Farmscape for June 18, 2015

A Red Deer based swine veterinarian reports recent warm dry weather has bolstered efforts to eradicate PED from the Canadian swine herd.
Across Canada we now stand at just over 100 cumulative primary cases of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea with somewhere over 200 sites affected in total, Ontario still being the primary province affected with some sites also affected through Quebec and Manitoba.
Dr. Egan Brockhoff, with Prairie Swine Health Services in Red Deer, told those participating in Alberta Pork's monthly PED telephone town hall, the summer months have worked in our favor.

Clip-Dr. Egan Brockhoff-Prairie Swine Health Services:
The dry warm weather and warm weather certainly makes it much easier to wash trucks and wash trailers and we're seeing a nice steady PED environment out there where control is becoming much more straight forward through these summer months.
There's really good engagement in PED eradication across Canada and many of those primary sow sites in central Canada have gone through eradication programs and they're now negative so that reduces the pressure for new infections.
We've got a lot of positive finisher barns that are still finishing off those PED positive pigs that moved through the sow barns last year and those barns will be cleaned up as those sows start producing negative pigs again and so, still very much within Canada's scope to be PED negative as well.
Enhanced biosecurity, improved sanitation and strategic vaccination have all been part of that success story so wonderful news.

Dr. Brockhoff notes the number of new premises being identified in the U.S. as PED positive has dropped off rapidly and their two month rolling average has continued to decline.
He credits enhanced biosecurity and biosecurity training, more focus on truck washes and enhanced immunity through vaccination.
 For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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