It won’t cause the same production hit as its relative, PED, but no one was happy to see a confirmed Manitoba case of porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV).
One premise in southeastern Manitoba has confirmed infection, Manitoba Pork has said.
Jenelle Hamblin, the industry group’s manager of swine health, said they were unaware of other farms struggling with PDCoV, but back tracing was ongoing.
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PDCoV, which is in the same family as both porcine epidemic diarrhea and transmissible gastroenteritis, presents similarly to its more serious cousin, PED, but it does not cause the over 90 per cent piglet mortality that PED is famous for.
“Delta does show less severe symptoms,” Hamblin said. “Same clinical impression, but certainly not as intense as with PED … It can cause mortality in piglets, but it would have to be a pretty severe case.”
Sick animals will have bouts of diarrhea, vomiting or just generally go off feed, but tend to recover well, especially older animals, she noted. “It would be a series of symptoms and they would recover and move on towards market weights no problem.”
The infected farm has still been placed under biocontainment, Hamblin said.
Hamblin will be meeting with herd veterinarians early next week for an update on how in-barn management strategies should differ from PED.
For more on this story, see next week’s edition of the Manitoba Co-operator.
