An outbreak of Seneca Valley Virus briefly paused cull sow shipments from two assembly yards in Manitoba to the US. Manitoba Pork General Manager Cam Dahl says while the virus isn't harmful, its symptoms are similar to severe diseases like Foreign Animal Disease.
"When those symptoms were seen by USDA Veterinarians on the border, they rejected those shipments, and we needed to go back and test to ensure that in fact, we didn't have any of those more serious diseases."
Dahl says while it was only a brief pause in shipments, it caused a number of issues.
"It has a pretty significant impact. Most of the animals that were being exported into the US were cull sows, and unfortunately in Western Canada, we don't have enough processing capacity for cull animals, so they really only had one place to go and that was to their US destination."
Dahl says this should serve as a reminder that animals need to be cared for properly, and housed properly, so they aren't getting sick.
