Category Archives: Animal Health

The Swine Health Information Center’s (SHIC) November Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring Report is available.

Following report of an undiagnosed swine disease in Ecuador, ProMED, a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, published a report stating CSF had been ruled out in the Esmeraldas province after the disease alert was raised on September 7, 2022. In a clarification published subsequently, ProMed reported the samples collected from their unknown disease outbreak are negative for ASF as well. More information SHIC has been able to gather gives added confidence to the report by ProMed.

Since March 2018, SHIC’s Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring Report has been published monthly on its website and in its newsletter. Funded by SHIC and produced by the Swine Disease Reporting System team, the report provides real-time updates on megatrends of disease agent activity over time, age group, specimen, and states using data from five midwestern VDLs. During their October board meeting, the SHIC Board of Directors voted to continue funding the program for 2023.

SHIC, along with the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research and Pork Checkoff, joined together to fund a Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Program to be implemented over the next two years. Proposals to investigate cost-effective, innovative technologies, protocols, or ideas to implement biosecurity during the wean-to-harvest phase of production are now being sought. Proactively enhancing wean-to-harvest biosecurity will help control the next emerging disease in the US pork industry and improve US swine herd health, all part of SHIC’s mission including analysis of swine health data and targeted research to benefit the US pork industry.

History shows we don’t always learn from others like we should. Take porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), for example. When this terrible virus began circulating around China, Paul Sundberg, DVM, specifically remembers sitting around with other veterinarians saying, “It’s a good thing we don’t have it here.”

Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, the etiologic agent of porcine enzootic pneumonia, continues to be one of the main bacterial respiratory pathogens in modern porcine production. Strategies to diagnose, control and eliminate infections are being widely implemented in the field and thus, a constant scrutiny and refinement of the practices put in place is recommended.

This summer, SHIC requested industry input about usefulness and enhancements to the Swine Health Information Center’s monthly domestic and global swine disease monitoring reports. Comments and responses to the SHIC survey highlight the broad value and diverse ways in which reports are utilized. Made available through the SHIC e-newsletter and website, the survey covered both SHIC’s domestic and global reports, including questions on value, actionable content, use of data, additional pathogens, and opportunities for improvement.

Undiagnosed Respiratory Disease: How to Sample for Success and What’s New, a webinar presented by SHIC and AASV, included viewpoints of the practitioner, diagnostician, and pathologists all seeking answers to ongoing respiratory issues. Diagnoses of porcine astrovirus 4 and porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus resulted from the pursuit of a diagnosis when more common viruses were ruled out. While unlimited resources for testing and diagnosis would be ideal for identifying root causes of respiratory issues not identified as common viruses, it is unrealistic per the participants in the webinar. However, knowing unresolved respiratory issues could be PAstV4 or porcine hemagluttinating encephalomyelitis virus expand the scope of diagnostic possibilities.

The Swine Health Information Center’s (SHIC) October Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring Report is available.

More than 250 producers, veterinarians, swine health officials, state pork association officials and others recently met as delegates to the US Swine Health Improvement Plan meeting in Bloomington, Minnesota. The delegation discussed and passed resolutions and standards to bring more clarity and definition to the project works toward its goal of becoming a full USDA program designed to safeguard, certify and improve animal health.