Category Archives: Animal Health

In research funded by the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) and conducted at Kansas State University, two feed mills and three breed-to-wean facilities diagnosed with porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) were investigated for possible connections related to the outbreak. Initial suspicion was feed manufacture and delivery processes were involved in disease transmission. Goals of the research were to understand if the feed mill was the origin of disease and then determine if trucks or people, either coming from the infected farms or coming from the feed mills, served as vectors to spread this virus.

In late November 2021, a number of finisher sites in the upper Midwest began reporting outbreaks of respiratory disease with high mortality. Pigs were exhibiting coughing, high fevers and respiratory distress resulting in death loss of up to 51% within a matter of days post-onset. This outbreak affected upwards of nine otherwise unrelated production systems within a narrow geographic radius. Submissions from affected sites received at Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Lab (ISUVDL) were diagnosed with Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae serotype 15 (APP15). The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) is supporting additional laboratory analysis of the APP strain involved in the outbreak and, thanks to Alyona Michael, DVM, PhD, DACVP, ISUVDL, here is a preliminary report of results.

Despite continuous efforts within The Maschhoffs and the industry as a whole, biosecurity and containment efforts haven’t fully reduced porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) and porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) prevalence within the U.S. swine industry. More often than not, after a disease break, the veterinarian on The Maschhoffs’ team will report, “I didn’t find a “smoking gun.”

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

The Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project (MSHMP), funded in part by the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC), continues to monitor trends in pathogen incidence and prevalence, including PRRS and the PRRS 1-4-4 L1C variant. MSHMP data analysis looked at the association of manure pumping activities and PRRS outbreaks as well as helped with outbreak investigations by comparing PRRSv sequences. MSHMP is facilitating sharing of health information by tracking multiple diseases, including transport and health relationships, and is growing into adding boar stud and growing pig data to the sow information already gathered.

The Swine Health Information Center’s (SHIC’s) domestic disease monitoring reporting system (SDRS) was developed as the result of a veterinary diagnostic lab (VDL) data standardization project utilizing HL7 messaging. SHIC’s support of that work has resulted in a model capturing disease dynamics from daily VDL test results by pathogen over time, specimen, age group, and geographical space. SHIC is now exploring potential expansion of the diagnostic database to increase the breadth of producer disease diagnostic inputs and regional disease surveillance.

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

Approved by the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) Board of Directors, the 2022 Plan of Work outlines efforts to be taken in the areas of swine disease monitoring and reports, African swine fever (ASF), transport biosecurity, and other significant projects to protect the US swine herd from emerging diseases. Existing SHIC programs will also continue to be refined and improved.

The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) funded a study on time by temperature risk mitigation practices in feed storage.

Monitoring and mitigating risk to swine health. Improving swine health information. Conducting swine industry outreach. Surveillance and discovery of emerging swine disease. Preparedness and response. The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) presented its 2021 Progress Report to the National Pork Board in January 2022, detailing highlights and successes of work done in 2021.