Hundreds of e-mails among staff at the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency reveal that people in Ontario did a good job of handling the
crisis surrounding discovery of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus on a 500-sow
farm between Dorchester and Tillsonburg in January, 2014.
There was immediate exchange of critical information among
the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, its Animal Health
Laboratory at Guelph, the Ontario Pork marketing board and the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency.
And they worked together to issue news releases that all
emphasized that the industry needed to implement tight biosecurity measures.
But things were not going nearly as well later in the outbreak,
especially when feed from Grand Valley Fortifiers Ltd. at Cambridge was
implicated.
In contrast with e-mails during the beginning of the crisis,
these e-mail exchanges have been heavily censored before they were given out in
response to an Access-to-Information request.
But it’s clear that one top CFIA official did not believe feed was
responsible.
Dr. Harpreet S. Kochhar, Canada’s chief veterinary medical
officer and executive director of the Animal Health Directorate of the Canadian
Food Inspection Agency, wrote that porcine materials used in feeds are treated
at high temperatures, then passed through a filter, and so a relatively fragile
virus such as “PED is not likely to survive the process.”
Nonetheless, he did ask his staff whether there was a feed
connection among PED outbreaks.
That came the day that Grand Valley Fortifiers issued a news
release saying it was recalling all of its nursery feeds that contained porcine
byproducts. It acted immediately on learning that Kansas State University
researchers thought PED might spread via these byproducts in feed.
Other revelations in the e-mail exchanges include:
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A report from the Canadian Border Services
Agency that no livestock trucks and trailers were denied entry when returning
from the United States via Fort Erie and Queenston in the six months before the
first Ontario outbreak.
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There is no federal regulation requiring
returning trucks to be disinfected. They were waived through if they were
returning directly from federally-inspected meat-packing plants in the U.S.
Only if they had hauled U.S. pigs while in the U.S. were they required by
federal regulations to be scraped clean of manure. Inspector were advised that
using shovels and brooms was adequate. There was no checking for manure on
drivers’ clothes or boots.
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CFIA officials pondered several alternatives for
prompt delivery of samples to the federal laboratory in Winnipeg. They
eventually opted to have them personally delivered on a Westjt flight that cost
$1,000.
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The Animal Health Laboratory at Guelph was far
more cautious. It advised against personal deliveries because of risks that PED
could be carried on clothing and boots. It called for swabs only, not any dead
pigs or feces, and the swabs were to be delivered by courier.
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As early as Aug. 1, 2013, the CFIA warned the
Border Services Agency to be vigilant about PED carried by returning trucks and
trailers. In the e-mail exchanges, one CFIA official noted that the regulations
and standards have always been there, not only in reaction to PED outbreaks in
the U.S.
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In February, 2013, long before PED was an issue,
the Canadian Swine Health Board wrote to Agriculture Ministr Gerry Ritz asking
for a detailed emergency response protocol backed with a revolving fund of at
least $3 million to deal with any outbreak of a highly-contagious and deadly
disease. Its recommendations were not implemented until the PED outbreak
threatened to get out of hand, and then only partially.
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There were two positive results for PED at an
Olymel packing plant in Quebec the day after the first case in Ontario;
follow-up tests were all negative.
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