Success in containing PED motivates producers to maintain day-in day-out biosecurity

The Director of Swine Health with Manitoba Pork suggests the success experienced in the province as the result of Manitoba’s Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Elimination Plan in keeping a lid on PED is helping motivate producers to continue along the path of day-in day-out biosecurity.

The implementation of Manitoba’s PED elimination plan is credited with helping reduce the number of cases in the province from a peak of 132 in 2021-2022 to single digit numbers of cases since.

Jenelle Hamblin, the Director of Swine Health with Manitoba Pork, says it comes down to the improvements that we’ve seen in biosecurity and an increased focus on biocontainment across the sector.

Biosecurity enhancements aren’t disease specific so protocols that are put in place to protect the farm cover a wide array of disease. With the implementation of the changes in biosecurity that we’ve been doing for PED, looking at biosecurity from the lens of ensuring that the protocols can be sustainable and practical day in and day out, really does make a difference in protecting from a myriad of diseases. Anything that you do will protect yourself from not only from PED, not only PRRS but other diseases entering the farm.

All of that work that’s been done to improve our biosecurity across the industry in Manitoba, we are seeing the impacts in lower diseases levels in the province which is a really good thing. Speaking to the significance of the expanded knowledge and attention, I think it really reinforces the work that we’re doing and the reason behind it.

If we’re seeing the results and we are seeing the results from these efforts, I think it does motivate folks to continue down this path and understanding that we are doing this for a reason and we are seeing the benefits of that hard work.

~ Jenelle Hamblin, Manitoba Pork

Hamblin notes we are seeing an uptick of cases of PED in Ontario and they are working hard to understand the spread and deal with what they are seeing on the ground. She suggests that reinforces that the risk of PED remains everywhere and we need to be aware of this and keep up our biosecurity.