‘Emerging threat’ PED made notifiable disease in England
© Tim Scrivener Pig keepers and vets are legally required from today to alert the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) to suspected cases of porcine epidemic diarrhoea (PED).
PED now features on the list of notifiable animal diseases in England, alongside the likes of BSE, bovine TB, bluetongue, swine influenza and swine vesicular disease.
Its addition follows an informal consultation between the APHA and a coalition of pig industry bodies, including the National Pig Association (NPA), British Pig Association (BPA) and the Pig Veterinary Society (PVS).
However, its “lightweight” notifiable status means that unlike other notifiable diseases, movement controls, compulsory slaughter and exports blocks will not be enforced in the case of detection.
Instead, the AHPA’s involvement will be limited to informing AHDB Pork, which will carry out tracing, alert at-risk contacts and put in place biosecurity measures.
See also: Farmers on alert after porcine epidemic diarrhoea found in Ukraine
This, the NPA said, is similar to the “effective” Canadian approach to combating the disease.
“The industry’s method of tackling the disease and ensuring it doesn’t spread will be to introduce a raft of biosecurity measures,” said Zoe Davies, CEO of the NPA.
“It worked in Canada and we are confident it will work here – as long as it is identified at the earliest possible stage,” she said.
Meryl Ward, AHDB Pork chairman, said the move leaves the UK better prepared to face the disease “should it arrive on our shores”.
Emerging threat
PED, which was first discovered in the UK in 1971, is caused by a virus that infects the cell lining of the small intestine of a pig, causing severe diarrhoea and dehydration.
It is most serious in newborn suckling piglets, in which it typically leads to 30-100% mortality.
Recent PED outbreaks in China, the United States, Canada, Mexico and Ukraine have been attributed to a highly virulent strain.
While the UK has so far been spared, AHDB Pork still considers PED a “potentially serious disease and emerging threat to the English pig industry”.
The Scottish government is also consulting on making PED similarly lightweight notifiable in Scotland.
Views are being sought on whether PED should be classed as a notifiable disease in Scotland.