Feds Approve PED Vaccine for Import

Jan 30, 2014

After a meeting with provincial and territorial agricultural ministers, Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced Wednesday that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) will allow veterinarians to import a vaccine from the United States to deal with the pig-killing virus, porcine epidemic diarrhea or PED.

Thursday’s meeting was meant to address the growing concerns of PED. While the iPED + vaccine is new, preliminary studies have shown pigs that receive the vaccine develop antibodies against the virus. Harrisvaccines Inc. based in Ames, Iowa manufactures the vaccine.

PED is a highly contagious virus among swine, which has killed about 1 to 3 million pigs in the United States since last spring. The virus has since spread to Canada. The first confirmed case was found on a farm in Middlesex County, Ont.

“Today’s announcement is another step in the CFIA’s continuous efforts to work with the provinces to prevent PED from spreading in Canada,” Ritz said in a news release.

Government officials say that pig farmers should contact their attending veterinarian about accessing the vaccine. Veterinarians can apply for an import permit immediately.

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This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under agreement number 2023-38640-39573 through the North Central Region SARE program under project number ENC23-226. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.