February 24, 2014
Canada aims to eliminate porcine epidemic diarrhoea
Advance warning has given Canada an advantage in dealing with porcine epidemic diarrhoea (PED), according to Chris Byra, manager of the Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network (CSHIN).
Last month the first cases of PED in Canada were identified in Ontario and last week new cases were confirmed in Manitoba and Prince Edward Island.
Byra notes the virus caught the US by surprise and, by the time it was diagnosed, it had been in the country for a period of time so for the first few months there was no coordinated approach to controlling the infection or conducting research.
Leadership in dealing with this is kind of in place with the Canadian Swine Health Board and the Canadian Pork Council from a national perspective and then within provinces the pork boards and the provincial governments are very rapidly working together on these.
Byra added, "So part of the experience from the US that has been beneficial to us is that we could see mistakes made or ways that it could have been done better and we had six months to develop plans on our side of the border."
In addition then the response and the communication is much more coordinated as will be the investigations and research into this.
Byra said that there are a number of questions that require research and they are working with their American counterparts and there is evidence biosecurity measures will prevent the infection from spreading so there is still optimism that they are going to be able to eradicate the disease.