Farmscape for August 15, 2016

The Executive Director of the Swine Health Information Center, says while there is discussion about ultimately eradicating Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea from the United States, at this point, the virus is being treated as an endemic infection.
Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea was first identified in the U.S. mid-west in mid-May of 2013 and quickly spread throughout the United States with losses peaking in 2013 and 2014 before tapering off.
Dr. Paul Sundberg, the Executive Director of the Swine Health Information Center, reports at this point the virus is at a very low level but it remains at a consistent level.

Clip-Dr. Paul Sundberg-Swine Health Information Center:
We haven't had a re-outbreak nearly of anything to the level that we had back in 2013 but it's still out there.
We know the virus is still out there.
We know that it's still live virus circulating.
Some producers are still using live virus to acclimate their gilts before entry into herds and we're learning more about how to manage the disease.
I think at this point we have virus out there, we have disease out there yet but I think producers and the veterinarians have learned a lot of lessons about biosecurity, a lot of lessons about herd management that have helped them to manage this disease.

Dr. Sundberg says the big question being asked right now is will the virus ever be eradicated from the U.S.
He says we're just in the very starting phases of all of the things that would have to happen in order for that type of a program to occur.
He says, although there is some discussion about eventual eradication of PED, right now it's very much a situation of managing the disease, managing infection, managing the herds, managing biosecurity and working with PED as an endemic disease in the U.S.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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