Animal disease

Molecular Diagnostics: Present and Future Dr. Declan Schroeder, University of Minnesota, presents thoughts on how molecular biology is applied to swine research. Dr. Schroeder provides a series of details on the approaches to sequencing and understanding the DNA and RNA of pigs [video].

Risk of African Swine Fever (ASF) virus in feed and mitigation strategies Dr. Scott Dee, Pipestone Veterinary Services, shares his research on how diseases can be transmitted via feed and under what conditions this might happen [video].

SwineCast 1037 Show Notes:

• In this episode of At the Meeting honoring Dr. Bob Morrison, we share a conversation on porcine circovirus 3, or PCV3.
• Dr. Montse Torremorell joins Dr. Tom Wetzel and Dr. Gordon Spronk with special guest Dr. Darin Madson, Iowa State University, to talk about porcine circovirus 3 and how it is both similar to, and different from PCV2.
• Dr. Madson and the show's cohosts discuss clinical signs associated with PCV3, including myocarditis, respiratory issues, and reproductive problems, as well as how current research is focused on better understanding the virus, its history, and whether any current PCV vaccines could offer some form of cross-protection.

African Swine Fever (ASF) awareness, prevention & response efforts at the national level Dr. Patrick Webb, National Pork Board, details the African Swine Fever (ASF) awareness, prevention, and response efforts at the national (USA) level. Diligence, preparedness, and active monitoring is a must. Dr. Webb reminds that there are key foreign animal disease resources at the Pork.Org web site [video].

African Swine Fever (ASF) experiences in a large commercial system Dr. Gustavo Lopez, University of Minnesota, provides a first hand look at African Swine Fever (ASF) on a farm operated by Cherkizovo (pronounced "Chair-Kee-Zi-Vo") in Russia. Dr. Lopez outlines the detection process, what they missed, the actions they had to take, and the new biosecurity protocols implemented [video].

African Swine Fever – a real and present global threat Dr. Chris Oura (Professor of Veterinary Virology, School of Veterinary Medicine Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago) explains what we know about the African Swine Fever (ASF) virus, what the associated clinical signs are, and the various paths of transmission. From the 2018 Allen D. Leman Swine Conference, September 15-18, 2018, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA [video].

SwineCast 1036 Show Notes:

• This episode by PIC shares important management best practices on managing ventilation for maximum performance. We’ve assembled for this timely topic Lance Barton (Belstra Milling Director of Wean to Finish and Genetic Services), Fernando Gomez (PIC Wean to Finish Specialist), and Nat Stas (PIC Wean to Finish Tech Service Team member).
• Key take aways: 1) Periodic ventilation monitoring and maintenance is a must, 2) Train people on the specific equipment, troubleshooting skills, and the role ventilation plays in managing animal health, and 3) Develop a mindset that ventilation is not just airflow or temperature or equipment, but a combination of all these factors.

SwineCast 1035 Show Notes:

• In this second of a two part episode of At The Meeting Honoring Dr. Bob Morrison, we continue our conversation on African Swine Fever or ASF.
• Dr. Montse Torremorell joins Dr. Tom Wetzel and Dr. Gordon Spronk with special guest Brad Heron, Director of Operations of Cherkizovo (pronounced "Chair-Kee-Zi-Vo") in Russia. Brad offers a personal, boots on the ground perspective on ASF.
• Brad shares several stories of how ASF was discovered and handled on the Russian farms he helps run. The early disease indicators were confusing due to other animal diseases also running its course so ASF was not discovered as early as they had thought they would.
• Brad highlights what happened to the operations when ASF was discovered, actions they had to take, and the Russian regulations they had to work with requiring depopulations within a five mile radius.
• Brad also summarizes the biosecurity changes they made to defend against ASF, including transportation tracking, multiple testing points through out the operations, and physical farm and people security improvements.
• The number one key take away from Brad: Have good testing; if you don't test, you don't have the ability discover outbreaks.

SwineCast 1034 Show Notes:

• In this first of a two part episode of At The Meeting Honoring Dr. Bob Morrison, we share a conversation on African Swine Fever or ASF.
• Dr. Montse Torremorell joins Dr. Tom Wetzel and Dr. Gordon Spronk with special guest Dr. Liz Wagstrom, Chief Veterinarian for the National Pork Producers Council, to talk about ASF and how it is the most feared disease in pigs in the world.
• Take away: 1) Having ASF in the United States would impact trade 2) ASF is a hardy virus (hard to eradicate and lives in extreme conditions), and 3) there is no vaccine.
• The U.S. pork industry is taking action now by making sure laboratory capacity is up to date, looking at identifying and categorizing higher risk transmission paths plus their mitigation plans, and improving the approach to surveillance and risk planning and implementation.

SwineCast 1033 Show Notes:

• In this episode of At the Meeting honoring Dr. Bob Morrison, we share a conversation on Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) breaks in the summer. Dr. Montse Torremorell joins Dr. Gordon Spronk and Dr. Tom Wetzel with special guests Dr. Cesar Corzo and Dr. Juan Sanhueza.
• The group talks about the Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Program and what data they have been collecting and analyzing. One of the questions they are now able to address is if there are more new PRRS breaks this summer compared to other summers. One of the observations is that incidence of summer breaks is about 3% of farms, which is about 250,000 sows.
• Take away: 1) The industry should be looking at breaks all year long (not just in the fall / winter months) and 2) operations should continue practice disease prevention and spreading with regular biosecurity processes.