Swine dysentery, a bacterial disease that caused pork producers to go bankrupt a generation ago, affects primarily feeder pigs causing severe diarrhea.

"The Re-emergence of Swine Dysentery in North America" was discussed last week as part of the 2012 Banff Pork Seminar.

Canadian Swine Health Board Chair Florian Possberg says new tools and procedures developed in response to porcine circovirus, including the recent introduction of a national biosecurity standard, are helping producers to step up their biosecurity to keep disease out.

Florian Possberg-Canadian Swine Health Board

Having compromised health status is probably one of the real defining things between viable operations and challenged operations.

We understand better today I think that we have to act as a community to control disease and its spread and how we deal with it.

Now we have more tools.

The Canadian Swine Health Board wants to be the catalyst to get a very significant surveillance system up and running where the veterinarians can provide information on what they see as well as producers and we can use that information to protect our neighbors and better control the diseases on our farms.

Mr Possberg credits the foresight of federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz in making resources available for the creation of the Canadian Swine Health Board.

He says those resources are being used to put in place the systems and mechanisms necessary to proactively protect our herds rather than respond to crisis and prevent diseases like swine dysentery from becoming a mega-problem as was the case with circovirus where the industry lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Further Reading

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Find out more information on swine dysentery by clicking here.