“Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea” sounds incredibly unpleasant. The disease first showed up in the United States last year, and thanks to the cold weather nationwide has showed up in 27 states. What is it, and should humans be worried? Not unless you own any hogs or you have a tight budget for meat for the next year or two.

The disease, PEDv for short, is a virus that sounds a lot like the “stomach bugs” that we humans get. The trouble is that it’s incredibly dangerous for piglets, killing up to 80-100% of babies that are infected. It’s less deadly for adult pigs, but still pretty deadly.

In the last year, PEDv has killed four to five million pigs in less than a year. “While it has absolutely no impact on food safety, it has clear implications for the pork industry in terms of supplying pork to consumers,” the president of the National Pork Board said in a statement.

Experts say that there’s no food safety danger–PEDv can’t infect humans, It’s not at all related to “swine flu,” which did infect humans back in 2009.

Deadly pig virus spreads to Arizona; 27 U.S. states now affected [Reuters]
PEDv dangers cause swine certification during importation [Farm and Ranch Guide]

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