Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) has been a devastating disease to the swine industry since its 2014 emergence in the U.S.

In an effort to reduce the risk to Pipestone sow units, Pipestone Applied Research demonstrated that contaminated feed could serve as a vehicle for PEDV transmission.

As a follow up, Pipestone's newest study focused on how PEDV survives in individual feed ingredients in order to focus intervention efforts and reduce further risk.

Pipestone said key takeaways from the project include:

1. Ingredients tested include corn, soybean meal, dried distillers grains (DDGS), several porcine byproducts, vitamin/trace minerals, fats, synthetic amino acids, limestone and choline. The researchers learned that in approximately 50% of these ingredients, the virus was able to survive for extended periods; however, in others it was not able to survive in even for one day.

2. Specifically, live virus was recovered from soybean meal for 180 days, from complete feed for 45 days and from DDGS, choline, amino acids and choice white grease for 30 days, respectively. In contrast, live virus was not detected in porcine plasma at day 1 post-inoculation.

3. Application of a formaldehyde-based liquid antimicrobial (SalCURB) successfully neutralized the virus, independent of ingredient type.

The Pipestone team said it is now working to determine how to manage these newly discovered risk factors.

The research has been accepted for publication in Porcine Health Management, an open-access journal managed by BioMed Central.