A Veterinary Epidemiologist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry says USDA's investigation into the cause of the PED epidemic in the U.S. offers good food for thought in terms of biosecurity in Canada.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released the results of its investigation into the cause of the PED epidemic in the U.S.
The document, entitled Swine Enteric Coronavirus Introduction to the United States: Root Cause Investigation, is being made available to producers in Canada by Alberta Pork.
Dr. Julia Keenliside, a Veterinary Epidemiologist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, told Alberta Pork's monthly PED telephone town hall, the report identifies China as the most likely source of the virus.
Dr. Julia Keenliside-Alberta Agriculture and Forestry:
Feed was implicated in the first few outbreaks but, since there was no common ingredients or suppliers, the investigators had to look beyond just feed.
They couldn't directly implicate the feed and because the outbreaks occurred within 6 different states within 2 weeks.
There's no concrete evidence of any one particular source.
These investigations are fairly difficult things to do but they did arrive at a few very possible scenarios.
At the top of their list were these flexible intermediate bulk containers, also known as totes, that are used to carry feed or other feed ingredients and they're often reused in the United States and Canada so the scenario they are reporting as the most logical is that totes originating in China were contaminated in China somehow with feces or something with the viruses in them and then they were reused to deliver feed or feed ingredients in the U.S.
Several other scenarios were rolled out such as organic soybeans, birds, pet jerky treats, feral pigs but again there's no proof.
Dr. Keenliside says the report provides a lot of good food for thought in terms of biosecurity in Canada in terms of feed and feed ingredients and what some of the risk factors are.
Source: Farmscape