U.S. Agriculture Secretary Announces Mandatory Reporting of PED

By Bruce Cochrane

In response to Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea the U.S. Agriculture Department has introduced mandatory reporting of the disease.

Since Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea was first identified in the United States just over one year ago the number of infected farms has grown from approximately 100 to more than 47 hundred in 30 states killing an estimated eight million animals, mostly pre-weaned piglets.

Yesterday, as part of World Pork Expo, U.S Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new PEDv program including mandatory reporting of the disease.

Tom Vilsack-United States Agriculture Secretary:
Today a federal order is being issued which will require producers, should they be impacted and affected by an infection, to notify us of that fact and then to take the additional step of notifying their veterinarian or the state veterinarian or the veterinarians associated with our department at USDA APHIS so that we can work collaboratively with you to develop a management plan that will allow us better to monitor, trace and control the circumstance on the farm.

We of course would expect that that plan would include implementation steps focussed on biosecurity practices which I suspect you're hearing quite a bit about here during this World Pork Expo.

This does not involve a restriction of movement, it does not involve a quarantine but it does involve the need for reporting and the need for a monitoring plan and a management plan.

Vilsack says initially 30 million dollars will be made available to support vaccine development, to assist in developing herd management plans and implementing the biosecurity measures that will be required under those plans and for testing to gain a better handle on what we're dealing with.

He says it's important to create a better understanding of these viruses, how they came into the United States, how to deal with them and how ultimately to eradicate and eliminate them.

Source: Farmscape