As of mid-September over 600 cases of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea had been identified spanning across 17 states.

Dr Lisa Becton, the director of swine health information and research with the National Pork Board, reports the American Association of Swine Veterinarians along with National Pork Producers Council and the National Pork Board have a survey they were utilizing right when the first outbreaks occurred to assess the risk factors in hopes of identifying the source of the infection.

Dr Lisa Becton-National Pork Board

One of the things that was suggestive potentially of entry was feed or feed route but it was never able to be 100 per cent confirmed so we have that ongoing and analyzing that information.

There are also events underway to continue to assess what are our current risks and then there's efforts within the USDA to assist in that as far as looking at what are some risks of feed introduction and working with FDA on those things.

We've got a lot of studies going on regarding the survivability of this virus in various media such as water, manure, slurry, on metal surfaces and then we're also assessing how this virus is progressing on farm and the success or not that people are having in getting the virus under control so I think we're still learning a lot of information.

As we get into the cooler fall and winter months there's a lot of concern what the virus is going to do there so for the next few months there's a lot of knowledge that's being gained on how we assess that so we're still assessing what this virus is doing and what successes people are having with it so far.

Dr Becton notes swine health officials are working in a coordinated effort to provide producers the information they need, there have been discussion on some key research questions and calls for research proposals are now being finalized.