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Source of Manitoba PEDv cases uncertain

Three new cases of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus have been discovered on Manitoba, Canada farms since late May but what caused the outbreak is uncertain.  Manitoba Pork general manager Andrew Dickson tells Brownfield he’s concerned about disinfection of trucks coming from U.S. hog farms, but he can’t say that they transmitted the infection.

“We don’t know,” Dickson told Brownfield Ag News, referring to a possible cause of the PEDv infecting the Manitoba pigs.  “At this moment we don’t know how the disease got to these three farms.”

In early May, Canada changed a regulation requiring trucks returning from the U.S. to be washed and disinfected once they’re back in Canada.  Instead, washing and disinfection is now required on the U.S. side.

“We were very disappointed when that regulation was changed,” Dickson said.  “We were pretty confident that that was one of our lines of defense because the disease is fairly prevalent in the United States, if not endemic, and there are no known standards that we’re aware of in these commercial [U.S.] wash stations for livestock trailers.”

There’s no proof that U.S. truck washes contributed to the Manitoba outbreaks, but Dickson says precautions should be strengthened.

“We’ve got to do a better job in terms of trailers carrying live animals from Manitoba down to farms in the United States,” he said.  “We need to have places where we can go where we can be assured that thorough job will be done of washing and disinfecting these trucks.”

Dickson says truck washes in Canada are veterinarian inspected and meet a national standard to minimize the spread of disease.

AUDIO: Andrew Dickson (8 min. MP3)

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