Influenza Management Strategies Webinar

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

1:00 – 2:30 pm CDT

 The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) and American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) will host a webinar on swine influenza management strategies, a timely topic as we enter the winter season. Presenters Dr. Amy Vincent, USDA-ARS National Animal Disease Center, and Dr. Phil Gauger, Iowa State University, are experts in swine influenza and related research. Dr. Dyneah Classen, Carthage Veterinary Service, is a practitioner with hands-on swine influenza experience.

Dr. Vincent will provide background of influenza A virus in swine as well as discuss surveillance and tools to monitor virus diversity and evolution. She will cover the impact of genetic evolution on antigenic diversity of HA and NA influenza strains and their sequences. The presentation will include limitations on vaccines in the real world along with vaccine research and immune response to sequential vaccination or exposure.

Dr. Gauger will present diagnostic methods to detect influenza in swine, including timing of sample collection, sample types, tests available, and interpretations including expected outcomes of sequencing and virus isolation based on concentration of swine influenza A in the sample.

In an article prepared for an industry publication, Dr. Classen wrote, “Influenza A viruses in swine (IAV-S) can circulate among swine throughout the year, but most outbreaks occur during the late fall and winter months, similar to outbreaks in humans. Clinical signs in swine can start of similar to other diseases – animals off feed, lethargy, high fevers (rectal temperatures of 104 F and above), increased mortality, and in pregnant sows, abortions. As the disease progresses clinical signs included nasal discharge and a deep, barking cough.”

During the webinar, Dr. Classen will share her experience with the Prime and Boost influenza vaccination protocol she further described in her article, writing, “This year for the sow herds, the industry is abuzz with an approach referred to as Prime and Boost. The strategy involves choosing two vaccines that are genetically different or heterologous and giving a priming dose and following up two to four weeks later with a booster dose. This can be done by choosing two commercially available vaccines with different strains, a commercial and autogenous vaccine or two autogenous vaccines with different strains. The concept is that the two different vaccination will boost the immune response to the conserved epitopes between genetically different influenza A strains.”

This protocol, as well as the diagnostic and research work done by Drs. Gauger and Vincent, will provide significant resources to webinar attendees as the swine influenza season begins.

Presenters