pathogenicity – Swine in Minnesota

Best of Leman 2022: Evan Koep – Raising pigs in Prop 12 compliant farms – what is working (or not) for us

This is our most popular series on the blog. Once a month, we are sharing with you a presentation given at the Allen D. Leman swine conference, on topics that the swine group found interesting, innovative or that lead to great discussions.

You can find all of the presentations selected from previous conferences on the blog here.

This presentation was originally given by Dr. Evan Koep of Pipestone Veterinary Services during the 2022 Allen D. Leman Swine Conference, recorded September 19, 2022.

Streptococcus suis: predicting pathogenicity with virulence-associated genes?

A recent publication in Porcine Health Management by April Estrada, from the Gebhart lab at the University of Minnesota, proposes new virulence-associated genes to predict the pathogenicity of US Streptococcus suis. This project continues her previous work on the classification of US S. suis strains based on pathotypes.

Streptococcus suis strains circulating in the U.S. and their association with pathogenicity

Key Points

Streptococcus suis isolates were classified into 20 different serotypes and 58 different Sequence types (ST)s.
Serotypes 1 and 1/2 were associated with higher pathogenic frequency, while ST profiles 1 and 28 were associated with higher frequency of pathogenic isolates.
The analysis of the association between pathotype, serotype, and ST showed that overall, STs were a better predictor of pathogenicity than serotypes.

Can Streptococcus suis genotype predict its pathogenicity?

PhD candidate April Estrada, working with Drs. Gebhart and Marthaler published an open-access article on Streptococcus suis in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology. Streptococcus suis is an older pathogen but its prevalence as well as its virulence have been rising lately. This study investigates if categorizing isolates into serotypes and genotypes could help predict the severity of the disease on the farm.

Distribution of pathogenic Streptococcus suis in the US

In this article written for the National Hog Farmer, PhD candidate April Estrada describes the high diversity of Streptococcus suis (S.suis) isolates.