Canada’s Ontario Ministry of Agriculture announced yeterday (Thursday) that the country’s first case of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) has been discovered on a farm in the province’s Middlesex County.
Ontario’s chief vet, Dr Greg Douglas, said tests conducted at Guelph on Wednesday had detected the virus, and that samples had now been sent to a federal laboratory in Winnipeg for further testing.
“For all intents and purposes, you can consider it confirmed,” Dr Douglas told a news conference. “Several pigs at the farm have died from the illness. The farm is under control and its owner is co-operating with officials.
“No pigs will be leaving in the short term.”
Mr Douglas said there were no concerns that any products or animals were leaving the premises that could causing any any threat to the Ontario pork industry, but he warned that the farm had already been following strict biosecurity protocols and still succumbed to the virus.
“Experience in other jurisdictions shows the virus is extremely difficult to contain and there could be other cases,” he said.
The Canadian Swine Health Board has said that because PEDv is not a federally reportable disease in Canada, there’s no single set of protocols to help prevent it from spreading or to deal with an outbreak. Instead, Canada’s provinces and the industry are sharing information and developing plans with the help of the board.