Category Archives: Animal Health

The Swine Health Information Center’s (SHIC) September Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring Report is available. During August, PRRSV activity was at the lower boundaries for the predicted value for 2019. Higher detection of PRRSV in wean-to-market pigs was reviewed by the Advisory Council with several potential causes identified. The level of detection of PEDV RNA during late August was slightly above the expected value for this period of the year. The Advisory Council saw two potential causes for the increase in detection of PEDV in the wean-to-market category. Detection of PDCoV RNA was within the expected values for August. There were no positive cases for TGEV over a total of 2,235 cases tested in August. There was a trend of increasing the level of detection of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae DNA in all age categories in August. However, the increased detection for this period of the year is more accentuated for the age category adult/sow farms. In August, there was no disease diagnosis alert signals detected for the following monitored systems: nervous, urogenital, digestive, respiratory, systemic, musculoskeletal, and cardiovascular-blood-endocrine-immune. In other words, the number of cases having each disease diagnosis was within the expected based on historic data.

The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) engages in ongoing global pig disease status monitoring including review of Great Britain’s Disease Surveillance and Emerging Threats report as well as the Canadian Community for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases (CEZD) Weekly Intelligence Report. Great Britain’s quarterly report reviews disease trends and threats facing their national herd, intended to inform government, the veterinary profession, and farmers. Data for this report is collected by Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) as well as Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) Veterinary Services Division along with other contributors in their Pig Expert Group networks. CEZD is a virtual network combining automated information-mining tool data with multidisciplinary analytical capability by experts. CEZD’s automated system collects and filters disease signals from 21 news sources which are then reviewed by experts before distribution including analysis.

The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) Global Swine Disease Monitoring Report facilitates near real-time identification of hazards posing risks to the domestic pork industry. Being able to access accurate and reviewed information quickly is important to producers and the industry as a whole, according to the SHIC Monitoring and Analysis Working Group in their support of continued funding of the program. Compiled by staff at the University of Minnesota, the report is posted on the SHIC website and included its monthly enewsletter, always ranking as one of the most read articles.

Vesicular stomatitis is a viral disease that primarily affects horses and cattle, but can also affect swine, sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, and rarely humans. Since the start of the outbreak on June 21, 2019, 808 vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)-affected premises have been identified (339 confirmed positive, 469 suspect) in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Utah. To date, only equine species (805 premises) and bovine species (3 premises in Colorado and Texas) have been affected in this outbreak.

The Swine Health Information Center’s (SHIC) August Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring Report is available. During July, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSv) activity was at the lower boundaries of the predicted value for 2019. Positive cases from the wean-to-market age group were at 28.75%, the lowest since July 2015. The percentage of positive cases coming from the adult/sow category was at the lowest level of detection for the year of 2019 at 17.68%. The level of detection of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) RNA, and of porcine deltacorona virus (PDCoV) RNA were both within the expected values for July, with decreased detection for all age categories. Even though the number of cases tested and the level of detection of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (MHP) DNA was within the expected value for July, there was an increased detection observed in the last four weeks from all age categories, as expected based on historical data for this time of the year. Additionally, the July report contains information on redesigned dashboards for the Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring Report.

The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) initiated a veterinary diagnostic lab (VDL) data standardization project in 2017 and from there a regular Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring Report was developed, published monthly beginning in March 2018. The program’s principal investigator, Dr. Daniel Linhares, and project coordinator, Dr. Giovani Trevisan, both from Iowa State University, continually seek input from stakeholders to improve both process and deliverables. This October, Dr. Trevisan will give an oral presentation on the Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring Report during the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) Annual Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, with this as the goal. His presentation, and resulting feedback, will help make the SHIC-funded program stronger and more useful to producers, enhancing the on-going investment by SHIC as well as equipping the swine industry with important disease monitoring information. By instigating this porcine-focused project, SHIC is also providing an example of progressive programming for other commodities to consider.

Dr. Bailey Arruda of Iowa State University recently completed Swine Health Information Center-funded research on development and evaluation of a dual matrix serum/oral fluid atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV) ELISA using known status samples. As part of its mission to protect the health of the US swine herd, SHIC funded this research to provide tools for an emerging disease which has not affected domestic pigs significantly though it presents potential for concern. APPV is the most common cause of congenital tremor (CT) in pigs. This is the first study to experimentally infect swine with APPV and monitor the infection dynamics over time out to 70 days post inoculation (DPI). There is limited information concerning the ecology, epidemiology, and pathophysiology of APPV. Currently, there is no available serologic assay to evaluate the immunity of a dam or herd. Such an assay would provide meaningful information to assess the effectiveness of preventative measures such as acclimation and vaccination as well as improve our understating of the infection dynamics and herd impact of APPV.

The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) joined with the University of Minnesota to sponsor a workshop on April 29, 2019, to increase understanding of the vitamin supply chain and identify potential risk factors for introducing foreign animal disease (FAD) to the US. Within the vitamin supply chain meeting report, authors Dr. Gerald Shurson and Dr. Pedro Urriola of the University of Minnesota describe current industry understanding of vitamin manufacturing, transport, and vitamin premix composition/manufacturing processes as well as quality assurance and biosecurity programs. They address the pork producers’ need to select reputable suppliers for all feed ingredients and describe the challenges of potential mitigation procedures for vitamin products and premixes. The vitamin supply chain report also includes a detailed listing of vitamin manufacturers in China and their web sites as well details on biosecurity procedures and third-party audits of many of these facilities.

In the Swine Health Information Center’s (SHIC) July Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring Report, it is reported porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) activity remains within predicted values for 2019. There was a slight decrease in PRRSV diagnoses in wean-to-market pigs from May (37.81%) to June (36.52%), however, it increased to 44.53% during the first full week of June. This increase was mostly due to cases in North Carolina and Iowa. The percentage of positive cases in adult/sow animals decreased to 20.87% in June, the lowest level of detection for 2019 in this phase. The level of detection of enteric coronaviruses were within expected values in June with decreased diagnoses in all age categories. None of the 2288 cases tested for transmissible gastroenteritis virus in June were positive. The report also notes changes in recording and reporting of diagnostic codes at the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Lab so there are no enteric, respiratory, nor central nervous system results in this edition. The online dashboards will be updated once the new system is in place, which is expected in July 2019.

The National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa, confirmed findings of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) Indiana serotype (IN) infection on premises in Kinney and Tom Green Counties in Texas, and a third premises in Sandoval County, New Mexico. These three premises are under State quarantine. There has been no diagnosis of VSV-IN in the United States since 1998. While there are other animals on these premises, only horses presented clinical signs to date. The Kinney County premises is the 2019 VSV index case for the United States. [Source: USDA APHIS 1 July 2019]