By Bruce Cochrane
New government funding will allow the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board to implement the next phase of the Saskatchewan Swine Biosecurity Program.
On Monday the governments of Canada and Saskatchewan announced new funding provided in part through Growing Forward 2, to allow the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board to deliver the next phase in the Saskatchewan Swine Biosecurity Program and prevent the spread of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea during the transport of Saskatchewan hogs.
Karen Aulie, Saskatchewan's assistant deputy minister of agriculture, told those on hand in Saskatoon for Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2014 the investment provides funding for truck wash and transport audits performed by certified veterinarians and education on transport biosecurity as well as funding for producers to cover the cost of follow-up veterinary visits to assess biosecurity protocols that were implemented during previous phases of the program.
Karen Aulie-Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture:
It's 150 thousand dollars and it really is the next phase in making sure that we have really superior biosecurity in the province.
We've been working on farm, making available funds for on farm biosecurity and this is really taking it the next phase of some of the handling facilities and areas where we could see the disease coming into the province.
I think the priority is to continue to work with industry to make sure that everybody is on full alert and that not only the on farm security is in place but that we make sure that trucks coming in, any of the comingling sites are tested regularly so that we can just make sure that we stop any disease before it gets close to the farm gate.
It's a real cooperative effort between industry and the government funding as well as the veterinary practices.
Aulie says we are very fortunate that we haven't had a case of PED in any of our hog farms in the province.
She acknowledges we did find a positive on a truck at one point in time which is a testament to how biosecurity should work in that that the truck was cleaned up before it was allowed to enter any areas where we had any live animals.
Source: Farmscape