SHIC Tracking PRV & PRRS in Asia

The Swine Health Information Center is tracking the risk of a variant strain of pseudorabies and a highly pathogenic strain of PRRS that are causing problems in the far east finding their way into the United States. The role of the Swine Health Information Center is to monitor swine diseases around the world, identify the risks they pose, prepare for their entry into the U.S. and foster communication, cooperation and collaboration among producers. [Source: Farmscape for August 12, 2016 by Bruce Cochran]

Swine Health Information Center Executive Director Dr. Paul Sundberg says a Swine Health Monitoring and Analysis Working group has conducted a survey to identify the top disease concerns in various regions around the world.

Clip-Dr. Paul Sundberg-Swine Health Information Center:
“We’re always interested in the things that are going on in Asia and Southeast Asia and China because we do import a lot of products from that area of the world and we know that Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea was sourced from the far east so looking at that is always of interest. A couple of things that are identified that are going on over there that we’re working on is a pseudorabies variant. This pseudorabies strain seems to be giving them quite a bit of trouble and is somewhat different than that that we eradicated a number of years ago. So we’re trying to figure out and make sure we’re well prepared should that arrive. The other thing that they have is a high path PRRS virus that has been giving them some trouble and something that we’re watching out for here.”

Dr. Sundberg says, right now the center is conducting research to identify the pathways that diseases could potentially enter the U.S. in feed products including feed components, whole feeds, soybean meal and those kinds of things to see how long pathogens can survive and identify the risks from those kinds of imports. He says, once the risks are known, resources can be put together to mitigate those risks.