Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) – Update

June 5, 2013 — 

AASV is conducting an epidemiologic survey of PED-positive herds. This survey was compiled in collaboration with National Pork Board, National Pork Producers Council and USDA. For additional information, please see the article in this week’s e-Letter (http://www.aasv.org/news/story.php?id=6464)

PED has also been added to the agenda for the AASV members-only meeting being held at World Pork Expo on Thursday starting at 1:00pm CDT in the Elwell Family Center on the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Members can view the agenda online at https://www.aasv.org/members/only/WPX/WPXAASVMeeting2013.pdf

We have updated our AASV PED webpage to include a fact sheet developed by the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety at the UMN and a chart updating the new cases reported weekly by the veterinary diagnostic labs (scroll to the bottom of the page).

USDA
USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is working closely with stakeholders to monitor the situation around porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) in the United States. We received reports that animal feed may be a possible factor in transmitting this disease, so we partnered with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate this possibility. At this time, here is what we know - we tested samples of feed and feed ingredients associated with one case of PED at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL), with no positive results for PED antigen by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). However, our investigation with FDA is ongoing. We are also collaborating closely with American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV), National Pork Board (NPB) and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) on a broad epidemiological investigation to help identify any risk factors in the transmission of this disease.

Source: USDA Press release

Veterinary Diagnostic Labs
The ISU-VDL, in collaboration with veterinary diagnostic labs at KSU, MN and SDSU, is compiling updates of PED case submissions. As of 6/4/2013 (the last available update), through the week of 5/27/2013, there had been 113 positive cases by PCR or IHC on a total of 103 farms in 11 states (CO, IA, IL, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, OH, OK & SD). Twenty-six of those farms are sow herds, 70 are grow-finish herds and 7 were unidentified. Starting with the week of 4/15/2013, the number of new cases reported by week was: 2, 1, 8, 17, 11, 44, and 30. This information should be inclusive of all diagnostic case submissions testing positive for PEDV through the end of last week in the US.

Pork Industry
The National Pork Board's Board of Directors provided the NPB Swine Health Committee with $450,000 of 2013 supplemental funding to address the specific research and information needs associated with PED. NPB will be implementing the process for prioritizing research needs and awarding the funding within the next couple of weeks.