PED Prevention

PED Prevention

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.

 Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently said "In the last year, industry has estimated porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) and porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) have killed some 7 million piglets and caused tremendous hardship for many American pork producers."Notice that the agricultural secretary used the word piglets, not pigs. To explain, Dr. Bill Barton who is the chief veterinarian for the state of Idaho. "Porcine epidemic virus, we call it PED for short, is caused by a viral organism. PED is different in that it was first time diagnosed in the US on May 2013. It is very infectious and contagious. It causes severe diarrhea in all ages of pigs but typically only causes high mortality in piglets, pigs that have not yet been weaned. The best protection we get is antibodies from the sow, maternal antibodies that have been passed on through the colostrum. The key to preventing this disease from entering another swine premises is bio- security. Bio-security is so critical. We do not know exactly how this is being transmitted yet so people that have pigs need to limit outside access to those pigs, they need to be very careful about where they have been and what they may bring home to their farm, they need to limit exposure to other pigs, just practice all of the good bio-security measures that are available on the Idaho Department of agriculture website."

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