As part of the Canadian Swine Health Board's efforts to protect the Canadian Swine Herd from the risk of disease the Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network has been tracking developments related to the spread of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea in the US.

Keeping Disease Out of Your Farm: The Role of the Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network will be among the topics discussed next week in Saskatoon as part of Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2013.

CSHN manager, Dr Chris Byra, reports thanks to broad participation in the national biosecurity training program provided to Canadian swine producers Canada remains free of PED.

Dr Chris Byra - Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network

There have been a number of samples submitted where people suspected that there could be too much diarrhea happening in groups but everything has come back negative so at this point Canada is free.

There were a number of presentations made in different parts of the country reflecting on the situation in the US and the efforts that they've made trying to control it.

We've always assumed that this organism was more or less like TGE.

It is a coronavirus and similar measures are used to control it but this is 'TGE on steroids'.

It's much harder to control.

They said they're only able to get stabilization in herds in about 70 per cent of the herds that they've tried so far.

They do get recurrences and it causes really significant economic losses, not just the piglets that die over the several weeks until immunity builds up but also there a reproductive effect for a period that's longer and, as I say, occasionally recurrences.

Dr Byra says the implementation of varying degrees of biosecurity has helped keep PED out of Canada and, based on the US response, those efforts need to continue.

Further Reading

Find out more information on PED by clicking here.