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Virus could cost hog industry millions

Second case found on Ontario farm



The first case, a farrow-to-finish farm in southwestern Ontario, was found last week -- a discovery that heightened concern among the country's hog producers.




Manitoba Pork Council general manager Andrew Dickson said Monday while it's disconcerting the disease has been found in Ontario, the risk of it spreading from there to Manitoba isn't great because so few pigs are traded between the two provinces.

"I can't say it never happens, but I wouldn't call it a regular occurrence," Dickson said.

He reiterated the bigger threat is the disease will spread here from Minnesota or one of the other north-central states, where Manitoba ships more than three million weanling pigs per year.

Dickson noted the disease has already been found on farms in central Minnesota, "and that might mean we'll start seeing outbreaks in South Dakota, and then it could start getting into North Dakota." The fear is the disease could be brought back on one of the returning livestock trucks. That's why industry protocol calls for trucks to be washed and disinfected upon their return.

Most Manitoba producers also require trucks be washed and disinfected before they allow them onto their farms. They also require all visitors, including truck drivers, shower and change their clothes before entering and leaving their barns.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea is usually fatal in young pigs, but older animals can recover. Producers have long worried that PED might make its way up from the U.S., where it has killed millions of piglets.

Ontario's chief veterinarian said hundreds of piglets -- nearly 100 per cent of those between two and five days old -- have died so far at the first farm, located near London, Ont.



It's unclear where the virus came from, but Douglas said there appears to be an "indirect link" between the affected farms.


"However, the confirmed case, second case and the third under suspicion certainly does change the situation -- the reality -- here in Ontario."




-- The Canadian Press, with files from Murray McNeill


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