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Rabbit Advocacy Animal Matters
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Canadian pork industry trying to forestall deadly virus January 15, 2014 Eric Atkins for the Globe & Mail The Canadian pork industry is bracing for the arrival of a virus that has killed more than a million young pigs in the United States and caused meat prices to spike higher last spring. The virus, which is deadly for piglets, was found in the United States last spring and sent pork prices soaring by 25 percent. Known as porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), the virus has since been reported in 22 states and is predicted to cause a drop in the size of the U.S. herd by as much as 3 percent this year as its spread accelerates. Efforts to disinfect trucks at the border and heightened awareness of cleanliness at the farm gate have helped prevent the arrival of the virus in Canada. But Robert Friendship, a professor who studies swine health management at the University of Guelph in Ontario, said it is likely only a matter of time before a farm here is infected. “Keep our fingers crossed, but most people talk about when it comes, rather than if,” Dr. Friendship said. For the Canadian pork industry, the next three months are key – PED spreads more quickly in the cold, which helps keep it alive. Hog handling areas, barns and the trucks that transport the animals are wetter and muddier in winter, presenting ideal conditions for PED. “Viruses don’t respect regulations,” said Greg Douglas, Ontario’s chief veterinarian. “They do respect active biological controls. At the farm gate is the most critical.” Canada exports far more pigs to the United States than it imports, so the flow of animals is largely southbound, and trucks return empty. These trucks are the most likely way the virus could arrive, and they are washed, disinfected and dried at cleaning stations before being allowed onto farms. The virus, which kills suckling piglets within five days and slows growth in older ones, is spread through hog-to-hog contact, and dirty boots and trucks. PED does not affect humans, nor does it enter the food supply. “There’s a heightened awareness of this because they know this bug could put them out of business. That’s what has happened in many cases in the States,” said Robert Harding, executive director of the Canadian Swine Health Board, which is comprised of industry and veterinary groups. The virus’s arrival in Canada will mean “great economic loss” for farmers and a shortage of animals for slaughter that will lead to higher prices at the butcher, said Rick Bergmann, who raises 1,700 sows near Steinbach, Man., and is vice-chairman of the Manitoba Pork Council. “To date, we’re very fortunate that there’s no case of PED in Canada and we’re doing our best to maintain that,” Bergmann said. The pork industry accounts for 30 percent of Canadian livestock exports and 10 percent of the farming sector’s revenues. After grains and beef, pork is the country’s third most valuable agricultural commodity. Canada exported more than 5.6 million live hogs and a billion kilograms of pork in 2012, worth a total of about $3.5-billion. The United States is the biggest buyer, followed by Japan, Russia and China. Of the hog-producing provinces, Quebec is the largest. Ontario and Manitoba are next. PED is casting a shadow on an industry whose future was starting to look brighter, after several years of soaring costs and shrinking markets caused by a handful of global events. In 2009, Canadian pork exports were hammered amid an outbreak of the unfortunately named swine flu, despite no scientific evidence it could be passed to humans. Other headwinds include soaring costs for corn and other feed amid the droughts of 2011 and 2012 and competition from the biofuels industry. This year was looking better: the bumper grains crop has driven down the prices for hog feed, and farmers are rebuilding their herds to take advantage of strong market prices, especially in China. The wild card is PED. Farmers who find it are forced to eliminate much of their herds, either by sending them to market or quarantining the sick ones before they die of dehydration brought on by diarrhea and vomiting. A sow typically produces just two litters a year, and replacing animals takes time. Even then, there is no guarantee the virus won’t reappear, and there is no proven vaccination against it. The United States Department of Agriculture said the size of the U.S. swine herd shrank by one percent in the latest quarter, confirming for the first time the impact of the virus and sparking fears pork prices would begin soaring at the same time Americans are firing up barbecues. Since the beginning of January, hog prices in Chicago have risen by 6 percent. The discovery of PED last year in Ohio was the first in North and South America, although it is present in parts of Europe and Asia. Genetic tests confirmed the U.S. strain came from China, but it is not known how. “That’s what’s creating some consternation over this,” said Harding, of the Swine Health Board. “There are no live pigs that came from China to the States, there are no pig trucks that came from China to the States. It really is confounding everyone.” Comment: Intensive, industrialised agriculture is at fault. Thanks to numerous undercover videos, like those of Mercy For Animals, we all know what the livestock industry has tried to keep hidden for so long. Media is finally beginning to report on what the powerful have tried to keep from the public. September 27, 2018: African swine fever (ASF) is a major threat to pig production worldwide and it continues to spread in China and Europe, most recently into Belgium where 4,000 pigs are to be slaughtered in efforts to control it. The disease may have reached pandemic proportions, considering its expansion across Europe, and over considerable distances in China over the last year, in addition to the sustained occurrence of outbreaks in Russia and China. China has more than 400 million pigs, over half the world’s swine. African swine fever virus is not destroyed in meat via curing, smoking, salting or air-drying, which are all traditional approaches to preparation. The virus can also survive rotting, freezing and low-temperature, short-duration cooking. ASF is a reportable disease and its presence in Canada would cause border closures, a halt to pig and pork trade and mass destruction of animals, he said. There is no treatment or vaccine. (Sources: Bloomberg & Western Producer) June 6, 2019 "Pig Ebola" is spreading uncontrollably in China & Vietnam https://www.vox.com/2019/6/6/18655460/china-african-swine-fever-pig-ebola Comment: Nature’s biting back at industrial animal production! Filthy, inhumane, factory farms, slaughterhouses, and meat markets threaten the health of every human being on the planet by providing a breeding ground for deadly diseases like SARS, avian influenza, swine flu, & more. Shut them down!! April 12, 2020 Factbox: Spread of coronavirus closes North American meat plants and slaughterhouses, three in Canada. Major meat companies in the United States and Canada have closed plants temporarily due to cases of the new coronavirus among employees and concerns about its spread. (Reuters) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-meat-factbox-idUSKCN21V09W April16, 2020 from NewsBlaze: While many U.S. slaughterhouses are closing, pork slaughterhouses and pork producers are bracing for another coronavirus challenge: a virus called Severe Acute Diarrhea Syndrome or SADS-CoV that also originated in China and targets pigs. Like SARS, MERS and COVID-19, SADS-CoV is bat-originated and hosted by an eaten animal. Zoonotic diseases (zoonoses) passes from an animal or insect to a human. Some don’t make the animal sick but will sicken a person. Diseases range from mild to severe, and some can even be fatal. Read more: 2nd case of deadly pig virus confirmed in Ontario |