One of the hottest topics in the swine industry continues to be the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) virus. So, naturally it was the center of Dr. Joe Connor’s presentation during Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc.’s (BIVI) annual Swine Health Seminar. Dr. Connor serves as President of Carthage Vet Services and focused on what we’ve done correctly, what we’ve done wrong and what we should do in the future.

I sat down with Dr. Connor following his talk and asked him of all the things we have learned over the past two years, what do you feel has been the most important in terms of progressing our understanding of the virus. “The most important part of that is how do we think about where our risks are in fecal oral transmitted pathogens of which this is several that we deal with. What we hope moving forward is that our research and practical application will decrease the transmissions of fecal oral pathogens.”

“Even though we had an insult to our industry, we may look back and say that at least intensification of things we knew we had to do were very helpful in reducing the transmission of not only in enteric coronaviruses, but other viruses as well.”

Dr. Connor goes on to share his confidence for a model to tackle PED and applauds the industry for coming together to get this far. He admits there is still a lot to do, but PED was a wake up call enabling all stakeholders to take what it taught them and use it to protect the industry.

Listen to my complete interview with Dr. Connor here: Interview with Dr. Joe Connor, Carthage Vet Services

Find all the photos from the event here: 2015 BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album