The National Pork Board says the willingness of pork producers to share details on the health status of their farms is a critical component in the effort to contain an outbreak of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea.
Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus was first identified in the United States in mid-May and it has now been confirmed in 14 states affecting almost 350 sites.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, the National Pork Board, the National Pork Producers Council and state producer associations and state veterinarians have been working to determine how the infection made its way into the U.S. and from where and what to do about it.
Dr. Lisa Becton, the director of swine health information and research with the National Pork Board, says the willingness of producers and veterinary labs to share key information can help with understanding how the disease is moving and how to manage it.
It’s very important that people understand where this virus is, where it’s going and also being able to understand how it’s transmitting.
That way we can hopefully manage it a bit better and even prevent spread.
We’re trying to focus on understanding how this virus operates in hot weather, how do we disinfect, how do we prevent this transmission in order to still try to be able to shut it down.
I think individual farms in areas a lot of information has gone out for people and what they can do to tighten up their biosecurity and a lot of people are doing that.
But, as evidenced by our weekly updates, there still is ongoing infection of different sites both sow and finish.
We’re still trying to monitor that but our goal is to get the most current and recent information out to people that can help as best and quickly as we can.
Dr. Becton says a lot of this information is protected under different policies and rules but the producers willingness to share that information is critical.
