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 The killer stalking U.S. hog farms is known as PEDv,
a malady that in less than a year has wiped out more than 10 percent
of the nation's pig population and helped send retail pork prices to
record highs. The highly contagious Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus
is puzzling scientists searching for its origins and its cure and
leaving farmers devastated in ways that go beyond financial losses.
"It's a real morale killer in a barn. People have to shovel pigs out
instead of nursing them along," Goihl said.
Since June 2013 as many as 7 million pigs have died in the United
States due to the virus, said Steve Meyer, president of Iowa-based
Paragon Economics and consultant to the National Pork Board said.
United States Department of Agriculture data showed the nation's hog
herd at about 63 million as of March 1, 2014.
PEDv was first diagnosed in Ohio last May and has spread within a
year to 30 states with no reliable cure in sight. U.S. packing
plants may produce almost 2 percent less pork in 2014, according to
Ken Mathews, USDA agricultural economist.
Last week the USDA responded to calls for more reliable data and
classified PEDv as a reportable disease, a step that requires the
pork industry to track its spread.
"It's a positive step that I wish they had taken last summer when it
became obvious this was spreading rapidly," said Meyer.
Most farmers and researchers believe PEDv is transmitted from pig to
pig by contact with pig manure.
"Something like a tablespoon of PEDv infected manure is roughly
enough to infect the entire U.S. hog herd," said Rodney "Butch"
Baker, swine biosecurity specialist at Iowa State University.
The National Pork Board has spent about $1.7 million researching the
virus, which is nearly always fatal in pigs younger than 21 days.
With pork prices at an all-time high of $3.83 a pound, the loss of
baby pigs cuts into profits for hog farmers.
"If you have four weeks of mortality in a PEDv break, that's pretty
devastating to the financial wellbeing of that operation," said Greg
Boerboom, a Minnesota hog farmer.
"I think most producers are scared," Boerboom said. "They stay up at
night."
PEDv does not pose a risk to human health and is not a food safety
issue, the USDA says.
ORIGIN MYSTERY
Months of forensic research so far have turned up no clear evidence
of how the disease entered the United States.
The virus is nearly identical to one that infected pigs in China's
Anhui province, according to a report published in the American
Society of Microbiology journal mBio. Researchers also are exploring
whether the widespread use of pig-blood byproducts in hog feed might
have introduced the disease.
There have been outbreaks in recent years in Europe, Japan, Mexico
and parts of South America, though in milder forms than seen in the
U.S. and China.
The disease has taken root in Canada, too, where the pork industry
is deeply integrated with U.S. pork production.
LIKE A LAWN MOWER
PEDv thrives in cold, damp environments, and after slowing last
summer its spread accelerated during the past winter. In
mid-December, there were over 1,500 cases but by mid-April, that had
more than tripled to 5,790, according to USDA data.
Altogether, of nearly 15,000 samples tested for PEDv about 32
percent have been positive.
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The virus "acts like a lawn mower" on the villi in a pig's
intestines, which are the tiny projections that aid digestion, said
Tony Forshey, chief of animal health at the Ohio Department of
Agriculture. With their villi gone, the piglets cannot absorb
nutrients from food or water, contract diarrhea and die from
dehydration.
So far, no vaccine has been able to completely protect pigs from the
disease. An Iowa company, Harrisvaccines Inc., has made some
progress, while pharmaceutical giants Merck Animal Health and Zoetis
Inc have joined with universities to begin vaccine development.
"There is no silver bullet for PEDv," said Justin Ellis, marketing
manager at Alltech, which developed a feed additive designed to
reduce risk of the disease.
STRINGENT MEASURES
The disease is spreading even as farmers and truckers impose
stricter cleanliness measures across the so-called Hog Belt, which
stretches across most of the U.S. Midwest and Plains States and
extends south to North Carolina, the nation's No. 2 hog producer.
Iowa ranks first.
"It's a complete lifestyle change," said Iowa State's Baker. "In
the past the truckers haven't thought of biosecurity much."
Some hog farmers prohibit outside visitors. Others require workers
to change clothes when entering and leaving barns. Truck drivers
wipe down the step into their cabs, disinfect their steering wheels
and change boots or wear disposable booties before entering farm
yards.
The industry wants truck washes to use fresh water instead of
recycled, since PEDv can live in room temperature water for up to 13
days, a University of Minnesota study said.
"The only truck I regularly allow on-site is the feed truck, and last
November I told the driver not to get out of the truck," said Bill Tentinger, an Iowa farmer who so far has kept PEDv at bay.
The extra washing, drying and disinfecting can consume at least two
hours and cost up to $500 per load, industry sources said.
DEATH TOLLS
Bright yellow signs marked "PED" are popping up outside North
Carolina farms warning the virus is present. One-third of North
Carolina's 3,000 hog farms have been struck by PEDv since the first
diagnosed case there in June 2013, the state says.
So many piglets have died that Tom Butler, a farmer who fattens hogs
for market in southeastern Harnett County, is having difficulty
finding animals. His herd is down 25 percent to 6,000 pigs, costing
him more than $100,000.
"We were spiraling downhill for a while but I think we've leveled
off," Butler said. "The industry is learning to cope."
(Additional reporting by P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago, Marti Anne
Maguire in Sampson County, N.C., and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; editing
by David Greising and John Pickering)
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