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

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.

Keypoints

  • Lineage 1 PRRSv, 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) 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 GP5 amino acid sites that are thought to be involved in the immune response to the virus.
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Join the team! Public health position available at the UMN CVM

The University of Minnesota, Veterinary Population Medicine Department (VPM), College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) is seeking to hire an outstanding candidate for a 100% Assistant/Associate/Full Professor (contract) position in the area of Veterinary Public Health. Learn more about the position.

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MSHMP data collection update 2020-2021

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.

Reaching the end of the fiscal year, we wanted to report an update on the magnitude of the MSHMP project by describing the data collected and maintained in the MSHMP database that is used to create our reports and to analyze industry related questions and trends.

Breakdown of MSHMP Participants: 37 separate systems made up of 3 regional projects and 31 Production companies and veterinary clinics. Three companies are represented by multiple MSHMP systems due to geographic and management considerations. 

There are a total of 2,073 farms within the program, 1,168 breeding herds, 872 growing pig farms and 30 boar studs. The total number of sows monitored in our project is 3,503,287 sows (>3.5 million sows)

The average number of breeding herd per system is 32 (min of 5 and max of 239) with the 50% of the systems having 18 farms or more.

The mean inventory per farm by system (excluding finisher farms) was 2916 sows (ranging those means from 700-6500). Figure 1 shows farm’s average inventory distribution per participant system.

Different production types are recorded with 56% of breeding herds, and 38% represented by wean to finish and finisher farms from four participant systems (Table1). 

Approximately 20 % of the sow farms are filtered, with 50 being not filtered, 27 partially filtered (filtered only during certain months of the year), and 167 filtered year-round. We are collecting information on the type of filtration system (i.e. positive/negative). Approximately 20% of the farms have reported it, with most of them using positive filtration. 

At MSHMP we are currently collecting status for three pathogens causing important impact to the industry. Over the 2020-2021 year, 1056, 1176, and 1170 farms reported status for PRRS, PED, and PDCoV respectively. Farm status regarding Mycoplasma was recorded for eight production systems, comprising 106 sow farms.

We would like to thank all MSHMP participants for the willingness to share your information. Without their contributions, we could not generate these summaries.

The UMN swine fellowships continue to support students and industry-focused research

Three fellowships are available for graduate students focusing their research on practical solutions for the swine industry: the Morrison, Pijoan and PIC fellowships. Congratulations to this year’s new recipients! We look forward to hearing more from you at the upcoming Allen D. Leman Swine Conference on September 18-21.

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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.

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