Category Archives: Animal Health

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

The Domestic Swine Disease Reporting System, funded by the Swine Health Information Center, collects and disseminates information on endemic and emerging diseases affecting the US swine herd. Following the addition of influenza A virus in swine in April 2022, porcine circovirus type 2 information will be included starting in May 2022, in response to stakeholder requests. Monitoring these two viruses known for different clinical manifestations adds value to SDRS reports while providing needed information for producers and veterinarians.

High mortality events due to Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus in US swine were first reported in Ohio and Tennessee in September and October 2019. In February 2021, two-year-old adult sows from a production system in Indiana experienced increased sow death loss. To investigate if the Indiana outbreak isolates were similar to or different from isolates from Ohio and Tennessee S. zooepidemicus outbreaks, Swine Health Information Center-funded whole genome sequencing analysis was performed.

Several different strategies have been used to classify porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome-type-2 viruses into (hopefully) epidemiologically meaningful groups. Here we discuss RFLPs (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms), one of the most commonly used ways of classifying this virus, highlighting how this classification works and its limitations.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Veterinary Services (VS) established an African swine Fever (ASF) protection zone in Puerto Rico (PR) and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) in September 2021, in response to ASF detections in the Dominican Republic. APHIS also issued Federal Order DA-2021-0002 suspending the interstate movement of all live swine, swine germplasm, swine products, and swine byproducts from Puerto Rico (PR) and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) to the continental United States and its other territories until mitigations were established to authorize such movement. In December 2021, APHIS issued Federal Order DA-2021-0003 lifting the restrictions and establishing sufficient mitigations to allow movement of certain commercially processed swine products and swine byproducts from PR and USVI to the continental United States and its other territories.

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

The Swine Heath Information Center has updated its porcine circovirus 3 Fact Sheet and begun a project with Iowa State University and the University of Minnesota to investigate historical submissions, tests, and tissues, with their available clinical signalment, to help lead to an applicable US case definition. An analysis of historical submission tests/clinical signs at UMN has already been done and will add to the case definition development. The laboratory analyses will help lead to standardized diagnostic criteria and when the case definition is finalized, on-farm epidemiological work will begin later in 2022.

The Swine Health Information Center-funded Domestic Swine Disease Reporting System shares information on endemic and emerging diseases affecting domestic swine via monthly reports, dynamic online dashboards, SwineCast, LinkedIn, YouTube channel, and podcasts. With the addition of data on influenza A virus in April 2022, the 50th monthly report, the three most relevant swine respiratory etiologies – IAV, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, and Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae – are all included. SDRS also includes data on porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, porcine deltacoronavirus, and transmissible gastroenteritis virus.

Educational materials on the best practices for collecting cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and meningeal swabs in field conditions were created by the collaboration of the Swine Medicine Education Center (SMEC), Dr. Maria Clavijo, DVM, PhD, and Dr. Rachel Derscheid, DVM, PhD, DACVP.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture employee was paid to allow tick infested and diseased cattle to enter the country, according to an indictment filed in a Laredo federal court.