Iowa company gets conditional license to sell PEDv vaccine

The United States Department of Agriculture has granted Ames-based Harrisvaccines conditional licensure of its Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDv) vaccine.

This is the first USDA conditional license granted for a PEDv vaccine since the initial outbreak in 2013, which allows Harrisvaccines to sell the vaccine directly to veterinarians and hog producers.

Joel Harris, head of sales and marketing at Harrisvaccines, said the company has already sold about 2 million doses of the vaccine through veterinary prescription since the initial outbreak.

The USDA generally grants conditional licenses in order to meet an emergency or unmet need. A conditionally licensed product must show a reasonable expectation of efficacy and all safety and purity requirements must be met.

PEDv - a highly contagious swine disease - causes vomiting and diarrhea in older animals and extreme dehydration and mortality of up to 100 percent of piglets that are less than one week of age.

The virus has spread to nearly 30 states and has killed millions of pigs.

PEDv cannot spread to humans, but it has cost the pork industry and consumers hundreds of millions of dollars. Reuters reported earlier in June that 11 countries have limited imports of live hogs while one has banned pork imports.