The University of Minnesota swine group wishes you a Happy New Year and great things to come this year!
We wanted to take a moment to reflect on some the most read articles from the past year. Thank you for growing with us, and we look forward to many more interesting and insightful articles and blog posts in 2023!
Today we are sharing a new publication from the Torremorell’s lab regarding the impact that internal biosecurity measures can have on influenza A infection in piglets, when combined with sow vaccination. The article is available in open access on the Vet Research journal’s website.
Continue reading “Evaluation of internal farm biosecurity measures combined with sow vaccination to prevent influenza A virus infection in groups of due‑to‑wean pigs”This week we are sharing a recent publication from the Torremorell lab in the Preventive Veterinary Medicine journal, looking at the impact of internal biosecurity measures such as cross-fostering and sow parity on influenza infections in piglets.
Continue reading “Evaluation of dam parity and internal biosecurity practices in influenza infections in piglets prior to weaning”Today we are sharing a recent publication from the Torremorell lab in Microbiology and Infectious Disease regarding the impact of swine influenza A vaccination on the virus reassortment and on the genetic variation observable in pigs. The full article is available in open access on the journal’s website.
Continue reading “Vaccination decreases the risk of influenza A virus reassortment but not genetic variation in pigs”Dr. Marie Culhane is Professor at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine who specializes in Influenza and emergency disease preparedness and management. The poultry industry has battled outbreaks of High Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in recent years and as the old saying goes, “Your friends challenges are your cheapest learning opportunities”. We go in depth with Dr. Culhane on Influenza – what makes this a “shared disease” between humans, birds and pigs, what are the common control strategies employed across species and how can vaccine platforms help manage Influenza disease. We specifically focus on HPAI outbreaks and their analogies with reportable diseases in the swine industry. Poultry producers have had major HPAI outbreaks in 2015 and again now in 2022 – how have their biosecurity programs and diagnostic tools evolved over that period? How do they effectively implement control zones and permit requirements prior to movement? Ultimately, what have they done to improve the timeline from diagnosis to depopulation from 7 days to 36 hours from 2015 to 2022? Marie shares lessons learned about smallholder poultry operation management that correlates to similar smallholder swine operations as well as perspective about wild bird management akin to our challenges with feral swine management.
