The executive director of the U.S. based Swine Health Information Center says researchers are stepping up their focus on understanding the risks associated with contaminated feed in spreading the virus responsible for Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea.
The U.S. swine industry has been working to contain the spread of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea since it first appeared in the U.S. in May of 2013.
Dr. Paul Sundberg, the executive director of the Swine Health Information Center, says there’s heightened interest in the capability of PED being transmitted through feed.
The National Pork Board has put out a call for proposals and is looking at the relationship of PED and enteric viruses in feed with a special focus on mitigation.
We know that, through the outbreak, that PED outbreaks were related to some feed practices and we need to be sure that we can put into place the research based mitigations that can be effective. There can be things like controls during the feed processing, biosecurity with delivery of feed on the farm, additives that can be put into the feed in order to inactivate any PED that may be in there. The National Pork Board is looking at a lot of those types of things and trying to get the research out quickly enough that it can help this winter as well and continue to be an important thing for biosecurity on the farm.
Dr. Sundberg says researchers are looking at the survivability of the virus in different feed stuffs, the effectiveness of vaccines as well as the immunity and the immune response to PED.
He says the relationship with the feed and the immune response, especially from the sows to transmit protection to the nursing piglets, trying to enhance that immunity and better understand how long it lasts are some of the important things being looked at.
