The EU Commission has approved new rules to protect Europe from the spread of a deadly new virus, which has wiped out over a tenth of the United States pig herd since its discovery last year.

Though older animals infected with the disease often recover, Porcine Epidemic Diarrhoea (PEDv) has killed millions of piglets in the US, destroying the vacilli in their guts and preventing them from absorbing food as they should. There is widespread concern in the country that emerging biosecurity responses to the disease may be too little, too late and the source of the outbreak remains a mystery.

American authorities have also come under fire for failing to make PEDv a notifiable disease once it had become clear the virus was spreading fast. The disease was only made notifiable last month.

Since it was first identified in early 2013, PEDv spread rapidly through the US, and has since been detected in Canada, Mexico and Japan.

Stopping short of introducing a blanket ban on pork products from the States, EU officials have instead demanded that any pig feed or feed ingredients (such as blood products) imported into the bloc, must first have been heat treated and quarantined.

Although research in the US has suggested that, beyond mothers' milk, feed is not a likely vector for transmission of PEDv, EU leaders' concerns persist. These concerns were first raised in February, when the virus was discovered in blood plasma (added to feed as a source of protein) in Canada. The disease is known to spread via faeces.

Last week it was revealed that there was no EU-wide strategy on PEDv, however on Friday, France acted alone and banned imports of live pigs and certain pig products from the US and Japan. On Wednesday, French agriculture minister Stephane Le Foll welcomed the EU restrictions, saying, "We must do everything in our power to prevent the introduction of the coronavirus responsible for this epidemic into French and European herds."

US officials at the Animal and Plant Inspection Service (APHIS) said they would be working with their EU counterparts to establish when new rules would be implemented. They assured that PEDv is not a threat to human health or food safety.