One sick pig is all it will take to destroy Canada’s swine industry at a cost that will reach billions of dollars, says a Central Alberta veterinarian.

Egan Brockhoff, who has been at the forefront of the battle against porcine epidemic diarrhea, was asked to give a presentation to the 2019 Banff Pork Seminar about the looming threat of African Swine Fever.

This is an entirely different fight than the biosecurity measures used to check the spread of PED. The longer incubation period means an infection could be widely spread before clinical signs of the disease appear, said Brockhoff. Additionally, because ASF is a reportable disease, Canada’s borders would be shut down immediately to pigs and pork products, creating economic havoc in an industry that is geared heavily to export, he said.

“This terrifies me.”

The disease does not affect humans or other animals but is fatal to pigs that are naïve to the virus, including domestic stock as well as the feral population of European wild board that roam Western Canada, Ontario and Quebec as well as parts of the United States. So far, there is neither a vaccine nor an effective treatment for infected animals.

The most common means of spreading the disease is by exposing pigs to contaminated meat products, such as cured or smoked sausages that can carry the virus. The ASF virus cannot survive cooking temperatures and will die off after a few days at room temperature, but persists indefinitely in chilled and frozen meats, said Brockhoff. Epidemiologists believe the most likely means by which the virus has been spread is via pork products that are discarded and subsequently consumed by wild pigs. There is also a danger that farm pigs can catch the virus from contaminated pork products brought into the barn.

“This terrifies me,” said Brockhoff.

While larger barns have effective biosecurity to protect the pigs from outside pathogens, the potential for infection is much higher on farms where pigs are kept outdoors. Brockhoff said he aware of some small farms whose operators prefer alternative and untested treatments that may have little or no effect in preventing or fighting disease.

“If a farm like that, 20 minutes from the Vancouver international airport gets African Swine Fever, the farm on the right loses market access. Every commercial pig farm in Canada loses commercial market access immediately because one farm with four pigs trying to sell a boar has African Swine Fever,” said Brockhoff.

The infected farm will be quarantined and exports will be stopped from all other farms in the country. There is some talk about partitioning Canada into smaller zones, and then isolating the zone in which an infection is found, but that concept has not been fleshed out with Canada’s international trading partners, said Brockhoff.

Canada has zoning agreements with the European Union and the United States, but it takes time for zones to be established and it would take time to prove that Canada is capable of containing a disease within a zone, said Brockhoff.

Genetic solutions may become available, but can be a source of controversy for consumers, he said.

All those factors mean that keeping infected meat products off the continent is the most important tool in the box.

Anyone who has watched reality TV shows such as Border Security has seen the extent to which some travelers will go to smuggle their favourite delicacies in from infected areas, unaware of the potential for massive harm, said Brockhoff.

One of Canada’s first lines of defense, therefore, is the crew of dogs trained to sniff luggage for signs of illegal imports, including meat products.

Illegal meats found at border entries are immediately confiscated and burned, he said.

Unfortunately, there are only 17 dogs available across the country and they can only work a few hours at a time, meaning there are opportunities every day for infected meat to slip through customs without being detected.

“African Swine Fever has, no doubt, been to our airports in Canada,” said Brockhoff.

Other means of transfer, particularly from China, include the importation of organic soy meal, which is dried on the sides of the same roads where dead pigs are temporarily stored and that are travelled by various vehicles used to haul feed, livestock and dead animals.

Brockhoff said ASF is underreported in China, showing slides of dead pigs lying in front of buildings and along roadsides, explaining that the country does not have an effective means for euthanizing and disposing of sick animals. He spoke of desperate measures in some cases, including digging big pits and burying animals alive.

Brockhoff said that, after some discussion with Canadian Pork International, farmers are being advised to be very careful about the sources of their feed ingredients. To be sure that the ingredients are not carrying infection into their barns, farmers are advised to store the feed at a minimum of 20C for at least 20 days to ensure that any virus has been killed. Feed stored at 10C would need 100 days in storage, while the virus will not die in feed stored at or below freezing. He also said that farmers should not allow anyone to bring pork products into their barns and that the industry engagement with small producers is “absolutely critical” to ensure that they understand the level of risk facing commercial producers.

Brockhoff said he has spoken in the past about vigilance in biosecurity slacking off among swine producers and other people in the supply chain, warning that the industry needs to regroup and tighten up the protocols.

“Engage everyone with biosecurity. We as a group need to find a way to reach out and engage small pig farmers. They’re hungry for information. They want to do the right thing. We’ve got to get in front of them and talk to them about pig husbandry and biosecurity and the safety of our industry.”

Data, maps and information pertinent to the spread of ASF are available through a variety of sources, including the website of Canadian pork councils and other agencies, including the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at www.inspection.gc.ca. •

— By Brenda Kossowan

TRAVELLERS BEWARE! African swine fever can be transmitted to pigs through contaminated food and by contaminated items such as clothing and footwear. When you travel, never bring back meat or pork products into Canada. Wash all clothing and footwear immediately after use in other countries. Even better, if you visit a farm or animals, don’t bring them back to Canada!