PEDV Found in Hoosier Hog Herd

pork production A farm in Indiana has tested positive for porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), U.S. pork industry veterinarian official confirmed on Monday. Three farms in Iowa and one Indiana operation have confirmed cases of the virus, said Dr Lisa Becton, director of swine health information and research for the National Pork Board. The cases in Iowa were located on farms “all across the state, not in one specific area,” Becton said. PEDV does not pose a food safety or health risk to humans and the pork is safe eat. Other animals cannot contract the swine-only virus.

 

This marks the first time PEDV had been found in the United States, and poises yet another challenge for hog farms still recovering from record-high feed costs from last summer’s historic drought. “The severity of the outbreak is not yet known, but we’re hoping to have a better assessment soon,” Becton told Reuters.

 

Agriculture Department officials are pulling together an agricultural epidemiologic survey, and plan to send the questionnaire out to swine veterinarians in the coming days, to try to determine how the virus was introduced into the nation’s pork production chain and see how it spread, Becton said. Swine veterinarians across the U.S. are collecting samples from pork farms that have reported possible cases and sending them in for testing at National Veterinary Service Laboratories and other sites

 

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