Porcine epidemic diarrhea has killed over a million piglets in the United States and, as pork producers feared, the virus has appeared on a pig farm in the Canadian province of Ontario. PED is highly contagious among pigs, but it poses no food safety threat or danger to humans.
Pork is one of Canada’s major agricultural food exports. In 2011, half of the total production of 27.4 hogs was exported to over 100 countries. Ontario pork farmers trade with Iowa, which is the American state with the largest outbreak of the virus.
The virus is very hardy and can withstand cold weather riding on trucks, boots, clothing and equipment. Efforts to develop a vaccine have so far been ineffective.
Larger pigs can become immune to PED, but the virus kills almost all the piglets it infects.
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