A Red Deer pig slaughtering and processing facility has taken steps to limit the spread of a virus that kills piglets.
Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, known as PED, was recently found for the first time in Alberta at a 400-head hog operation.
“Everyone is working together to try and eliminate this virus from the barns, from transportation, and any place it could appear,” said Richard Vigneault, with Olymel corporate communications, on Monday.
“The industry is taking it seriously because the costs could be very high.”
The virus is spread by the fecal-oral route, with the most common source being infected feces coming onto a farm with various surfaces that can transmit the virus. In nursing pigs, PED can cause up to 100 per cent mortality.
Alberta Pork has said the incident has not caused any food safety concerns, and pork products remain safe for consumption. The disease poses no risk to human health.
Vigneault said very strict biosecurity measures are in place at the receiving docks at the Red Deer plant.
“We’re doing tests on a daily basis in Red Deer. We test everything at the dock, the trucks, and we have had no positive tests.”
He said washing, sanitizing and drying the trucks the animals transport trucks is also very important before the trucks return to a barn.
“We have to be vigilant. We can’t declare victory before we’re sure there is no positive test at all, either at the farms, the trucks, at the plant,” Vigneault said.
“We’ll do whatever it takes.”
Hogs from Saskatchewan and Alberta are processed at Olymel in Red Deer.
The first case of PED in Canada was confirmed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in 2014 on a swine farm in Ontario. Since then, PED has also been reported in Manitoba, Quebec and Prince Edward Island.
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
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