Tests being done to determine if deadly pig virus spreads in swine feed: CFIA

Photo: Facebook Page of The Canadian Food Inspection Agency

OTTAWA – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is looking into whether a deadly pig virus is being transmitted through swine feed.

The agency says tests are underway to find out whether feed is a “contributing factor” to the outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea.

It says Cambridge, Ont.-based feed manufacturer Grand Valley Fortifiers issued a voluntary recall on Feb. 9 for some feed products containing porcine plasma.

The agency says tests have found the virus in samples of U.S.-origin plasma from a supplier to Grand Valley, with the plasma used as an ingredient in feed pellets.

That testing found the virus in the plasma was capable of causing PED in pigs, and additional testing is being done to determine whether feed pellets can give piglets the disease.

The virus — which poses no risk to human health or food safety — is present in three provinces, with 16 cases in Ontario, and one each in Manitoba and Prince Edward Island.

It first emerged in Canada less than a month ago at a southwestern Ontario pig farm.

Ontario earlier said that sampling had detected PED genetic material in swine feed.

The virus is highly contagious and has already killed millions of piglets in the United States.