Farmscape for September 22, 2016

Pork producers in Saskatchewan are being encouraged to step up their vigilance in response to the latest reports of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea in Manitoba.
Three new on farm cases of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea were identified in Manitoba in May and over the past week the Office of Manitoba's Chief Veterinary Officer confirmed two new cases of the infection, including a sow operation and a finisher site in southeastern Manitoba.
Dr. Betty Althouse, Saskatchewan's Chief Veterinary Officer, says trucks and trailers that do contact slaughter plants or assembly yards in Manitoba may become contaminated with PED and extra efforts should be taken to make sure they are well cleaned and disinfected before they contact a Saskatchewan facility.

Clip-Dr. Betty Althouse-Saskatchewan Agriculture:
We're much more comfortable when the whole of the west is PED free.
It's a very integrated industry across the west, especially on the Prairies.
There's a lot of movement of pigs and people and transports between Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Pigs go to slaughter in Manitoba at your federal plants there, all the cull sows pretty much from Saskatchewan move through Manitoba on their way to the U.S. so we do have a lot of animals move that way.
Certainly some weanlings move into Saskatchewan as well so the movement is occurring and, with the pig movement and the trailer movement, basically any movement of manure, there is a risk of picking up and spreading PED.
Any time there is PED in the neighboring province, it does pose an increased risk so we do have a heightened alert.
We sent a notice through both the Ministry and Sask Pork to producers just highlighting that the cases were there and to heighten that level of alert and be sure that cleaning and disinfection of trailers continues to be a high priority.

Dr. Althouse says the increased surveillance and heightened biosecurity in Saskatchewan have been successful and there have still been no clinical cases of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea detected in Saskatchewan.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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