Province updates numbers on prevalence of pig diarrhea epidemic
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/08/2017 (2437 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA — Manitoba bureaucrats have fixed an error on their website that tracks a deadly pig disease, revealing its spread has been even more persistent than reported.
The update comes as the federal and provincial agriculture ministers meet today in Winnipeg, where they’ll likely talk about the porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) outbreak ravaging a swath of land around Steinbach.
The virus doesn’t contaminate meat or spread to humans, but it easily kills piglets.
Last Thursday, Glen Duizer of Manitoba’s Chief Veterinary Office told farmers in a conference call that a sample had tested positive the day before, meaning a 61st barn had been contaminated this year. “We had not had any positive cases since the 14th of July,” Duizer said at the time.
Within hours, the agriculture ministry’s website was updated to show an Aug. 8 case of PED.
But according to a website-tracking software used by the Free Press, that incident’s date was changed to July 27, while a 62nd case was added with the date of Aug. 1.
That means that instead of a 25-day stretch without a new case, the province hadn’t yet reached a full two weeks without PED hitting a new farm since the outbreak started May 2. (The website was last updated Friday.)
The Chief Veterinary Office said it made an error in recording the data. The agency lists “the day that we have determined through our investigation that the farm most likely became infected. This involves diagnostics, but also clinical disease and risk activities such as contacts with other infected premises.”
Meanwhile, federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay is visiting his provincial counterpart Ralph Eichler in Winnipeg today. While MacAulay’s staff couldn’t confirm the subject of their talks, they said it’s likely the two would discuss the PED outbreak.
PED hit Manitoba in 2014 when it engulfed U.S. farms, but there were only 10 reported cases in the province up until fall 2016.
The virus came back in May, just as federal regulators dropped a 2014 requirement that trucks be washed in Canada, after allegations that shoddy U.S. washes helped spread PED.
dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca