Manitoba taxpayers paid out almost $900 thousand to help counter a deadly hog disease in this province. A PinP exclusive.

by Larry Powell

It cost the Manitoba treasury $871,847.26  to help hog producers battle “Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea,” (PED) since the killer virus invaded many barns in the southeast in the spring of 2017. But even with authorities warning that PED has now spread further west and north than ever before, and could return to the same high levels as it did in 2017, the provincial government claims it still doesn’t know how many piglets have died in the outbreak. (PED causes significant deaths only in animals in their first few days of life.)

Photo credit - Manitoba Pork.

*The Department of Agriculture tells PinP, "With respect to the number of piglet mortalities, this is personal business information and mortalities are not required to be reported for any livestock species.”

Yet the government’s own “Livestock Manure and Mortalities Management Regulations” seem to suggest otherwise. They say, when a producer has more animals dying than he/she can routinely dispose of (as was almost certainly the case here), “the operator shall, without delay, provide an environment officer with any information about the situation that the officer requests.” 

So, what does this mean? The industry has been reporting the numbers, and the government is lying? Or, has the industry not been reporting them and, by so doing, breaking the law by ignoring the regulations? Or, has the government simply not been asking these question? Any one of these scenarios surely display serious neglect on someone's part!

A year or so after the initial outbreak, industry officials were describing how they got “walloped” by it, how desperate efforts to fight it were causing symptoms in some owners and barn workers similar to PTSD, and describing it as "the largest animal disease outbreak in the province in 30 years."

Yet the closest estimate to the number of mortalities on the public record appears in the online publication “Pig Progress” in March of 2018. A swine specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Robyn Harte, is quoted as saying, at the peak of the outbreak, “There were over one million pigs under surveillance.” She does not elaborate. 

Several other requests I’ve made to the industry group, Manitoba Pork for a figure on mortalities, have gone unanswered.

Another partial hint on the death toll came in June of 2017. The President of Hylife, a major, Manitoba-based producer and pork processor, was appearing before the Commons Agriculture Committee. Claude Vielfaure testified, "As of yesterday, we believe that we've lost 21,000 pigs already to PED." 

The cost to the public treasury comes in because the government helps industry manage the disease by paying for some veterinary fees, diagnostic services, lab supplies and staff expenses. 

Experts have warned for years that Intensive Livestock Operations, like the ones in Manitoba, where large numbers of animals are housed in confined spaces, contribute to disease outbreaks. Late in 2017, well after the initial outbreak, the provincial government relaxed regulations to allow for industry expansion.

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**I initially asked the Government for this information in an e-mail. But it only responded after I launched a formal inquiry under “FIPPA,” the Freedom of Information and Personal Privacy Act. 

*

**

Boreal Forest Fires Could Release Deep Soil Carbon

NASA

Courtesy Environment & Climate Change, Canada.

Increasingly frequent and severe forest fires could burn generations-old carbon stored in the soils of boreal forests. Releasing this previously buried carbon into the atmosphere could change these forests’ balance of carbon gain and loss, potentially accelerating warming. Story here.

Healthy foods are expensive in poor countries, unhealthy foods cheap in rich countries. Study.

International Livestock Research Institute

Eggs and other nutrient-dense foods are expensive in poor countries, leading to child stunting, 

Photo by OXFAM.

while sugar and other nutrient-poor food are cheap in rich countries. 

Photo by Bennysaunders

Story here.

Environmentally-Caused Disease Crisis? Pesticide Damage to DNA Found 'Programmed' Into Future Generations

EcoWatch
Researchers have found that concentrations of atrazine in drinking water were highest in May and June when farmers sprayed with the herbicide. They also found that birth defects peaked during the same months. Story here.

A US Geological Survey map.

RELATED:

• Overwhelming evidence supports need for Canadian atrazine ban.
• Research Suggests Our Past, Prolific Use of the Insecticide DDT May Still Be Contributing To A Scourge Of Modern-Day Diseases Related To Obesity - by Larry Powell

Grassland biodiversity is blowing in the wind

Science Daily

Temperate grasslands are the most endangered but least protected ecosystems on Earth. A new study found that milkweeds and other plants that have seeds carried by the wind are an important source for enriching the diversity of plants in these valuable ecosystems. Story here.

Grasslands Nat'l. Park, Canada.

Milkweed in a roadside ditch in Manitoba.
Photos by PinP.

Wild ground-nesting bees might be exposed to lethal levels of neonics in soil.

ScienceDaily

In a first-ever study investigating the risk of neonicotinoid insecticides to ground-nesting bees, University of Guelph researchers have discovered hoary squash bees are being exposed to lethal levels of the chemicals in the soil. Story here.

Hoary bees forage on a squash flower.
Ilona Loser

RELATED:

New Studies Show Farm Chemicals Are Affecting More Than Bees. Bird Populations are Declining, too. Is modern agriculture's hold on nature becoming a death grip?

The day of the salamander. How a big highway project in southwestern Manitoba is having to "make way" for a little amphibian, or face legal consequences. Larry Powell prepared this video report.

by Larry Powell

TEXT VERSION - "The day of the salamander."

The summer of the salamander. How the little amphibian forced a big highway project in southwestern Manitoba to work around it, or face legal consequences. 

by Larry Powell.

Just as a multi-million dollar road improvement project was about to begin - between Shoal Lake and Hamiota in July - salamanders were found in the wetlands along the right-of-way. 

Tiger salamanders in captivity. A Wikipedia photo.

And not just any salamanders. These were the prairie population of tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum), considered a “species of concern” under the Federal Species at Risk Act. 

"Turbidity curtains." A PinP photo.

As a result, so-called “turbidity curtains” (above) were strung along the area affected. They prevent sediment created in this “hot zone” of construction, from spreading throughout the entire slough. That meant, salamanders trapped within the curtains, had to be caught and moved.

Luke Roffey. AAE Tech Services. A PinP photo.

Luke Roffey (above), a biology student at the University of Winnipeg, works for a company hired by the main highway contractor to make sure provisions of the Act are upheld. 

He tells PinP the salvage operation is going well, with more than 11 hundred salamanders trapped and relocated. At this writing, that operation was continuing.

Minnow trap with glow-stick. Photo by Luke Roffey.

Minnow traps baited with “glow-sticks” proved an effective method of capture. But that took longer than expected, delaying the construction project somewhat, but, says Roffey, “not by much.”

He says he got the distinct impression that construction crews would not have “made way” for the salamanders if the federal legislation had not required them to do so. And, he believes, “Many of the 11 hundred would not have survived,” proving the value of the law.

Salamanders are considered a key part of nature’s food web. Before they emerge from the water, they eat lots of harmful larvae like mosquitoes. And, after they move to their “on-land” (terrestrial) stage, they, themselves become important food for cranes, foxes, pelicans and many other animals. 

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, a government advisory body, says the pressures placed on the habitats of this prairie population by farming, oil development and other human activity, are “immense.”

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Chinese Giant Salamander: millions farmed, nearly extinct in the wild

New species of giant salamander is the world's largest amphibian

Climate change water variability hurts salamander populations

Salamanders, headwater streams critical in food chain.

Additional info.

So the salamander larvae eat aquatic invertebrates, such as mosquito larvae, midge larvae, small crustaceans, beetles, and worms. They will also eat the tadpoles of frogs and toads if they occur in the same wetland. And large larvae will even cannibalize smaller ones in overcrowded ponds. When the water is drying up fast, cannibalism helps the larger larvae grow fast enough to be able to become terrestrial before their pond evaporates completely. 

Adults eat mainly beetles, crickets, and earthworms. But any creature small enough to fit in their mouth is potentially on the menu. 

The aquatic larvae are eaten by garter snakes, herons, cormorants, pelicans, cranes, and mink. On land they are eaten by all these same predators but also badgers, skunks, foxes and owls. 

They don't tend to breed in ponds with fish because pike, bass and perch are such effective predators of the larvae.

Luke Roffey.