The fifth case of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus on a
Manitoba hog farm may have been a false alarm.
Further testing by the province’s office of the chief
veterinarian has been unable to detect any evidence of the virus on the farm.
The unnamed farm in Manitoba’s livestock-intensive southeast
was declared the province’s fifth PED-positive hog farm on Sept. 30 after a “positive
diagnostic test” for the virus.
Now, after a complete investigation of the farm, the
office of the chief veterinarian says it conducted “repeated tissue, fecal and environmental
sampling as well as veterinary assessment for clinical signs” in the farm’s
hogs, plus examination of the farm’s management and any possible biosecurity
risks.
And because of those “repetitive negative test results,”
it now says the farm site “was not truly infected with PED.”
All animal movements and contacts from the farm were “deemed
to be of insignificant risk” for the virus, the office says.
