Biosecurity key to preventing PED

Aug 07, 2018

Manitoba Pork released report on the 2017 PED outbreak

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Paying close attention to biosecurity details is an important step to preventing another porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) outbreak, a new report says.

Manitoba Pork, along with the Canadian Animal Health Coalition and the Chief Veterinary Office of Manitoba released the 2017 PED Outbreak, Lessons Learned report.

Ensuring the cleanliness of barns, trucks, employees and equipment can reduce the risk of another outbreak, said Jenelle Hamblin, manager of swine health programs at Manitoba Pork.

“Cleaning and disinfection equipment that was being used to clean the loading dock after animals were loaded into a facility or unloaded (was occasionally) being brought back into the barn so (there’s) a potential risk there,” she told Farmscape today.

The report also revealed the best transport disinfection protocol.

“What we found most effective was to hold that trailer at 71 degrees (C) for 15 minutes minimum, so (there was) some learning involved there with times and temperatures that were most effective,” Hamblin said.

The disease infected about 73 farms and more than one million pigs, including 68,700 sows.

And just as the Manitoba hog industry moves on from the 2017 outbreak, more farms in the province are testing positive for the disease.

Manitoba Pork has identified 11 cases of PED in 2018 so far. Five instances are in sow barns and three each are in nurseries and finisher barns. The first farm was identified on May 15.

Farms.com has reached out to Manitoba Pork for more insights into the PED report.

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