Manitoba Pork in partnership with the Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative and Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development has launched a research project designed to identify the presence of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) in manure pits.

Mr Mark Fynn, an animal care specialist with Manitoba Pork, says the goal of the project is to investigate the underlying presence of PEDv on sites in the province and to investigate the survivability of the virus in manure lagoons, in the soil after manure has been applied and on application equipment.

Mr Mark Fynn-Manitoba Pork:

We are asking producers to participate by doing the sampling out of their pits.

We've got the participation of the provincial veterinary diagnostics lab who will actually be doing the diagnostics on all the samples that come in.

We're asking the manure applicators to participate by asking producers for the status of their barns so that, if there are positive barns out there that we're unaware of, that they can find it during the sampling and then take the right precautions to avoid dragging it from one client to the next.

We also have the vets involved in the process in getting their clients on board with the sampling program and there's another number of people involved too.

We'll have researchers involved on the research component that I'd mentioned about the survivability of PEDv in lagoons, in the soil after it's applied and on equipment after it's been used to spread the manure.

Mr Fynn notes any farms on which the virus is detected through sampling will then be engaged in the research component of the project.

For more information or to participate visit manitobapork.com or call 204-897-0622.