Pork producers, truck drivers transporting pigs, veterinarians and all industry stakeholders remain vigilant in keeping up their bio-security protocols as they continue to work to curb Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea.  But where did it come from?  And how is it moving between continents and countries?  Questions pork researchers, vets, producers and all industry stake-holders are trying to answer.

Before Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea swept across many U.S. states and entered into Canada it was in Asia, where it is still causing problems for their pork industry.

Robert Harding, the Executive Director of the Canadian Swine Health Board tells Rural Roots Canada the experts in the U.S. say it came from China and they had no idea it would cross the Pacific.

 Harding says the strain of the virus in China is nearly a perfect match to the strain found in the States; however how it got here is still a mystery.

“No pigs came from China, no pig trucks came from China so it came some other way and it caught them off-guard,“`said Harding.

Harding says the strain there has been virulent.

“It’s been devastating to the operations that have it and I’m talking about some of the ones that perhaps have been set up as the newer operations, world-class operations in China, with expertise from Canada, from the U.S., from Europe with excellent bio security protocols,” said Harding.  “A lot of those genetics are sourced from Canada and they just get things rolling and from the reports that we’ve had it’s quite devastating and very frustrating and very stressful because you do everything you can, not just from a financial perspective but you lose all those young pigs and that is very discouraging for a whole lot of reasons.”

Europe saw the virus in the 70’s and 80’s, however it was a less potent strain of the virus.