Manitoba Agriculture has seen a drop since late 2017/early 2018
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Controlling Manitoba’s Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) virus outbreak of 2017 may be impacting the provincial hog processing sector.
Estimations from ag economists and hog industry marketers show the decline in hog processing between the last quarter of 2017 and first quarter of 2018 is comparable to the estimated on-farm losses, Dr. Glen Duizer, an animal health surveillance vet with Manitoba Agriculture, said during a telephone town hall last week.
“There has been a drop in finisher pigs (going for processing) through the last part of 2017, so December of 2017 and into this quarter,” he said during the call.
“The drop that was seen in pigs (heading for processing) in Manitoba is fairly close to the estimated loss in production … across the sow herds during the peak of the outbreak in late June and early July.”
Direct pig movement is the biggest risk that can lead to a PED outbreak, Manitoba Agriculture said.
About a third were infected due to direct animal movement. Factoring in the efficiency at which pigs are transported, it’s easy to see why, Duzier said.
“A sow barn would report clinical signs (of PED) on Tuesday and already it shipped pigs out on Monday,” he said. “If you think about that, there’s 52 weeks in a year and pigs are moving four to five times a week, you have 200 contacts to a barn per year just with transport.”
Almost all the infected farms in Manitoba are now PED free.
Out of the 90 impacted herds, 87 are presumptive negative or are transitioning to presumptive negative.
A presumptive negative means all facets of the farm have tested negative for PED, but a potential risk remains within manure storage systems.
Manitoba Agriculture’s goal is to move the remaining three herds on the presumptive negative list by the end of the month, Duzier said.