Effective May 2 the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is scheduled to end a pilot project under which swine transport vehicles returning to Canada from the US are sealed at the border and washed and disinfected in Canadian truck wash facilities and restore requirements for those trucks to be washed in the US.

Dr Egan Brockhoff, the Veterinary Councilor with the Canadian Pork Council, says the pilot project, which has been in place since February 2014, has been extremely effective in keeping swine diseases in the US out of Canada.

Dr Egan Brockhoff-Canadian Pork Council:

Our industry has responded remarkably to the concerns and risks around PED.

We know this is a devastating virus.

We know there are other devastating viruses out there and we certainly know we want to protect the Canadian pork herd and the Canadian pork industry.

Producers have risen up and implemented remarkable day to day biosecurity protocols and kept those going to keep this disease out.

The transport industry has done the very same and the transport industry have been great leaders in maintaining the Canadian health program.

We've rapidly adopted more advanced washing protocols, more advanced audit protocols of our wash and our transport procedures.

As an industry we've really come together and put together a remarkable program.

We've certainly seen great investment in infrastructure in Canada.

We've got more truck washes available today than we did 2 years ago.

We've got a greater understanding of what it takes to wash these trailers.

We've got more people working in the washes.

Things are going very well and we certainly want to keep that moving forward.

Dr Brockhoff says we've got a track record of more year and half of implementing these procedures and so far no disease has come back into Canada so we have the proof this approach has effectively addressed PED.