Saskatchewan
Pork Development Board Chair Florian Possberg has
joined the critics speaking out against the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency’s requirement that hog-hauling truck trailers need to be
washed in the United States before returning to Canada.
He
says
when Canadians
take
trailers to clean farms in
the U.S., then
send them to dirty U.S.
truck washes, we're putting our whole industry at risk and now we
have a number of cases that demonstrate that.
There
have been three recent farms in Manitoba hit with Porcine Epidemic
Diarrhea virus. There is no published information linking those
outbreaks to truck trailers returning from the U.S.
What
is known is that most of the U.S. truck washes taking in hog
transports are contaminated with PED virus.
For
a while, the CFIA allowed trucks to return to Canada for washing with
clean water. Many truckers still do that after returning from the
U.S., but the critics say the risk is higher because the prior
washing in the U.S. is likely to deposit PED virus.
Manitoba’s
pork board was the first to speak out forcefully about the CFIA
reverting to its old standard this spring.
