Prevalence and factors associated to contamination from porcine epidemic diarrhea virus during the transportation of pigs to slaughterhouses in Colombia

Abstract

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) causes acute diarrhea, dehydration, and high mortality in newborn piglets and has caused high economic impact in the swine industry in the United States and Asia. Until March 2014, PED was an exotic disease in Colombia. This study was carried out at the beginning of the spread of PEDV in the country, and its main objective was to determine the prevalence and factors associated to the contamination of PEDV in the transportation of pigs to the slaughterhouses in Colombia through environmental samples analyzed by RT-PCR. 518 pig trucks in the 32 main slaughterhouses, were sampled and the drivers of the trucks fulfilled a questionnaire. The prevalence of PEDV at the entrance of the slaughterhouses was 71.8% (CI 95%: 70.8-72.8) versus 70.5% (CI 95%: 69.5-71.5) at the slaughterhouse exit, and there was no evidence of significant differences between both rates. (McNemar value p: 0.375). The factors that increased the possibility of truck contamination were: vehicles that visit national slaughterhouses (OR 15.9 95% CI: 4.9–51.85) and that visit national –export type (OR 9.0 95% CI: 2.20–36.91), trucks with mobility in area of ​​greatest slaughter (OR 9.05 95% CI: 2.9-27.63), the non-exclusive use of vehicles to transport pigs (OR 3.75 95% CI: 1.55-9.08) and visit animal feed mills (OR 13.5 95% CI: 4.1– 44.12). The factors identified that reduce the possibility of contamination were cleanliness of the body truck (OR 0.089 95% CI: 0.03-0.23) and the cabin (OR 0.16 95%CI: 0.08-0.31), use of disinfectant (OR 0.32 95% CI:0.16-0.62), pressurized water (OR 0.38 95% CI:0.15-0.95), and back pump (OR 0.17 95% CI:0.08-0.35) and the exclusive use of the vehicle for pig transportation (OR 0.36 95% CI: 0.19-0.70). The results showed that the high grade of mobilization of the trucks to points of concentration, failures in biosecurity and virus survival characteristics, enabled the spread of PEDV, turning it into an endemic disease in Colombia; however, the measures implemented by the farmers mitigated the impact of the disease. We evidenced the need of standardizing and regulating biosecurity protocols for slaughterhouses, pig transportation and farms.