May 2020 – Swine in Minnesota

Porcine Deltacoronavirus in MSHMP sow herds

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

Today, Dr. Kikuti and other members of the MSHMP team from the University of Minnesota share the Porcine Deltacoronavirus cases reported on MSHMP participant sow farms from January 2015 to the present.

Key Points

Porcine Deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) is still present in sow herds since it was first reported in the US in 2014.
Number of cases reported per month averaged 3.2 cases between January 2015 and May 2020.
PDCoV testing and reporting should continue in order to increase our understanding of the disease.

COVID-19’s Impact on China’s Swine Industry

Podcasts are a perfect way to get caught up with new swine information! We are presenting you the latest episode from “At The Meeting… Honoring Dr. Bob Morrison” in collaboration with SwineCast.

At The Meeting’ Honoring Dr. Bob Morrison hears from Dr. Duan Lianmao and Art Xue of Riverstone Farms about COVID-19’s impact on China’s swine industry.

Contrasting animal movement and spatial connectivity networks in shaping transmission pathways of a genetically diverse virus

Researchers VanderWaal, Paploski, Makau and Corzo at the University of Minnesota provide new insights into how PRRSv spreads between farms and the importance of data sharing in this research article published in Preventive Veterinary Medicine.

Highlights

The study combined three years of PRRSv genetic data with network analysis to look at the dynamics of between-farm spread of PRRSv.
Data from a subset of the MSHMP farms was used and included farm location, animal movements between farms, and any PRRSv sequence recovered those farms.
The researchers identified between-farm infection chains and elucidated types of contact that were most associated with PRRSv transmission.
Results showed that animal movements, not local area spread, play a dominant role in shaping transmission pathways.
Local area spread ( within a 5 km area) also contributed to the PRRSv transmission pathway, though to a much lesser extent than animal movements.

Implications for COVID-19?

Molecular geneticists and epidemiologists perform similar work for the human population, especially now during the COVID-19 pandemic. Follow this link to learn how researchers trace the routes the virus has traveled across the world in an attempt to find out how quickly and easily SARS-CoV-2 spreads using globally shared data.

How much is the spread of 1-7-4-related PRRS viruses due to animal movement?

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

Today, Dr. Makau and collaborators from the University of Minnesota provide insights into the role that repeated animal movements between farms play in the risk for Lineage 1A PRRS virus disease occurrence.

Keypoints:

Animal movements from 496 farms from a dense pig production area in the US, between 2014-2017, were analyzed.
Direct contact (through animal movements) and indirect contact with an L1A (Lineage 1A)-positive farm increased the likelihood of L1A occurrence, and occurrence of non-L1A PRRS virus one year prior decreased the likelihood of an L1A occurrence.
Outbreak risk increased for farms that engaged in more outgoing shipments.

2020 Science in Practice Award Winner: Clayton Johnson

Clayton Johnson, DVM, a partner and veterinarian at Carthage Veterinary Services in Carthage, Ill., will receive the 2020 Allen D. Leman Science in Practice Award in September. He joins a growing and illustrious list of veterinarians who have received the award, which is presented at the annual Allen D. Leman Swine Conference in St. Paul, Minn.