Wednesday, January 6, 2021

New disease detected in pigs

A new coronavirus, PDCoV, has been identified in two Ontario hog herds.

One is a finishing barn in Huron County, the other a farrow-to-finish operation in the Waterloo Region.


Both were detected in December, but only recently posted on the Swine Health Ontario website.


It’s a disease that has been found in the United States hog population, but these are the first cases in Ontario.


Health and veterinary officials do not yet know whether it can transmit to people.

It causes severe diarrhea.


In 2009, porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) was detected in fecal samples from pigs in Asia, but its etiologic role was not identified until 2014, when it caused major diarrhea outbreaks in swine in the United States.