Never a dull moment in raising food

On the heels of the first case of PEDv in this go-around, May 27 on a sow farm in southeast Manitoba, the second one I heard about on a hog farm not far away from these two PEDv cases.

On June 2, 2016, Manitoba’s Office of the Chief Veterinarian (CVO) confirmed that a second case of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) has been found in a finisher barn in southeastern Manitoba, in addition to the one found in a batch-farrow sow barn a week ago. The producer is fully cooperating with the CVO and has implemented control measures on the site. Epidemiological investigation is ongoing. Direct and indirect contacts and farms within five km of the site are being contacted.

I remember all too well the announcement of the first Canadian case, this one in Ontario while attending the boar pit session at the Banff Pork Seminar in January of 2013, and topic being exactly this – what happens when, not if PED v hits Canada.

In Ontario, eventually to get 50 plus cases, Quebec reporting some too, five in Manitoba, and none in the other western provinces. It didn’t take that long, the CVO declared Manitoba PEDv free after stringent biosecurity and cleaning up the messes caused by those five.

While totally devastating to the owners of those infected barns, removing dead piglets, working at eradicating the disease and remaining PEDv free, it also affected those who never got it, mostly emotionally. I remember talking to several pig producers that never got the disease in their barns, but would go and turn on the lights every morning to see if baby pigs were sniffling, a sure sign of the disease starting to take its toll.

This time around, I was in a hog barn near St. Malo, when I heard the news of yet another case in Manitoba on June 2.

The least cost is a producer losing the production for six months meaning one batch of pigs won’t go to market, but to be disposed of as dead stock. This crazy virus moves around, carried by almost anything and very difficult to determine where it actually came from.

With so many trucks hauling pigs back and forth to the United States, well at least the trucks going back and forth, and pigs only one way, and with PEDv still active in the U.S., the emotions run high on this one.

Here’s hoping anyone related to the pig business will take a double-dose of willpower to strengthen their biosecurity protocol that is the only line of defence there is.

Driving to Winnipeg and back last week Saturday, several things caught my attention. On the way down, two winter wheat fields, one on either side of Hwy 3, I’ve been watching between the three-mile corner and the Jordan corner, headed out for some days and looking absolutely wonderful, but lodging a little on the way down. On the way back about eight hours later, lodging even more. The significant part of this is, first to see a wheat field so far advanced in the beginning of June, and to see it so thick, meaning such a good stand that it is already lodging, also is amazing.

The other thing I saw was the amount of water on the fields between Carman and Winnipeg. Only a mere few weeks back, dryness was a hot topic that kept farmers from finishing their seeding. Then frost hit the canola, now too much water lying around. There is never a dull moment for a farmer, and even more exciting for someone who talks to them, to write up the stories for you to read. I love serving the most basic industry this world has – agriculture and feeding the world. •