Ontario’s hog industry is making steady
progress ridding herds of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) virus.
There have been no new outbreaks since
June 21 and more than 60 per cent of the herds that were hit have since
eliminated the virus, report the Ontario Swine Health Advisory Board and the
Ontario Pork Industry Council.
“To date 87 sites are enrolled in the
PED ARC&E (Area Regional Concil and Elimination) sites.
“Of these, 40 sites are primary cases,”
reports the council.
“This represents 64 per cent of the 63
primary cases reported in Ontario.
“This includes two sites infected with
deltacoronavirus only and a third site infected with both porcine epidemic
diarrhea virus (PEDV), and porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV).
“The remaining 47 sites are considered
presumed positive due to pig flow based on veterinary notification and/or
testing,” the council says in an e-mail.
“As of August 15, we have had 15 successful PED eliminations at sites participating in the ARC&E program,” the council says.
The disease-freed farms include four nurseries, three finishing barns and eight sow herds.
One sow-herd site was freed of a deltacoronavirus via depopulation and a second herd was freed of both PED virus and deltacoronavirus.
The board and the council have
established a working group to deal with PED virus and have invited all
veterinarians dealing with outbreaks to join.
“This group meets to review site
enrollment progress, discuss case studies and elimination plans,” the council
says.
The group has also developed criteria
for establishing when an infected farm has become free of PED virus.
