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Manitoba Pork Dealing With PED Outbreak

Manitoba's pork industry is once again dealing with an outbreak of the Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) virus.

Cam Dahl is general manager with Manitoba Pork.

He made the following comments on Monday.

"On October 25th, we did have our first case identified. Since that time, we have had more cases come in. We're now up to seven confirmed cases of PED. I do expect that number to go up a little bit. The cases aren't just confined to one geographic cluster and they're not just confined to one ownership group or one or two ownership groups. They're spread out geographically and they're spread out through the industry. We are considering this an outbreak."

Dahl says the majority of the cases are not related.

He is encouraging producers to review their biosecurity protocols and to make them as strong as possible.

"We really do encourage producers in all parts of the province to sit down with their employees and go over their biosecurity protocols. The way we contain this and prevent spread is through strong biosecurity measures."

Dahl adds PED usually flares up in 2-year cycles, noting there were over 80 cases in 2019.

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When was the last time you read the label on your honey?

We spent a day at Molenkamp Honey Farms with Michael Molenkamp, who has been keeping bees for 17 seasons and runs three to four thousand hives. In mid-September, he was finishing treatments and getting his bees ready for winter, and he walked us through how Alberta honey gets made.

Alberta has just 150 commercial beekeepers running 300,000 colonies, and together they produce 40% of Canada’s honey. Long summer days and golden canola fields give Alberta honey a light flavour that’s hard to match anywhere else.

Molenkamp calls Alberta beekeepers some of the most resilient farmers he knows. There’s plenty of Alberta honey to go around, but a lot on our shelves isn’t from here, so his ask is simple. Give the label a second look and choose honey made by Alberta beekeepers, or buy straight from a beekeeper near you.