William Alford, the general manager for H@MS Marketing, said in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, H@MS passed on some information to industry partners prepared by Dr. John Carr regarding Coronavirus and Pigs.
“It is business as usual at H@MS as we all do our part to limit the spread of the virus,” said Alford.
The processors continue to operate without disruption taking additional measures to ensure the safety of their staff and suppliers.
He encouraged all to work together in the coming weeks and months as this virus runs its natural course.
“Be vigilant and take all necessary precautions to protect yourself and your families through these extraordinary times.”
Dr. Carr, a world livestock consultant, veterinarian, and lecturer, said pigs could not get COVID-19 and will not give humans COVID-19. To date, there is no evidence of any animal transmission with this new coronavirus COVID-19, a human virus and a human problem. The evidence is pointing to a person in Wuhan becoming the first case in November 2019.
Carr referred to a report of the virus found in a dog in Hong Kong, but the virus was found but did not replicate, and the virus died out in the dog without producing any clinical signs.
There are no cases, zero, of pigs getting COVID-19 in China.
He said coronaviruses are a vast family of similar viruses. They are so-called because down the electron microscope, they look like the corona of the sun. This virus family is thousands of years old—the corona forms from a variety of spikes that stick through the oily envelope.
The virus family lives in many species of mammal, birds and other reptiles. Man has many known Coronaviruses. The many human coronaviruses known about before 2019, are responsible for 15 per cent of the common cold cases.
“But we also know of several types, which are very serious. These are Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). They are a difficult family to control, and vaccination generally produces inadequate protection. Their genetics, based on RNA, means they can easily change and makes them very difficult to control as new forms will continuously emerge. The animal (and our) population will have little or no immunity to the ‘new’ form. This is what happened at the end of 2019. A new form of this virus appeared and is now going worldwide,” said Dr. Carr. “Our pigs can get their Coronaviruses which have a range of clinical problems – Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED), which affects the piglets’ intestines less than ten days of age with fatal consequences. Porcine Respiratory Coronavirus (PRC) affects pigs breathing, causing a mild cough and sneeze similar to our seasonal colds, which can be dramatic, but the pigs all recover. But these viruses do not infect people.”
Dr. Carr said the change in PED to a more virulent form occurred following the interaction of the pig coronavirus with a Bat coronavirus. A similar history to what has happened in man with COVID-19.
These Coronaviruses do have a weakness – they have a layer of fat on the outside of the virus, and if removed, the virus cannot function. For this reason washing your hands carefully with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, ideally with a nailbrush, is a great idea.
“Washing your hands to remove viruses can be difficult as illustrated using a UV soap, which we use on our students to teach them good hand biosecurity.”
The majority of the flu and colds appear to be more severe for the very young and old. COVID-19 is different because it affects older people.
“In pigs with PED, we have something similar, but the other way round where pigs less than ten days of age get very sick but older than this, the clinical signs are relatively mild,” said Dr. Carr.
“One of the facts might be that at birth, we received natural immunity to pathogens. The body takes 14 days or so to create antibodies, but these only protect us when we are infected a second time – not the first. As we get older, the innate (natural) defence mechanisms of the body become weaker, and we rely on our memory (antibodies) to protect the body.”
With this virus, nobody has any memory because it is new. Once the first wave passes, this virus is likely to become part of the seasonal cold virus.
“But this first passage is a painful lesson; we are all human, and in this together.” •
— By Harry Siemens
and Dr. John Carr