August 2021 – Page 2 – Swine in Minnesota

African Swine Fever Detected in the Dominican Republic for the first time in 40 years!

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.

Given the recent unfortunate news regarding the detection of African Swine Fever (ASF) in the Dominican Republic, we thought that briefly reviewing the history of this virus in the Americas would be relevant to the U.S. industry. It’s important to remind everyone that this is not the first time ASF has been in the Western Hemisphere, and it may not be the last.

DVM students, 1 week left to participate in the Morrison Swine Innovator Prize!

Veterinary student, did you shadow a swine practitioner this summer or were involved in an interesting clinical case investigation? Did you work on your veterinary skills by designing a differential diagnosis list or working on a treatment plan? Did you investigate a problem by analyzing production records? Share your work at the Allen D. Leman Swine Conference to win the Morrison Swine Innovator Prize!

Evaluation of oral fluid as an aggregate sample for early detection of ASF

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.

Since ASF has been found in the Dominic Republic last week, swine producers are concerned about it spreading into the United States. Early detection would be essential to ensure a rapid response and containment of the disease. This week, the MSHMP team shares the summary of a Canadian study looking at using oral fluids as a tool to diagnose ASF.

Key Points

Oral fluid samples may be used as a low labor, cost effective alternative sample source for rapid detection of ASFV during ASF surveillance.
ASFv genome was detected in oral fluids at low-to-moderate levels as early as 3-5 days post infection, before clinical symptoms started.
Further research is needed to understand limitations and best practices of oral fluid sampling for ASFv

ASF has been reported in the Dominican Republic after 40 years since the last outbreak

This is a report from the Swine Health Information Center in collaboration with the Swine Disease Global Surveillance team at the University of Minnesota.

On July 28, 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Dominican Republic confirmed the presence of African swine fever (ASF) after learning the results of tests on 389 samples collected from pigs raised on farms and in backyards sent to the USDA – Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (Plum Island) through an existing cooperative surveillance program.