The Future of PED Working Group developed a Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea elimination plan for Manitoba. The group set it up in response to a major outbreak in 2021-2022 to look at PED management strategies, including what worked and what needed to change.
Jenelle Hamblin, the Director of Swine Health with Manitoba Pork, told the AGM the PEDv cases have declined since the 2021-2022 outbreak.
The group is preparing a significant outreach and communication drive for producers and sector stakeholders.
“It’s a work in progress and will continue to evolve with updated messaging as the plan evolves and changes.”
Hamblin said the target is to reduce the overall number of infected premises year over year and a 50 per cent reduction for the next large-scale outbreak.
“That means 132 cases from 2021-2022, reducing by half or 65 in 2024, and then year over year reducing by half is one of our main targets.”
The second target is to shorten when a premise remains positive for PED. Shortening the farm’s time to eliminate the disease reduces the overall risk to the sector and potential spreads through movement or bio-security breach or an area spread.
“Our goal is to take a more aggressive approach to managing that initial infection.”
Hamblin said the high-risk area for PED had remained the same since 2017 in the southeastern portion of the province, so south of number 1 Highway, East of 75 and to the U.S. border, and the Sandy Lines Provincial Forest.
“That high-risk area stays consistent through our PED outbreaks with some sporadic cases coming up outside and thankfully did not lead to much spread outside of that HRA.”
The factors that appear to lead to outbreaks are direct known animal movements and unknown direct animal movements. Thereby unknowingly spreading the disease before it’s known to be on the farm.
“Certainly we are looking at ways to minimize the impact of animal movements and disease spread. Because we know if you move animals, you potentially can move disease, so we are looking at that more closely.”
The PEDv group also focuses on bio-security around transportation, working with producers on load out bio-security and understanding that process better.
In the most recent outbreak, other factors not seen before came up. For example, battling the high viral volume in the areas in winter months had not occurred before. So cold weather, difficulties with cleaning and disinfection and the impacts of COVID.
“We had labour impacts with people who had contracted COVID and isolating, and it’s tough to practice bio-security when you’re short-staffed. But certainly, this outbreak has shown us different things or taught us different things that we hadn’t seen before.”
The Future of PEDv working group launched in 2022 is to evaluate processes and suggest how to improve or change.
Hamblin said seeing the downward trend in PEDv cases in the spring months is good. But reminds everybody, on-farm, when visiting high-tracker facilities, and when moving animals, please practice bio-security.
“Talk to your veterinarian if there needs to be some tweaks or adjustments. Or if you have questions, you can contact us at Manitoba Pork or your herd veterinarian if there are any questions around bio-security.” •
— By Harry Siemens