Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) virus became a brand new problem for the U.S. swine industry to deal with this past spring, and Dr. Darin Madson with Iowa State University gave an update on the situation to producers at the Boehringer-Ingelheim North Carolina Health Seminar on Friday.

“Basically what we determined is that this virus, previously not known to be here, somehow entered North America around April 15,” said Dr. Madson. “It’s now over 400 premises that are positive across multiple states.”

Dr. Madson notes that the disease was found in Europe in the 1970s but appeared to die out, while it came into Asia in the 1990s where it has been devastating. The question is what the outcome of this outbreak in the United States will be. “There’s two different scenarios of what can happen on a sow farm,” he said. “One is that once the virus hits, it runs it’s course and it’s done and is eliminated. The other course is that it become endemic, meaning the virus is always there, but you really don’t see the signs until after they wean. That’s the scary one.”

Dr. Madson says there are positives and negatives about the virus when it comes to control but his main message to producers to prevent PED on their operations boils down to one word – biosecurity. “You really don’t want it and you really need to be careful to understand that this virus is very infective,” he said.

Listen to my interview with Dr. Madson here: Interview with ISU swine pathologist Dr. Darin Madson
BIVI NC Swine Seminar Photo Album