Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) was the primary topic of presentations at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) North Carolina Swine Health Seminar last week and veterinary pathologist Dr. Steven Krakowka discussed what they have learned so far from the genomic study of the disease.
Looking down the road toward vaccination options, Krakowka said the best approach is to study disease survivors and mimic what it was that helped them survive. “Let the pig make the choices for us, rather than out think Mother Nature,” he said.
Krakowka says that neither injectable or oral vaccinations alone are likely to be viable in this situation. “The best thing to do is to use a combination oral and parenteral vaccination,” he explains. “Ideally, a modified live product is the best one to use, because modified live will do the thinking for you. It will replicate the disease to a slower rate in the pig and allow the pig then to make the proper response.”
One concern that Krakowka has is the potential for problems in feeding swine by-products. “Why would you feed a susceptible animal species reject materials from that same animal species that could be filled with God-knows-what?” he asks, noting that the industry needs to learn from the experience of BSE transmission through animal by-product feed.
Interview with Steve Krakowka, professor emeritus, The Ohio State University