Organic Acid Feed Additive Can Reduce PEDv Risk

Infection with Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) causes severe diarrhea, vomiting, enteritis and high mortality in young pigs and continues to be a serious problem for the swine industry.  Contaminated feed can be a source of PEDv transmission, and it may be affected by feed storage time and chemical composition. Combinations of organic acids have been used to control pathogens such as Salmonella. However, there is no data measuring the effect of organic acids on PEDv survival in complete feed.

A recent study was conducted to determine if organic acids are effective in reducing the infection level of PEDv. The study began by adding 5 grams of feed into vials and then mixing in one of four additives (noted below). A modified concentration of sugar and salt was tested in additional vials as methods of modifying the composition and water activity of the diets. A paired control vial was incubated without additives. 

The acidifier that produced the fastest inactivation kinetics was Novus’ ACTIVATE® DA (0.4) followed by Competitor B (1.8), sugar (5.6), and Competitor C (9.9). There were no differences in the inactivation kinetics of PEDv between the control samples and samples treated with Competitor A (18.9) or salt (14.6). 

ACTIVATE DA had a low delta value, which is observed by a sharp decrease in virus concentration in the first day of incubation. This is the type of curve that is desirable to reduce virus survivability and supports the conclusion that ACTIVATE DA is an effective additive in reducing PEDV survival in feed.

In summary, ACTIVATE DA outperformed the other additives in the study. The results indicate that the addition of specific organic acids in feed can have different effects on the survivability of PEDv in complete feed. Complete inactivation took up to 14 days.

A preliminary study was paired with this study and demonstrated that PEDv was capable of infecting naïve pigs in wet feed stored for 28 days, but only 7 days in dry feed. In order to manage the risk of PEDv transmission, feed should be stored in a dry location.