Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Recent PED case originated outside Ontario

There has been an outbreak of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus in a hog finishing barn in the Niagara Region.

No more details are immediately available.

It comes right after the Ontario Pork Industry Council said the Nov. 20 outbreak of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus at a nursery barn in Middlesex County “originated outside the province.”

It does not say where it came from or how it got to the Ontario barn.

In its regular update on the disease, the council says there are now 100 premises enrolled in its ARC&E (area control and elimination) program, that 52 of them are now “presumed negatives” meaning the disease is gone and that it anticipates all of them will be clean by the end of the year.

It has 39 of the 64 primary outbreak sites enrolled in its ARC&E program and another 61 that are presumed to have been infected because they are secondary barns or farms with close links to the primary sites.

The council is cautioning farmers to step up their vigilance because the virus survives in cold weather.

At a minimum, all people traffic ought to be subjected to the Danish entry protocol – i.e. shower in, shower out and change clothing and footwear – and all trucks ought to be washed and disinfected before coming to the farm.

This virus in devastating to newborn piglets, killing virtually all of them.

Last winter it wiped out about eight per cent of the hog population in the United States.

Ontario is by far the hardest-hit province in Canada.


Quebec recently reported its second outbreak. There has been one on Prince Edward Island and several in Manitoba.