OXFORD COUNTY — Two cases of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV) were found on Oxford County farms in January, the first time PEDV has been diagnosed in that county since June, 2016.
Ontario Pork says the disease was found on a farrow-feeder farm on Jan. 2 and at a grow-finish farm on Jan. 18. PEDV causes watery diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration and can kill 50 to 100 per cent of young pigs. Transmission speeds up in cold weather.
There have been a total of 107 Ontario cases since the disease was first found on a Western Ontario farm in 2014 but the number of cases declined each year after that. There were 69 cases in 2014, 16 cases in 2015, 14 cases in 2016 and six in 2017.
In the past four years, Oxford has had 17 confirmed cases of PEDV. That’s the second-highest number of cases by county, trailing only Huron County’s 19 cases.
