Dr. Susan Detmer had some simple advice for those attending the Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium.

“It is flu season so go out and get your flu vaccine. It is time to protect yourselves and everyone around you,” said Dr. Detmer, a veterinary pathologist at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan.

Protecting everyone around you includes your pigs, Dr. Detmer said in her presentation about zoonotic diseases.

“Zoonotic diseases go from animals to humans, but there can also be reverse zoonosis where it is from humans to animals or there can also be events of disease transmission between two species of animals,” she explained.

She said it is rare to see a virus, such as Influenza A, go from pigs to humans. When a virus does, she said it is a typically a dead-end event.

“A disease will go from one species to another and then it doesn’t transmit further among that species. For example, sometimes humans get infected with an animal disease, but they don’t transmit it to anyone in their household.

“For those of us in the pig industry, the higher risk is going to be farm workers and pork processing plants. The lower risk is going to be consumers of pork. We have put a lot of effort into reducing those risks, so we do see very little of that.

“Our commercial production practises really developed much more over the last 20 years and has been more of a biosecurity look at our production and limiting the public access to our farms.

“We typically raise our animals’ indoors on cement or slatted floors and this is one of the ways of reducing the disease risk. But for the most part, these are not pathogenic in these people, so they don’t even know they have it.”

Dr. Detmer said the trend toward free range and antibiotic-free production is a concern.

“The big question and someone asked me this question in the last month, is what do you think about these new boutique practises that are growing pigs out on dirt?

“Some of these meats are not inspected so they are bypassing one of our systems of protection. And there is also concern about antibiotic resistance.”

She said going antibiotic free could lead to a resurgence of problems such as salmonellosis.

“We haven’t seen it yet, but it is something the surveillance groups are looking at closely to make sure it doesn’t become a problem.

“You have to remember a lot of our modern production, the reason we do things the way we do, is to reduce disease and it’s to protect the consumer. The consumer wants a wholesome and safe product in the end.

“Certainly, if you are going to go looking at a pig that was raised outdoors and free range, you’re going to want to make sure that animal is slaughtered properly, and you are handling the meat and cooking it properly.” She said the industry has reduced the number of antibiotics used and has eliminated some entirely.

Raising pigs without antibiotics has created a learning curve for people in her profession, she said. “That’s certainly something we have to learn and get better at because there is an interest in removing antibiotics.”

At the same time, she said there are animal welfare issues. “We want to make sure animals that are sick are treated and we want to make sure, just like in the human population, that our antibiotics are useful in those animals.”

She said at this time of year the pandemic H1N1 virus found in humans often makes its way into the pig population. “I looked at the 2013-2014 human flu season and there was a lot of pandemic circulation.”

She said it started in humans in November and made its way onto pig farms a month later. “Once it gets on the farm, sometimes it burns through, but mostly it stayed, so we had to vaccinate all the sows and encourage people to be vaccinated on those farms.

“What we recommend is when you see it in the summer is making sure you vaccinate and then humans get vaccinated in October-November.” Dr. Detmer said there are ways to protect yourself from all potential diseases.

“The biggest things are to wear a face mask or respirator that is properly fitted to your face. That is going to keep the pathogens from going both directions.

“And the other thing is just wash your hands and have basic hygiene. By washing your hands, especially before you eat, you can reduce transmission of a lot of diseases.”

Your pigs will thank you for it. •

— By Cam Hutchinson