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 The change, announced in a notice issued on Monday, means the USDA
will stop reimbursing farmers to implement measures, such as truck
washing, to prevent infections of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv).
An outbreak of the virus, which causes severe diarrhea that kills
baby pigs, wiped out up to 8 million hogs, a tenth of the nation's
herd, three years ago, and drove pork prices to record highs.
Farmers fear the disease could return this winter due to waning
immunity levels in herds.
The U.S. government has "reprioritized its needs" for the use of
money to combat the virus, according to the USDA notice.
In June 2014, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack pledged $26.2 million to
fight Swine Enteric Coronavirus Diseases, which include PEDv. The
money included $11.1 million to cover the costs of improved cleaning
measures at farms and $2.4 million for diagnostic testing.
The shift to only fund diagnostic testing should cover costs through
this winter, the notice said.
A USDA spokeswoman had no immediate comment when asked about the
reasons for the changes or how much money the agency had left to
spend.
Diagnostic testing includes confirming cases of the virus in hogs
and monitoring the progress that farms make cleaning up after
infections, said Paul Sundberg, executive director of the Swine
Health Information Center, an industry group.
The USDA is directing its remaining money "to the best manner
possible to help the industry," he said.
The USDA also will stop requiring farmers whose hogs have been
infected with the virus to develop management plans to halt the
spread of the disease.
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"Those pieces that they took out either weren't being used to the
full extent or they just weren't helping with the effort," Sundberg
said about the USDA.
The USDA requires farmers and veterinarians to report cases of the
disease to the government. The virus, which thrives in cold weather,
has not caused major losses this winter.
Last year, the USDA temporarily fell behind inputting data on
infections of the virus because it was busy responding to an
outbreak of bird flu in poultry, an agency spokeswoman told Reuters
in October.
(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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