Quebec has not had an outbreak of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) virus in pigs since March, Dr. Luc DuFresne of Demeter Veterinary Services told the Big Bug Day audience at Elora recently.
Quebec has conducted 4.500 tests for the disease at unloading docks, on 7,000 trucks and at the province’s packing plants.
That’s much greater surveillance than in Manitoba where its most recent outbreak was Oct. 23 and Ontario on Nov. 14.
Manitoba would like to test all hogs before they leave the farm and do regular farm surveillance, but so far hasn’t got the money to do it, he said.
Of the 7,000 trailers Quebec tested, six detected PED and two of those were from Ontario.
He said there is a risk that the disease will spread from trucks hauling infected pigs or trailers on roads and highways.
He said truck washing and disinfection takes about two hours and the truck washes with high-powered water hoses are expensive to build.
Faster and less costly are trailer-baking facilities. After thorough cleaning of manure, the virus can be eliminated by 160-degrees-
Fahrenheit temperatures held for about a quarter of an hour.
He said the manure cleaning needs to be thorough, Anything as big as a golf ball is a high hazard.
These Thermo Assist Drying and Disinfecting (TADD) facilities can handle 20 trailers per day, he said.
He said hog farmers should insist on biosecurity measures such as no entry by outsiders to barns, staff leaving boots outside the door and changing out of clothing, showering and moving to a clean room for disinfecting and then to another room to don another set of clothing before moving into the pig-housing areas.
He also provided information about Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory (PRRS) virus and said 20 to 30 per cent of United States hog farms have an outbreak every year.
He said about 40 per cent of U.S. farms are testing naïve – i.e. no infection.
There is a 40 per cent lower incidence of infection in barns with negative air pressure and 41 per cent lower in barns with air filtration systems.’
He said it is taking an average of 36 weeks to restore a herd to PRRS-free status.
It’s achieved by a combination of farm-specific vaccinations using infectious substances from that herd and thorough facility cleaning and disinfecting once a secure area of the barn has been emptied of pigs.
