DuPont Disinfectants have announced that their Virkon S product has proved its “efficacy” for use in relation to PEDv.
Produced at the company’s plant at Sudbury, Suffolk, for export to the US, Virkon S (pictured) has been independently tested, according to DuPont Disinfectants for the “Virucidal Efficacy of a Disinfectant for Use on Inanimate Environmental Surfaces against Porcine Epidemic Diarrhoea Virus (PEDv)”.
“The testing protocol was performed under strict test criteria established by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),” the company added.
“In the US, where PEDv has caused serious losses to the national herd, Dr Doug MacDougald, a leading pig veterinarian, has worked with Sunterra Farms in NW Iowa, an area of high challenge, to significantly reduce PEDv levels through effective biosecurity measures.
“Finishing about 350,000 pigs per annum, Sunterra Farms had been challenged by PEDv since May 2013. However with the introduction of good external biosecurity, only 22 of 175 nursery and finisher sites have been infected up to July 2014, plus a further 13 caused by positive nursery pig movements.”
Significantly, said the company, Dr MacDougald and the Sunterra Farms team have shown that PEDv elimination from infected nursery and finisher sites can be achieved. The 35 infected farms were subjected to a thorough cleaning and disinfection programme and after restocking with PEDv-negative pigs, only 6% of the clean-ups failed.
DuPont Disinfectants chief chemist Mark Squire commented: “The control priority is to prevent infection of a farm or system by top quality biosecurity and the evidence from the Sunterra Farms is clear; strict biosecurity works.”