Farmscape for August 10, 2016

The Saskatchewan Pork Development Board says a PED positive environmental sample collected in Alberta reinforces the need for continued diligence in guarding against the infection.
Last week, as part of its surveillance at high traffic swine facilities and truck washes, Alberta Agriculture detected PED virus in an environmental sample collected from a livestock trailer.
The trailer had picked up sows at a Manitoba assembly yard, took them to a processing plant in Wisconsin, was washed at a facility in Wisconsin, then picked up a non-livestock cargo and returned to Canada.
Harvey Wagner, the Manager of Producer Services with Sask Pork, says the incident demonstrates the importance of having a good process in place and following it consistently to prevent PED.

Clip-Harvey Wagner-Saskatchewan Pork Development Board:
There are three potential sources of contamination.
It could have been from sows at the assembly yard.
It's certainly going to a high risk location so the packing plant is Wisconsin is almost undoubtedly contaminated with PED.
There's no question that that would be the situation.
Now, whether that got transferred onto the trailer, that's always a possibility.
Then it could also have been contaminated at the truck wash in the U.S.
Any one of those three locations could have contaminated it, but, what is clear is that the washing of the truck at the truck wash in  the United States did not get rid of any potential contamination and it was still dirty and required a re-wash in Canada.
It's really really important to ensure that transportation units are inspected properly and preferably tested after a movement to any place that is known to be a potential risk of PED contamination and, if there's any question what so ever about the cleanliness of the unit or contamination of the unit, that it must be re-washed, disinfected and dried and preferably re-tested to be sure that you're clear.

Wagner says, by treating every transport as a suspected PED positive, we'll have a good chance of keeping the virus out of our herds in western Canada.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork