Purdue offers experts on swine PED virus

Feb 24, 2014

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University has experts available who can answer questions from the news media about PEDv, porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, in swine. The virus has been spreading in the U.S. and Canada.

Health experts say the virus causes no harm to humans and is not a threat to food safety. But it is deadly to young pigs.

According to the Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, based at Purdue, PEDv is a coronavirus genetically and antigenically distinct from the coronavirus of transmissible gastroenteritis, or TGE, common in parts of Asia and Europe. It was first identified in the U.S. in the spring of 2013. PEDv causes TGE-like gastroenteric disease in all age groups of pigs, with neonates and suckling pigs most severely affected.

Source: Purdue University