Porcine Epidemic

Porcine Epidemic

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
There is a disease called porcine epidemic diarrhea that has killed millions of pigs and could possibly seriously threaten pork production throughout the United States. The most seriously at risk populations are piglets as I learned from Dr. Bill Barton, head veterinarian for the state of Idaho. “Porcine epidemic virus, we call it PED for short, is caused by a viral organism very similar to be transmissible gastroenteritis or TGE virus which pig producers have dealt with for many many years. PED is different in that it was first time diagnosed in the US on May 2013. It is very infectious and contagious. Since May, it is now found to be have been in 27 states, those 27 have reported at least one case. 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 adults tend to recover from it. We are still learning a lot about the virus because it is new to the US. Is there any potential for a vaccine? They are working on a vaccine but we do not have anything close at this time to my knowledge. We do know that there is no cross protection from the TGE vaccines that we use. The best protection we get is antibodies from the sow, maternal antibodies that have been passed on through the colostrum.
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