The new virus, Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus, has now
spread to 13 states, reports Montserrat Torremorell, the Allen D. Leman Chair in Swine Health and
Productivity at the University of Minnesota's College of Veterinary Medicine.
Torremorell says there have been more than 100 cases positively
identified as the virus.
It first showed up in China where more than one million pigs died.
The U.S. hog industry has been on high alert, warned to practice tight
biosecurity to prevent the spread of the virus that is particularly deadly to
piglets.
It does not affect people.
Canadians, including the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, various
hog-industry associations and swine veterinarians, have been repeatedly warning
farmers and anyone connected to hog farming to be extremely careful to avoid
bringing the virus into the country.
The swine industry has a poor track record for containing outbreaks of
highly-infectious diseases. For example, when a new strain of swine influenza
showed up in Ontario in 2009, despite warnings to take biosecurity precautions,
the virus swept right across the province in a matter of several weeks.
