Trucks appear to be the biggest risk for spreading Porcine
Epidemic Diarrhea virus, say the Ontario Pork Industry Council and the Ontario
Swine Health Advisory Board.
They note that up to 65 hog-hauling trucks return from the
United States every week.
Manure, contaminated footwear and clothing and loading
chutes are all potential carriers of the virus into Ontario barns.
There have been nine outbreaks so far this year, bringing
the total since the first case in January, 2014, to 94 farms.
The virus is deadly for newborn piglets, often killing all
of them; those who are luckier lose only 70 per cent.
The Ontario Swine Herd Advisory Board is promoting a
highly-successful protocol for bringing an outbreak under control and
developing immunity, then freedom from the virus. A majority of the Ontario
farms that have had an outbreak have been able to achieve PED-free status.
The Ontario Pork Council has been gathering swabs from
assembly yards and delivery docks at packing plants and is providing a weekly
report on how many are infected with PED and the percentage of samples infected
with the virus.
It’s a clear indication that trucking remains a high-risk
potential for spreading the virus. It is more likely to survive during cold
weather.
Recommendations arising from the audits at assembly
yards and packing plants include:
-
using separate lanes for trucks
returning from the U.S. to Ontario assembly yards;
-
designating certain chutes for
loading trucks that are going to, or have been in, the United States;
-
controlling hog movements to one
direction, keeping them from coming back into barns. This includes
one-direction flow for three-site setups for the breeding and farrowing sows,
nurseries and finishing barns;
-
establishing a U.S. transporter
entrance;
-
improving manure management, and
-
controlling foot traffic to prevent
cross contamination.
Maybe the council could publish the names of the trucker if and when it identifies one that has carried PED to a farm.
Also, maybe it could gather swabs for PED testing from the loading chutes of trucks. Hog farmers could help in this regard by requiring swabs to be collected from trucks before they begin loading hogs at their farm. If subsequent testing turns up PED virus, they would have grounds for suing the trucker for introducing the virus to their herd.
A successful lawsuit might serve to frighten truckers into more careful biosecurity. As things stand now, they lose nothing, but a hog farm can be devastated by an outbreak of PED.
