Monday, January 5, 2015

New strain of PED found in U.S.

Researchers have identified a third strain of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus killing young hogs across the United States.

It’s equal to, or worse, than the original strain, reports the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Association of Swine Veterinarians.

The new strain was recently confirmed by the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, but it was actually first identified in June, 2013.

“Three naturally occurring U.S. PEDV strains have been identified: the original PEDV, the PEDV with changes in the spike gene (INDEL), and the PEDV strain (S2aadel),” the swine veterinarians’ association says in an article available on the internet.

“The role of genetic changes in the US PEDV strains to clinical disease has yet to be reported. The clinical presentation of diarrhea in this case was reported as equally or more severe than such presentation in cases caused by the prototype PEDV Colorado/2013,” says the report.

The CDC adds that though the North American PEDv variant-INDEL strain was only recently identified, it was first detected in June 2013 and reported in February 2014 by the Ohio Department of Agriculture.

This suggests the original PEDv strain mutated or two different PEDv strains were introduced into the U.S. at the same time.

Since it was first identified in U.S. hog herds in April 2013, PEDv had killed an estimated eight million pigs.

It is a fast-spreading disease that thrives in cold weather, and it doesn’t take much of infected feces to spread the infection. One gram of feces diluted in 24,000 gallons of water is still enough to infect pigs. 

In June, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the department would pump $26 million into fighting the disease, including $11.1 million to support better ons-farm biosecurity. Vilsack also announced mandatory PEDv reporting. 


There’s more about the recent outbreak at https://www.aasv.org .