Alberta Study Examines Infectivity of PED Infected Stored Hog Manure

Researchers working on behalf of Swine Innovation Porc hope to have a clearer idea by this fall of how long stored manure from PED infected farms remains infective

From 2017 to 2019 over 200 cases of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea were confirmed in Manitoba and four were confirmed in Alberta in 2019.
As part of two studies being conducted on behalf of Swine Innovation Porc, the pork organizations and provincial governments in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta are evaluating the infectivity of the virus in swine manure storage in both provinces.

Javier Bahamon, the Quality Assurance and Production Manager with Alberta Pork, says manure from infected farms poses an immediate risk of spreading the virus but how long that manure remains infective in storage is uncertain.

“What we learned so far with this research, specifically of the virus in the two and three years storage, is that the virus does not pose that risk“

“What we learned so far with this research on the viability specifically of the virus is in the Manitoba Pork trial that was completed already in 2019 and it has lagoons from two years storage and three years storage that the virus does not pose that risk.

“As soon as a piglet was exposed to a two-year storage facility with a PCR positive, it didn’t produce any infectivity in a piglet, in a live animal.

“Now we understand the two and the three years from that trial. Now we have the gap in between.

“When was the last piglet positive in a farm and when was the last time that we included that lagoon in that mix of risk?

“That’s what we are trying to answer in this new trial from Alberta farms, the length that we are working on is between 6.5 months to seven months.”

Bahamon says the Alberta study resumed in March, after being delayed by COVID, and he expects to have full results this fall.