It has been a long 22 months since Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) was first identified in North American hog herds, and its entrance remains a mystery. However, one Canadian veterinarian believes he knows how the
It has been a long 22 months since Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) was first identified in North American hog herds, and its entrance remains a mystery. However, one Canadian veterinarian believes he knows how the viral disease crossed into Canada.
According to the Canadian-based news source, The Western Producer, Frank Marshall, DVM, with Marshall Swine Health Services in Alberta, believes dried porcine plasma are the source of PEDv. His assertion disagrees with a previous announcement made by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in October 2014 that dismissed plasma products as a likely source of the disease
“People like the OIE and many others have put forward many very confusing comments regarding the safety of products like blood plasma, claiming that the Canadians were out to lunch in terms of how this entered our industry,” Marshall says. “But I’ll tell you, it is very clear to the vet community involved in the initial 17 sow herds that broke in Ontario. There’s no question how this came.”
His belief also contradicts a study released in 2014 by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), concluding that while porcine bloom plasma did contain active PEDv particles, it “could not demonstrate that the feed pellets containing the blood plasma were capable of causing disease.”
A scientific opinion from the European Union reported in the European Food Safety Authority Journal also failed to provide a definitively linking porcine plasma products as the source of PEDv. Click here to read more from the European Union.