Canfield Fair pigs protected from swine virus hitting U.S.

By Emmalee Torisk | August 29, 2014 at 12:01a.m.

By EMMALEE C. TORISK

etorisk@vindy.com

CANFIELD

Despite the continued spread of a deadly pig disease across U.S. farms, Canfield Fair Board directors in charge of the Mahoning County Junior Fair say they’re not anticipating any outbreaks during the 168th Canfield Fair.

Ward Campbell, one such fair board director, said on Thursday that if there were issues with the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, or PEDv, at the fairgrounds, he would’ve heard about them by now.

His counterpart, Bob Jarvis, noted that from the moment he learned of PEDv, which has killed an estimated 8 million piglets since it was first identified in the U.S. last year, he ensured that precautions were taken to prevent its spreading to fair swine.

“We don’t want to have sick pigs here at the fair,” Jarvis said.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website, PEDv poses no risk to human health or to food safety. Most vulnerable to the disease are piglets, especially those that are less than 6 weeks old.

Between 50 to 100 percent of infected piglets die from the virus. Adult pigs can become infected by PEDv, but in those cases, the disease is generally not fatal.

Both Jarvis and Campbell compared an adult pig’s getting PEDv to an adult human’s getting the flu.

“When they have some immunity and are older, they get sick for a few days and recover,” Campbell said.

Campbell added that the virus is spread through the ingestion of fecal matter. He said, too, that dealings with the fair swine were carefully monitored, as he and others “didn’t want to take any chances.”

Fair and state veterinarians were even called in for meetings over the past few months which included discussion of “what protocol to follow if there were to be a problem,” Campbell noted.

Junior Fair participants, along with their parents, also were informed about what sort of PEDv symptoms to look for, Jarvis added.

As added precautions, the pigs were kept apart from one another during the tagging process in May — which is required for exhibition in the Mahoning County Junior Fair Show — and their environments were kept as sterile and as clean as possible.

“You don’t want the young pigs to all get together, as it will affect them all,” Jarvis said. “We did a really good job.”

Jarvis and Campbell noted that no changes were made to the barns that house the swine during the Canfield Fair as a result of PEDv.

“We haven’t had any signs of it,” Campbell said, “and we don’t expect to.”

Torie Stratton of Salem, a junior at West Branch High School, said though she’s in her first year of showing swine at the Canfield Fair, she’s observed a “noticeable difference” because of the virus.

In past years, for example, 4-H Club members who were readying pigs for the fair had visited others’ barns with their pigs in tow to learn more about showmanship techniques. This year, they didn’t, simply to prevent the virus from being carried from farm to farm, Stratton said.

Stratton added that some members also had trouble getting pigs this year, because of the shortage.

Despite the difficulties, Stratton said she enjoyed her first animal project. She is showing the 312-pound Marshmallow, one of her two pigs, at the Canfield Fair. Next year, though, she hopes to bring a dairy feeder to the fair.

“It’s kind of like raising a baby,” Stratton said of her experience. “You teach it, you work with it. You learn a lot.”