While Canada remains free of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) rates of infection in the United States have increased over the past month with the onset of colder weather.

Harvey Wagner, the producer services manager with the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board, notes this virus spreads primarily through feces so any bit of manure that's on a transport vehicle can certainly infect a herd of pigs so producers definitely need to pay attention to transportation.

Harvey Wagner-Sask Pork

Vehicles that go to a packing plant where PED is present can certainly carry.

There's been some work done by the National Pork Board in the US that shows quite clearly that trucks that were free of PED going into a packing plant are not necessarily free of it coming out.

In fact, the infection rate is in the area of 11 per cent on the trucks they studied.

Once it's on that truck, if it's not properly washed, disinfected and dried, particularly dried, there's a really good risk that the virus can be spread to other pigs from that truck.

Another thing they should do is try and institute a clean dirty line on their load-out so that no part of the transport vehicle or any person or any tools or equipment come from the transport vehicle back into the barn, only the other way around, from the barn to the vehicle.

It's not a perfect way of preventing it but it is the last opportunity to prevent movement and we know that in some cases it's been the only thing that's saved barns from becoming infected with PED.

Mr Wagner stresses, because it takes so little material to infect a pig, once one animal is infected the virus can spread very quickly so now is not the time to slack off on biosecurity.