Dr. Derald Holtkamp, associate professor of veterinary medicine at Iowa State, said that equates to about 9.9 million pigs lost per year which is far more devastating than Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv), even at its worst. The industry now has an opportunity to classify herds through diagnostics, which plays a key role in managing the virus, he said.

"In terms of being able to stabilize farms after we've had an outbreak, basically what we mean by stabilize is to walk the virus out of the herd, to do that you really have to be able to monitor the status of the herd regularly," Dr. Holtkamp said.

"Typically what we do is monitor weaned pigs by PCR to determine if they are still infected. Once we get them to a point where we are reasonably confident that they are no longer infected, we start to become more confident in calling that herd stable."

Diagnostics are also important in making herd decisions, like vaccination, co-mingling and biosecurity plans on the farm.

To learn more at the Swine Diagnostic and Disease Resource Center, click here.