We hope all our US readers had a great Memorial Day weekend. Today, we are talking about farm practices and flu in farm workers. This recent publication from the Torremorell lab is available in open access on the Porcine Health Management journal website.
Take-away points
- Naïve piglets becoming infected with influenza before weaning participates in the endemic status of sow farms.
- Numerous interactions between piglets and farm workers happen pre-weaning (e.g. processing, vaccinations)
- Between 16% and 94% of the samples taken post-activity from farm workers’ hands and clothing were PCR positive for influenza.
- Activities during the peri-weaning period had almost 6 times higher risk of flu detection.