Government and in­­dustry leaders last week pledged a maj­­or effort to track and control the devastating porcine epidemic diarrhea virus or PEDV.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines a federal order requiring the reporting of new detections of PEDV and the porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) to the U.S. Department of Agri­culture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) or state animal health officials. The order includes $26.2 million to combat the diseases.

The National Pork Board’s board of directors last week approved an additional $866,500 to go toward additional PEDV research.

Since the first reported case of PEDV in the United States in April 2013, it has spread to 30 states and caused an estimated 8 million piglet deaths.

Spreading quickly

Last year at this...