The Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture has released the results of its environmental sampling program for PED, Deltacoronavirus and TGE for December.

Environmental samples are collected continuously from 3 high risk or co-mingling sites as well as from additional sites for limited periods.

Dr Betty Althouse, Saskatchewan's chief veterinary officer says Deltacoronavirus has been detected.

Dr Betty Althouse-Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture:

In the last month there has been a couple of suspects and two positive samples for Porcine Deltacoronavirus.

All of those were at one site and we have had positives in that site before where we know that there was Deltacoronavirus detected in sparrow faeces.

We know that there are birds at that site that samples from the birds are cross reacting with the pig tests and so we think it's most likely these samples are related to positive birds rather than positive pigs.

The sparrow or bird Deltacoronavirus and the swine one both show up positive on the PCR test that the labs are using but there are two different labs in Canada that are working on a differentiating test so we're hopeful that within a few months we will be able to know which of these Deltacoronaviruses it is.

But for now, because of the repeated ones at this one site, we are pretty sure that it is most likely the sparrow version but we are responding and cleaning up just in case it is the swine one.

Dr Althouse says PED remains a risk in North America.

She said the level of infection in the US has decreased since 2013 but the virus is still around and, as we get into late autumn (fall) and winter, the virus survives well and cleaning and disinfection becomes more difficult so it's important to continue to maintain high biosecurity.