Dr. John Carr, international veterinarian consultant and lecturer, said in a recent interview that Canada’s hog industry doesn’t in all respect need more vaccines to protect against disease, but hog farms need fences.  
While consulting with various clients in Canada, it is difficult to convince them to build complete fences around the pig farm.  
“We make money in pigs. Please put a fence around your farm. We have a lot of feral pigs in this country, and it’s about flu, African Swine Fever, PED virus and the development of mycoplasma occurs.” 
Having a fence is not about keeping the public out but increasing bio-security and taking it even more seriously.  
“And Canada is full of big open spaces, but you’re talking to an Englishman whose home is his castle, and we build ramparts around our home.” 
It frightens him to walk around Canada where the farms are wide open but quickly admits other people would accuse hog farmers of hiding behind the fence.  
“But, to be honest, that’s an accusation I’ll live with rather than having African Swine Fever. The farms with a fence don’t break with African Swine Fever.” 
Dr. Carr agrees that much effort and producer checkoff dollars go into committee work and planning for a major disaster like an ASF outbreak, but spend even more on keeping the disease out of Canada and the United States.  
He has a farm in the Philippines, the only farm left in that area is still ASF free because they built a fence nine months before the outbreaks. On the other farm, they’d only finished two-thirds of the fence and that broke.  
“Saying that they finished the fence, de-stocked and then restocked. All everybody else just gone out of business. But this farm is in the middle of Lausanne in the Philippines is in the middle of a massive African swine fever outbreak. Pigs are fine behind the fence.” 
“A producer can’t fatten pigs when taking them to market. You can’t build a fence fast enough when the first case of African Swine Fever hits Canada,” added Carr. 
In a previous interview, Dr. Carr said the pig business despite COVID-19 shutdowns and fallouts in Canada should appreciate the happy times. Not for everyone all the time, but steady she moves forward.  
“I’ve got no idea what’s going to happen in a year. I got no idea what’s going to happen next week. You’ve got to cover your costs. The easiest way to cover your cost is to produce more pork without breaking the law. We have stringent stocking density regulations. But I still think we’ve got to cover, and the Canadians have to cover their cost. So, you’ve got to fill the farm.” 
So be joyous he said. Breed the sows with a smile because for some reason; there’s a big difference between breeding with a sad face; the buggers don’t get pregnant. Breed the sow with a smile, and the things will get pregnant.  
“People still have a role to play. But to be honest, be happy. We are fortunate to have a job that is relatively immune to the effect of this COVID virus, in political and everything else, side effects.” •
— By Harry Siemens