The Ontario Pork Industry Council fingers two
sources for most of the 45 barns that have been hit with outbreaks of Porcine
Epidemic Diarrhea virus.
One source is infected blood plasma imported from
the United States and used by Grand Valley Fortifiers of Cambridge to make
nursery-pig rations.
The other is infected trucks, such as those
delivering weaner pigs to finishing barns.
Grand Valley stopped using the plasma as soon as it learned of the potential to infect piglets and also alerted all of its customers to discard any rations on their farms.
Seventeen outbreaks have been linked to its feed.
The council also says there are “an estimated 100
sites to be contaminated with planned pig movement.”
Three barns that have had outbreaks have been
emptied, cleaned and been repopulated and things are “looking good so far,” the
council says.
The majority of finisher barn outbreaks “are
linked to market hog transport using dirty trucks,” says the council.
“We encourage industry to focus on farm gate
biosecurity and together we will work to limit the number of cases in the next
few months and eliminate virus from positive sites during warmer weather.”
