News
OIE confirms feed is not a source of PEDv infection
The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has confirmed that contrary to earlier reports, pig blood products, such as dried plasma, are not a likely source of the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus. Research was done by an OIE ad hoc group on PEDv with members from the International Feed Industry Federation, experts from affected regions and the blood plasma industry.
Alexandra de Athayde, IFIF executive director says the finding is important for the feed chain as it highlights the industry’s strong commitment to feed safety.
OIE has now issued a technical factsheet on PEDv. A link can be found HERE.
I would totally expect the feed industry and the plasma industry to deny that feed could be a possible route of exposure. It is nearly impossible to deny that the process to make spray dried blood plasma should kill any virus. However I know of a case of 4 nurseries that were filled from one negative sow unit that all broke 4 days after pigs entered the nursery. All 4 nurseries were on separate locations (1mile, 4 miles, 14 miles and 25 miles from the sow unit). All had separate, different employees, and all sites were negative for PED. A designated weaner truck was used to haul the pigs and it is only used one time per week. One of the nurseries has no other pigs on the site. The only common variable for all of the sites was the starter pellets! Pretty hard to deny the epidemiology here!!!!
There are many other cases that also had starter pellets as the only possible source. Denying the obvious is not going to help us solve the problem. They need to get their head out of the sand.
As an industry we must stop this process of feeding pig products back to pigs!