Porcine epidemic diarrhea: A retrospect from Europe and matters of debate

A retrospect is given on the emergence of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) during the early seventies in Europe. While, at first, it appeared as a disease affecting feeder pigs, fattening- and adult swine, it later also became pathogenic for neonatal and suckling pigs hereby drastically increasing its economic impact. Isolation of the causative virus revealed a new porcine coronavirus, the origin of which has never been clarified. Pathogenesis studies with the prototype strain CV777 showed severe villous atrophy in neonatal pigs and the virus-animal interactions showed many similarities with transmissible gastro-enteritis virus (TGEV), another porcine coronavirus. Disease patterns in field outbreaks showed muchvariation but, while farm related factors played a role, possible genetic variations of virus strains in Europe have not been examined and are thus unknown. CV777 in experimental pigs caused diarrheal disease and mortality rates similar to those later encountered in Asia and more recently with the “original” US strains even though genomic typing of the prototype European strain have shown that it belongs to the S-INDEL strains. In Europe, PED has become endemic during the eighties and nineties and subsequently regressed so that, after 2000, swine populations in many countries have largely become seronegative. Sporadic outbreaks have recently reappeared showing a large variety of clinical outcomes.