USDA Mandates PEDV Reporting

DES MOINES (DTN) -- Pork producers who have hogs testing positive for porcine epidemic diarrhea virus now will be required to report the outbreak to USDA and develop a strategy for improving biosecurity measures on their farm.

USDA issued a federal order on Thursday requiring pork producers to notify the department when their hog herds test positive for PEDV. Producers must notify their veterinarians or the state veterinarian's office about positive cases.

While mandating producers report the disease, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told pork producers at the World Pork Expo that the federal order does not require herd quarantines or restrictions on the movement of animals. Those issues had been major concerns by industry leaders when USDA announced in April that it would get more engaged in trying to stem the spread of PEDV.

Producers will be required to create or demonstrate they have plans to manage and control PEDV on their operations. Vilsack said he thinks pork producers will understand it is in their interest to comply with the order and report positive cases of the disease.

"I think we have tried to find that right balance on the issue of heavy-handedness in this," Vilsack said. "There is no movement restriction here. There is no quarantine requirement. This is a reporting requirement, a notification requirement, and in the long-term, best interest of the operator and the industry, a development of the management plan."

Vilsack noted the disease has spread from just over 100 cases a year ago in 11 states to more than 4,700 cases now in 30 states. Between 150 and 200 positive cases are found each week. Also, some operations are seeing reoccurrences of the virus after producers had cleaned their barns and assumed sows had developed some immunity.

Along with the federal order, USDA announced $26.2 million in funds to help the pork industry in various capacities, ranging from tightening biosecurity to helping with vaccine studies and conducting genomic work to better understand PEDV. Along with funds that USDA could receive in its 2015 budget, the department will be effectively spending roughly $30 million on PEDV measures.

Of the USDA funds, the biggest slice, $11.1 million, will be used for cost-share programs with hog producers to improve their biosecurity measures on the farm.

USDA will use $3.9 million for the Agricultural Research Service to help develop a vaccine for PEDV and the delta coronavirus. USDA will work with the Food and Drug Administration to get a vaccine in the field as quickly as possible once such a vaccine is ready.

The department will use $2.4 million for diagnostic testing and another $2.4 million to help state veterinary and agriculture departments to manage and control the disease as well. Another $1.5 million will be used to help develop genomic sequencing on positive herds.

The order goes into effect immediately, but it's going to take about four weeks before the plan is fully implemented, said John Clifford, USDA's chief veterinarian.

"What we are most interested in is making sure we know where has been an incident," Clifford said.

U.S. border security measures allowed the disease in, and industry measures to curb the disease have not been able to control it. In fact, there are two variants of PEDV that have entered the country, so multiple strains continue to spread. Still, Vilsack disagreed with the suggestion that the country has failed to adequately deal with PEDV.

"I don't think this is a failure," Vilsack said. "I think this is a challenge ... It is something we will be confronting for quite awhile now that we are in a global economy. I think we're going to learn a lot from this experience and this situation."

Pork industry leaders told reporters afterward that USDA's funding announcements matched priorities that the National Pork Producers Council had laid out to the secretary and USDA officials. They noted the devil is in the details when it comes to the federal order. They also want to ensure any data sent to USDA remains confidential.

Paul Sundberg, chief veterinarian of the National Pork Board, said mandatory reporting won't stop the spread of the virus "but it's a tool, another tool that can be used for analysis to try to figure out all of the things that have to happen to help stop it."

Ron Prestage, a pork producer in the Carolinas and president-elect of NPPC, said there will probably be more angst from producers about what might be expected from a biosecurity management plan when it is unclear what USDA will want in the plan.

"They need to be very, very careful they don't create a bureaucratic red-tape mess on submission of herd health plans and biosecurity plans, especially on small producers who don't have the support staff in their operations that a company my size has," Prestage said.

The federal order also is a departure from normal procedures regarding new diseases that are not listed by the World Organization for Animal Health as a reportable disease. Vilsack acknowledged that, but said the speed and nature of PEDV makes it a unique concern. Moreover, there is a lack of overall understanding about PEDV that requires action, he said.

"I don't necessarily think you should read into this that this is how things will be handled in the future," Vilsack said.

PEDV is more common in China, but has spread in recent years to Japan, Mexico, Canada and potentially other countries. Countries dealing with the disease will meet in September to compare notes and ways to manage it. Pork producers also want to know specifically how PEDV entered the country, but Vilsack said he doesn't expect that information to come easily.

Vilsack reiterated the federal government needs to focus more on border security to deal with all of the various pathways such diseases can enter the country. Board members for the National Pork Producers Council stressed that point to the secretary as well when they met, he said.

Chris Clayton can be reached at chris.clayton@dtn.com

(AG)

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