These little piggies are getting sick.

• Position: EASTERN REGION

A fast-spreading virus that is nearly always fatal to pigs 14 days and younger has affected almost a third of North Carolina's 2,900 hog farms, almost all of which are east of Raleigh. Porcine epidemic diarrhea was discovered in the United Kingdom in 1971, but the strain in the U.S. seems to have originated in China. The disease was first identified domestically in Ohio last June and has been found in about two dozen states. It has been discovered in about 40 to 60 Tar...