Vaccine development for Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea

Project Team: Qiang Liu, Volker Gerdts

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is an alphacoronavirus of pigs first isolated in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. The disease spread to many parts of Europe and Asia and recently emerged in North America where it killed millions of pigs. PEDV is highly infectious and survives well in the environment. This makes it difficult to control though biosecurity and management practices.

As a significant threat to the Canadian swine industry, resources have been invested into disease control including early and rapid detection, disease surveillance, and enhanced biosecurity. Vaccination remains the most effective way of preventing PEDV infection. VIDO developed a novel vaccine for PEDV that was used in the field in Manitoba under special permit in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and was licensed for further commercial development. We are currently working on a next generation vaccine that will allow differentiation of infected and vaccinated animals (DIVA).

We are also working with the swine industry and researchers from the University of Saskatchewan and the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute to improve washing and baking of transport trailers. This will help the industry to reduce the risk of PEDV infections and improve their biosecurity.