Australian pig industry criticises US for PEDv handling
Porcine Epidemic Diarrhoea virus (PEDv) first reared its head in May last year in the US, affecting pig herds in 30 US states to date. The Australian pork industry has criticised the way the US has handled PEDv.
Darryl D’Souza, Australian Pork Limited’s general manager of research and innovation, has said that the US Department of Agriculture’s biosecurity procedures were not sufficiently strict in order to limit or break the spread of the virus, according to a report by ABC.net.
“Very early on, the authorities over there deemed it not to be a notifiable disease and that in some ways prevented a possible collection of accurate data that may have even removed some of the preparedness,” he said.
The virus has also been reported in Canada, Japan, Mexico and Colombia.
“Canada, on the other hand, has taken a very different approach and has made it notifiable, so as soon as you have any symptoms, you have to report it. That allows the authorities to take the necessary precautions in terms of quarantining sights, preventing feed trucks going out, preventing movement of animals and things like that. “But having said that, (the US) has certainly been hampered by their weather. It’s really difficult to clean trucks and things like that when the weather’s below freezing,” he added.
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