February 6, 2014
PEDv cases confirmed in Canada''s Ontario province
Two more farrow-to-finish farms in Chatham-Kent and Perth County have reported outbreaks of porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus (PEDv)，
bringing the total number of cases in the Canadian province of Ontario to 10, according to news reports.
The Ontario government notified on January 23rd that the PED virus was found on a hog farm in southern Ontario''s Middlesex County, marking the first confirmed case of the virus on a Canadian farm. Virtually all of the farm''s several hundred two to five-day-old piglets have died, said Greg Douglas, Ontario''s chief veterinary officer.
Chatham-Kent has a total of three farms battling the virus and one case each in Middlesex, Norfolk and Simcoe. Off-farm sampling uncovered the virus at an assembly yard, a processing plant and trucking yards.
Ontario is Canada''s second-biggest hog-producing province, after Quebec. Olymel LP, one of Canada''s biggest pork processors, also detected the virus last week at an unloading dock of its Saint-Esprit slaughter facility northeast of Montreal, Quebec. Currently, no other provinces have reported cases of PEDv.
Ontario Pork, which represents approximately 1,600 producers in the province, says that PEDV could cost the Canadian pork industry as estimated $45 million (US$40.6 million). A drop in the Canadian hog supply would pose a major challenge for Olymel and fellow hog processor Maple Leaf Foods Inc., both of which also raise pigs.
As the virus has just been discovered in Canada, and deaths occur in piglets, the disease''s effect on domestic prices will be unknown for another eight or nine months, when the pigs'' growth cycle is complete. In fact, it may not cost consumers more to buy pork, as a price increase isn''t anticipated, Ontario Pork spokesperson Mary Jane Quinn said. However, since the virus has been in the United States since spring, Quinn noted that the price of imported pork into Canada may be affected.
The Canadian Food Inspection agency has permitted emergency access to the iPEDv+ vaccine. Meanwhile, the governments of both Ontario and Canada are providing CAD2 million (US$1.81 million) to help Ontario Pork support industry-wide investments to improve biosecurity measures at critical points across the province. These measures include assembly yard and truck washing stations.
PEDv, which causes diarrhoea, vomiting and severe dehydration in hogs, has turned up in 23 of the 50 states since its discovery in the United States in April 2013, after circulating widely in Europe and Asia. The virus can spread through contaminated pig faeces on pigs, trucks, boots and clothing.