Perfect Storm of First Quarter Conditions Challenge Pork Producers and Veterinarians

The Canada West Swine Health Intelligence Network reports a perfect storm of conditions during the first quarter of 2022 resulted in multiple challenges for pork producers and veterinarians

The Canada West Swine Health Intelligence Network has released its swine health surveillance report for the first quarter of 2022.

CWSHIN Manager Dr. Jette Christensen says the winter quarter was very challenging on many fronts.

“It’s been very difficult to get a good cleaning and disinfection working in very cold temperatures so there was a lot of issues coming out of this perfect storm of factors“

“There were severe winter conditions in the region, winter storms, very cold temperatures, there was a shortage of barn staff, there was a shortage of staff through the whole production chain due to COVID and the absences when people had to stay home for COVID.

“These storms basically disrupted transport so scheduled transports couldn’t go ahead.
If they went ahead, they could have been delayed on route so, when the pigs arrived at their destination either going south at the border or at abattoirs, they could be in poor condition.
Also, the trucker protest disrupted normal transport so that didn’t help.

“All of these circumstances that are really out of our control led to difficulties for example with cleaning and disinfection both vehicles returning from abattoirs and so on.

“It’s been very difficult to get a good cleaning and disinfection working in very cold temperatures so there was a lot of issues coming out of this perfect storm of factors.

“The PED outbreak in Manitoba was certainly very hard to handle under these conditions.”

Dr. Christensen notes Manitoba’s PED outbreak now stands at over 100 premises declared infected.
She says the difficulties with transport, cleaning and disinfection, cold winds and short staffing made it hard to achieve the level of level of progress that was seen in previous outbreaks.

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