A vaccine has been developed to help fight the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv), however it won't be available on the market for another year or two.

That's bad news for hog producers in southeast Manitoba, who are battling an outbreak of the disease.

Dr. Volker Gerdts is the associate director for research for the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization - International Vaccine Centre (VIDO) in Saskatoon.

"We developed a vaccine for PED that can be used in sows, so you would vaccinate the sow and protect the neonatal piglet," he said. "It works by vaccinating the mother and then the mother transfers with the milk immunity to the offspring."

Gerdts notes that the PEDv vaccine has been licensed to a company in Europe, which is now in the process of trying to register it for use in North America.

He adds there are vaccines on the market now that can be used under conditional licenses.

VIDO is currently working on a new vaccine that would differentiate between infected and vaccinated animals, which Gerdts says would help when it comes to exporting the animals.