Fears have given way to determination as Alberta’s swine industry adjusts to a new normal that involves confirmed cases of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus on four farms.
Certainly, it’s stressful for producers and especially those who have had to deal with sick animals and the inevitable loss of their baby pigs, says Javier Bahamon, quality assurance and production manager for Alberta Pork. Truly, however, Alberta’s industry did an extraordinary job in keeping the disease out for as long as it did, Bahamon said in a recent interview with Prairie Hog Country.
The disease broke in the United States in the spring of 2013 and found its way to Ontario and Manitoba early in 2014. Alberta producers had put up the best defences they could to keep PEDv from coming onto their farms. But there are always holes, he said.
“Now we are here in 2019 and we’ve got just four cases. Wow! It’s a stressful time, I understand that, but at the same time, we did a fantastic job. We are surrounded by it. We have it in the States and we have X amount of contact with the States, with Iowa, and feed coming from (overseas),” said Bahamon.
By late March, the incident command team in Alberta had not been able to determine the source of the disease on any of the four farms. There are many common factors among all the farms, so the team is working on ruling out potential sources in hope of finding the hole that let the virus in. Bahamon said he and fellow team members, including staff from the Office of the Chief Veterinarian and Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, are not making any pronouncements.
“In reality, obviously there are a lot of commonalities at the end of the day between all of the farms, but we cannot say today what has been the source, so we continue to investigate and do not want to make any statements that we may regret later on,” he said.
During meetings with pork producers earlier in the month, Alberta Pork Chair Dan Majeau said the rumour mill has been churning, but efforts are being made to ensure that producers, suppliers and customers are getting accurate and timely information.
The protocols for responding to a new infection include informing all facilities within a buffer zone around the premises and contacting all people scheduled to visit that buffer zone. Details can be made public only if all producers involved are willing to sign waivers to that effect, said Bahamon.
Setting up the buffer zone is just one of six tasks to be performed immediately upon suspicion that the disease is present.
“The amount of work in the first 24 hours is unbelievable. All of this has to happen immediately, including managing herd exposure, creating a deadstock management plan, and once the immediate concerns are dealt with, a plan has to be created for the next three, four and twelve months, including protocols for taking delivery of feed and other supplies,” said Bahamon.
Tasks to be performed immediately include:
- Testing for the presence of the virus and getting lab confirmation,
- Stopping all pig movements on and off the farm,
- Development and implementation of site protocol, including limiting access and internal biosecurity measures,
- Development of a herd exposure plan with the herd veterinarian to synchronize herd immunity,
- Development and implementation of a secure deadstock management plan, which would likely include onsite burial.
Bahamon stressed that, while the mortality rate is extremely high among nursing pigs, older pigs will usually recover. Treatment generally involves ensuring that they are well hydrated and making sure that the feed in front of them is always fresh. Additional treatment may be required on an individual basis, but animals that have recovered will have developed immunity to the disease and the sows will pass that immunity on to their next batch of pigs, he said.
The death of new piglets will create a gap in the production stream, which can be exploited to thoroughly clean and disinfect each room as that gap moves through the barn, said Bahamon. It is vital at every turn to adopt internal biosecurity measures that will prevent barn staff from tracking or carrying the virus between rooms, he said.
As of the end of March, the first barn confirmed positive for PEDv had depopulated and was in the process of being completely cleaned and disinfected, with plans to bring new animals in at a date that has not yet been set. The decision to depopulate was not made strictly because of PED, said Bahamon. There were some other health issues there as well, he said.
Of the four confirmed cases, that farm is the only one north of Calgary and is quite a distance from the next three. The others are further south and somewhat closer to each other, he said.
“For sure, biosecurity is so important right now. There are holes in every single thing that we do. The producers are the ones that have the protocols and they have to see if it is really protecting (them) or not.
“It is not just the rigid protocol that is good, but are you fulfilling those rigid protocols? (Make sure) you and your staff, or your family – depending on the situation – are doing that specific protocol, every day, every single ingredient, every single supplier every single thing that goes through that farm is being looked at properly. That’s what we need to see. You get confident and you get a little (less keen), we are all humans and sometimes changing our clothing and changing our boots and anything we need to do five or six times a day is not an easy task.”
Bahamon said that, among the things he has seen on the farms he visits are trucks not properly washed and people not wearing booties over their footwear.
Biosecurity measures on all four of the affected farms were deemed to be in good shape, said Bahamon.
“They were good, they were really good when reviewed and when the herd veterinarians reviewed their protocols.
“The herd veterinarians and these producers have been so sharp . . . in finding the things that they found in these cases. They were at the top of their games and the producers just noticed that one room wasn’t behaving properly. The veterinarian went in different cases and as soon as they arrived, they looked at it and say, well, let’s get tested.
“That moment is when we get contacted and the suspect (sample) went to the lab and . . . they found it at a very early stage. After that, we noticed that the barn gets sick, the animals get sick and they get off feed.”
It normally takes about three weeks for the infection to move through the affected animals, which will stop shedding virus as they recover. Once they are all healthy, the cleanup can begin.
The follow-up on infected farms continues long after the cleanup, with ongoing contact from the team. Those farms are classified as “presumed negative” and regular testing continues.
Protocols after the barn have been cleared also include a manure management plan, likely involving taking manure across country for injection on site and in areas where it will not pose a threat to nearby hog farms.
“We are all learning on it – from our friends in Manitoba, how they did things and protocols in place, including injecting manure (under the soil) and avoiding neighbouring farms as much as possible and ensuring that the fields are not close to other pig farms,” said Bahamon.
Mental health of affected producers, their staff and their families is also a concern, said Bahamon.
“It is stressful, no doubt about it. Obviously, it gets to you. The first thing that happens is to understand that you are in that kind of position. After (they’re wondering) what is going to happen, so that is scary. So, we try to discuss with them, what is the plan, what they can expect, and we (offer) a certain amount of tools, where what are all those steps. Hopefully, you never have it, but that is the conversation: ‘What if?’”
Alberta producers have had some of their questions answered by experts called together at open meetings in Lethbridge and Red Deer, first one organized by a Genetics Company and the second by Prairie Swine Health Services.
Chris Tokaruk, president of Hypor-TTT Stock Co. said the meetings were organized on short notice to help answer a few questions and address the myths his people were hearing out in the field. About 120 people gathered for the Lethbridge meeting, which was so successful that an additional meeting was set up in Red Deer a couple of weeks later.
“We reached out to a handful of industry experts to see if they would be interested in helping and all of them agreed and had their flights booked the same day,” Tokaruk said of the Lethbridge meeting.
“All of the speakers volunteered their time and travel expenses to this very important cause,” he said.
Speakers and topics included:
*Egan Brockhoff, Prairie Swine Health Services on PED and biosecurity,
*Dave van Walleghem, Vetoquinol on advanced biosecurity and solutions,
*Jeremiah Lechman, J&R Livestock Consultants on feed security in a dynamic world,
*Brent Taylor, Hypor-TTT Stock Co. on commercial site biosecurity challenges.
Producers who want to learn more about PEDv, biosecurity protocols and what has been going on in the rest of North America are encouraged to visit the PED Toolbox on Alberta Pork’s website: www.albertapork.com/our-producer-services/biosecurity/pedv-toolbox •
— By Brenda Kossowan
