The pork industry has spent millions to better understand viruses, however, it is often bacteria that kills the pig. In addition, current biosecurity practices are primarily devised to keep viruses out and potentially fail to address the endemic nature of bacteria in a herd.

The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) supports a near real-time monitoring system for swine diseases around the world. Now, practitioners, scientists, allied industry personnel, and producers in the US have the opportunity to submit information on outbreaks and epidemics happening worldwide using the UMN Spontaneous reporting tool.

You don’t know what you don’t know. And you don’t always know what your colleagues do know. Because the potential for new, emerging, and foreign animal diseases to affect the US swine herd is an industry-wide concern, the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) recently coordinated a meeting of the project coordinators of independent and voluntary swine health and producer information sharing programs around the country.

Early detection and understanding sources of pseudorabies virus (PRV) are essential to contain spread and prevent economic losses, should the virus arrive in the US.

There are two categories of pseudorabies virus (PRV). Classical PRV was formerly present in North American commercial production prior to eradication in 2004. It has been eliminated in much of the developed world, but does reside in feral pigs in the US, Europe, Latin America, and Asia.