Provincial pig farmers fearing outbreak of porcine virus in peak of season

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This article was published 22/06/2017 (2499 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Manitoba pig farmers are anxiously awaiting action from Ottawa as an unprecedented disease outbreak threatens a prime season for Canada’s pork heartland.

As of Thursday, some 31 Manitoba farm sites have reported being hit by the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) virus this year. That’s compared with just 10 sites for the three prior years combined.

“A thimble full of this disease could infect all the herd in western Canada,” says Andrew Dickson, head of the Manitoba Pork Council.

While the disease can’t be transferred to humans, and it doesn’t affect pork meat, PED is highly contagious among pigs and easily kills piglets.

A widespread PED outbreak in the United States led the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to start a February, 2014, policy of having Canadian pork trucks washed north of the border. It came after loosely regulated U.S. plants were flagged as hotspots for spreading the disease, allegedly for reusing under-heated water.

The 2014 policy had Canadian trucks drop off pigs in the U.S., seal their doors and enter Canada with a signed permit showing they’d soon have a thorough wash within Canada.

CFIA loosened that policy in May 2016, saying there wasn’t scientific proof trucks were causing the spread, despite opposition from industry groups. “I don’t need scientific evidence to tell me [that] putting my hand in a fire is not a really good idea,” Dickson says.

Now, Canadian trucks simply need a wash in the U.S. before crossing home to Canada. The CFIA has border guards do a “visual clean” test, and only does bacterial checks when samples are sent to a lab. That’s left many Manitoba companies paying for one wash to enter Canada, and a second one for sanitation.

Brandon-Souris MP Larry Maguire says Manitoba’s 13,000 pork-industry workers are worried. Even the local Maple Leaf plant fears a looming shortage of pigs to process. “It’s a very volatile disease.”

Dickson said the affected farm sides are losing as much as $200,000 to clean barns, coping with sick sows and dispose of diseased excrement. Ironically, the lower Canadian dollar meant 2017 was supposed to be a good year for pig producers, he said.

He says Manitoba farms are implementing wash-down policies for staff, while industry groups drive routes outside the affected area, spanning south of Highway 1 and east of the Red River.

The crisis led to an emergency House of Commons committee meeting on June 15. Saskatchewan MP David Anderson, who serves as the Conservative agriculture critic, sounded exasperated as CFIA officials said they’re still debating whether to bring the 2014 policy back.

“I don’t understand why people can’t sort this out,” he said. “It’s going to be a huge loss.”

The parliamentary committee sent Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay a letter on Tuesday, asking to immediately resume the 2014 policy, start a truck-wash certification system and compensate farmers hit by PED.

They’ve asked for a detailed look at what’s been done by June 30, highlighting the urgency.

Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler said his staff speak with MacAulay’s office “daily” and that the CFIA has helped with the province’s lab testing.

He has “a very good feeling” Ottawa will put the 2014 system back in place soon. “When something like this happens, you put checks and balances in place to make sure nothing like this ever happens again,” he said.

But the feds are vague on how they’ll respond.

CFIA staff will have a major discussion next week with Manitoba officials. MacAuley’s spokesman, Oliver Anderson, said it surrounds “roles and responsibilities that would be assumed under an amended program,” but refused to say whether that meant a new truck-washing policy.

MacAulay brought up truck washing in a statement last week, saying he’d work out details “in the coming months.”

That timeline that worries Anderson.

“This could be instituted very quickly,” he said. “We’d rather be safe than be sorry.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca