 15 years ago, based on evolutionary estimates, and that it, as far as known, was not detected in pigs or any other species during this period. It is still unclear where, how and in which species this novel virus evolved before being recognized in April 2009.”

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“Vaccination of swine workers may reduce the likelihood that H1N1 flu will be introduced into barns.”

– DR. WAYNE LEES

The Manitoba government is telling people who work directly with pigs to get the H1N1 flu shot.

In a recent letter to the Manitoba Pork Council, the province recommended the move, not just to guard against getting the virus but to avoid passing it on to animals.

“Vaccination of swine workers may reduce the likelihood that H1N1 flu will be introduced into barns,” said the letter signed by provincial veterinarian Dr. Wayne Lees and heads of the Public Health Division and Workplace Safety and Health.

Vaccinating swine workers may also help to avoid mixing animal and flu viruses. That could lower the risk of the H1N1 virus mutating into an even more serious strain, the letter said.

There have been eight recorded cases in Manitoba of pigs in barns contracting H1N1, a provincial official said late last week.

The letter said it’s “unusual” for people to get the flu directly from livestock. But it recommended people wear respirators, eye protection and gloves “when working with sick swine to prevent infection.”

The hog industry is very sensitive about H1N1 because of its commonly used name “swine flu.” The disease is believed to have originated in pigs, although it is now a human strain. But pigs can still get it from

people, although the animals usually recover quickly and the pork is not a human health risk.

Even so, producers blame the term “swine flu” for creating negative consumer perceptions about pork and a resulting drop in market prices for live hogs.

The province also sent a letter to Manitoba’s turkey-, chicken-and egg-marketing boards advising people working with poultry to get the H1N1 vaccine, too.

The letter noted that infections have occurred in turkeys in Ontario and Chile, although no outbreaks of H1N1 in poultry have so far been identified in Manitoba.

It stressed people should practise good personal hygiene to protect against both H1N1 and seasonal flu.

More information about the H1N1 vaccine is available from local health-care providers and public health units or by phoning Health Links at 1-888-315-9257. ron@fbcpublishing.com

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