Ohio hog farms hit by baby-pig-killing virus

Associated Press

TOLEDO

A relatively new virus that kills newborn pigs has been found on hog farms in Ohio.

The disease is causing worry for the hog industry because strains of the virus can wipe out a farm’s entire supply of baby pigs.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture has recorded a couple hundred confirmed cases of the virus in Ohio, said department spokeswoman Erica Hawkins.

Estimates of how many pigs have died vary. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently said the die-off has had a hand in shrinking the nation’s pig herd by 3 percent to about 63 million pigs. The virus thrives in cold weather, so the death toll in the U.S. has soared since December.

The disease — called porcine epidemic diarrhea — strikes newborn piglets with flulike symptoms that causes them to become dehydrated and die. It isn’t a human health concern nor does it impact the safety of pork.

“We’re telling farmers to enact strict biosecurity measures on their farms to keep their herds safe,” Hawkins told The Blade newspaper in Toledo.

“Since there isn’t a treatment, there isn’t a cure, if that strain hits the baby barn, they’re pretty much wiped out. We’ve seen 90 to 100 percent mortality rates for pigs under 10 days old.”

Todd Creager, a farmer near the northwestern Ohio city of Wauseon, said this winter was tough because of extreme low temperatures and the threat of the virus.

Scientists think the virus came from China, but they do not know how it got into the U.S. or spread to more than half the country’s states since last spring. The federal government is looking into how such viruses might spread, while the pork industry has committed $1.7 million to research the virus.