July 2021 – Swine in Minnesota

MSHMP: Incidence Year 2020 / 2021 Annual Summary

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.

The 2020-2021 MSHMP incidence year again brought us unexpected events and chances to learn. We were able to meet these challenges only because you as an MSHMP participants continue to share your data. We would like to provide a general update and summary of where we are at this point.

Phylogenetic Structure and Sequential Dominance of Sub-Lineages of PRRSV Type-2 Lineage 1 in the United States

In a new study by Paploski et al., researchers from the VanderWaal lab delineated the phylogenetic structure within PRRSV Lineage 1, described past dynamics of different viral strains through quantifying viral population sizes across time, and identified antigenically relevant amino acid changes associated with each sub-lineage.

Key points

Lineage 1 of PRRSV-type 2, which is the most prevalent PRRSV lineage in the U.S., can be sub-divided into eight sub-lineages
We documented the cyclic emergence and turnover of different lineages and sub-lineages (about every 3 years) in the commercial pig population based on both sequence count data and estimated past viral population sizes inferred from genetic diversity through time.
The eight sub-lineages differed in key amino acid sites of the GP5 that are thought to be involved in the immune response to the virus. This lends further strength to the hypothesis that immune-mediated competition or selection may drive the emergence of new PRRSV sub-lineages in the U.S.

How many cases are we seeing of the new PRRS variant?

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.

As the MSHMP team continues to monitor the detection of the newly described PRRSv Lineage 1C RFLP 1-4-4 variant, they provide an update of the epidemiological curve of cases associated with this variant.

Western Canada Veterinarian Earns Top U.S. Swine Award

Egan Brockhoff, DVM, president and managing partner of Prairie Swine Health Services in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada will receive the 2021 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.

Registration for the 2021 Leman conference is open!

The Allen D. Leman swine conference is back in person in St. Paul, Minnesota! Or online, you choose how you want to get the best of content on science-driven solutions for the global swine industry. Save the date in your calendar: September 18-21, 2021 and register today!