A virus sweeping through the nation’s hog industry is killing piglets at an increasingly alarming rate, threatening to hamper production and lead to higher retail pork prices.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) surfaced in the U.S. last spring but has accelerated during the winter, notably in Minnesota. The virus often wipes out an entire barn’s young pig population, with piglets dehydrating, unable to retain nutrients from their mothers’ milk.

“I’ve never seen anything like it as far as the devastation it does to little pigs,” said Paul FitzSimmons, a 30-year industry veteran in southern Minnesota whose family business manages 16 sow farms, three of which have been stricken by PEDv. “The virus is very, very contagious.”

Minnesota is the nation’s third-largest pig producing state and home base for Hormel Foods, a major pork producer, and Cargill, one of the nation’s largest hog processors.