Are There Differences in Survival Among Different Swine Corona Viruses in Feed and Feed Ingredients?

August 3, 2016 — 

The pork industry has recently experienced the devastating effects of swine corona viruses. The three known porcine corona viruses are transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), porcine delta corona virus (PDCoV), and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV). Each of these viruses causes severe diarrhea in young pigs and increased mortality, with subsequent reductions in growth performance and increased cost to producers. These viruses are excreted through feces and can be spread by contaminated equipment, personnel, and other fomites. After the 2013 outbreaks of PEDV in the United States, some evidence suggested that PEDV can be transmitted via contaminated feed and feed ingredients. In order to understand the role of virus-contaminated feed on its transmission, it is necessary to determine the risk of virus survival in various commonly used feed ingredients in swine diets. Our research team recently determined the survival kinetics of PEDV and PDCoV in complete feed and feed ingredients over time (Trudeau et al., 2015) and we have demonstrated that certain acidifying additives can increase inactivation of these two viruses in complete feed (Cottingim et al., 2015). However, no experiments have been conducted to compare survival kinetics of all 3 enteric swine coronaviruses simultaneously in feed and feed ingredients for swine. Therefore, the objective of this study was to measure survival time of PEDV, PDCoV, and TGEV in complete feed and feed ingredients.

Authors: Michaela P. Trudeau, Harsha Verma, Pedro E. Urriola, Fernando Sampedro, Gerald C. Shurson, and Sagar M. Goyal

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