Evaluation of a peroxygen-based disinfectant for inactivation of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus at low temperatures on metal surfaces.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) spread rapidly across the United States in part due to contaminated livestock trailers. The objective of this study was to test a peroxygen-based disinfectant for the ability to inactivate PEDV on aluminum surfaces at 4 °C or -10 °C. Forty 3-week-old individually housed barrows were used as a bioassay to determine the infectivity of PEDV after treatment with either a 1:100 or 1:600 dilution of a peroxygen-based disinfectant with 10 or 30 min of contact time. One coupon matched to one pig was the experimental unit. Coupons in the positive control and disinfectant treatment groups were contaminated with 2 mL of feces spiked with PEDV. A negative control group was contaminated with PEDV-negative feces. Following treatment, the feces and disinfectant remaining in the coupons was collected and administered to pigs intragastrically. Rectal swabs were collected from pigs 3 and 7 days post-inoculation (DPI) and tested for PEDV by RT-qPCR. Samples from all coupons, except the negative control, were positive by RT-qPCR for PEDV before and after treatment. All rectal swabs from the pigs in the negative control and the seven disinfectant treatment groups were RT-qPCR negative for PEDV on 3 and 7 DPI. All pigs in the positive control at 4 °C and 3 of 4 pigs in the positive control conducted at -10 °C were RT-qPCR positive for PEDV on 3 and 7 DPI. Both the 1:100 and 1:600 dilutions of peroxygen-based disinfectant successfully inactivated PEDV under the conditions of this study.