By Curtis Galbraith

Third PED case found in Alberta

Mar 5, 2019 | 1:09 PM

CALGARY — Alberta Pork says there are now three positive cases of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) in this province.
 
The producer group says that two more possible cases were found last week, but one turned out to be a false positive.
 
It adds, a false positive finding does not happen often but can be expected in investigations like this.
 
The first PED outbreak in Alberta was detected in January at a 400 head farm.
 
The second was at a 600-head farrow-to-finish operation, found in February.
 
No other information on the third farm has been released but, it was found to be infected this month.
 
The disease has killed millions of piglets around the world and was  first confirmed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in 2014 on a swine farm in Ontario.  Since then the disease has also been reported in Manitoba, Quebec and Prince Edward Island.
 
 Alberta Pork says strict biosecurity procedures can limit the effect and spread of the disease, which affects pigs but poses no risk to human health and has not caused any food safety concerns.