Compressed Brown Algae as a Potential Environmental Enrichment Material in Growing Pigs.

In barren housing conditions, enrichment materials are given to pigs to improve their welfare. Here, we assessed the suitability of an algae-based cylinder as an enrichment material on the behavioral, physiological, health and productivity welfare indicators of pigs. Algae was compared with metal chains and wood logs.

Limited shedding of an S-InDel strain of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) in semen and questions regarding the infectivity of the detected virus.

PEDV is mainly transmitted by the oro-fecal route although PEDV shedding in semen has already been shown for an S-non-InDel PEDV strain infection. The aim of this study was to determine if PEDV can be shed in semen from SPF (specific pathogens free) boars infected by a French S-InDel PEDV strain (PEDV/FR/001/2014) and in case of positive semen to determine the infectivity of that semen. Both infected boars had diarrhea after inoculation and shed virus in feces.

Better horizontal transmission of a US non-InDel strain compared with a French InDel strain of porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus.

From the severe porcine epidemic diarrhoea (PED) epidemics that struck in 2013 in the United States of America and other countries of North and South America, two types of porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus (PEDV) were isolated, namely the InDel and the non-InDel strains. They are differentiated by insertions/deletions in the S1 nucleotide sequence of the S gene, and differences in virulence were observed from the clinical cases. In 2014, a PED outbreak occurred in a pig farm in France, from which an InDel strain was isolated.

Evidence of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) shedding in semen from infected specific pathogen-free boars.

In 2013, PED emerged for the first time in the United States (US). The porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) spread quickly throughout North America. Infection with PEDV causes watery diarrhea and up to 100% mortality in piglets, particularly for highly pathogenic non-InDel strains circulating in the US.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea: the return of an old disease.

In 2013, 40 years after the first case of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) in Europe, PED has emerged in USA that was free of that disease before. The coronavirus, etiological agent of the disease and called PEDV, spread quickly within all the country and in America leading to a significant impact on the pig production. Two types of viral strains have been identified: highly virulent "non-InDel" strains and "InDel" strains because of insertion/deletion in the S gene and associated with less severe clinical cases.