Page 78 of articles about swine-diseases in Swine news

The majority of East Anglia pigs are now in the region’s producer-run Swine Dysentery Eradication (Control) Scheme. And no breeding units in the scheme are positive for the disease.

Headed by Professor George Milne of the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering, researchers at The University of Western Australia (UWA) have concluded that a classical swine fever outbreak, starting in north Queensland, could spread widely through Australia’s 20 million feral pigs, potentially posing a risk to Australia’s domestic pig population.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) have published today a joint Scientific Report on methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in livestock, pets and foods.

The OIE has reported 3 new outbreaks of classical swine fever in Rio Grande Do Norte and 1 in Amapá. The three new outbreaks in Rio Grande Do Norte were detected by the surveillance programme and have an epidemiological link with the "Jucurutu 1" outbreak, where animals from the farm considered to be the index farm were introduced. All farms are for self-consumption or local trade. The State of Rio Grande do Norte is located outside the area declared at a national level as free of classical swine fever. The Animal Health Department has approved the vaccination of all pigs of the State of Rio Grande do Norte. Vaccination remains prohibited in the rest of the country. In Amapaá, the affected farm, of a traditional type, is for self-consumption. The State of Amapá is located outside the area declared at a national level as free of classical swine fever. Surveillance and epidemiological investigation are continuing.

The Russian veterinary authority has sent Follow up Report No. 18 to OIE, reporting no new cases of ASF in pigs. The event is described as 'resolved'.

The Federal Ministry of Health has confirmed the report that African Swine Fever has been discovered in a certain part of Delta State. Also, the Delta State Ministry of Agriculture has quarantined the affected piggery and has started culling the affected pigs to prevent the disease from spreading to other pigs.

A bill that would have affected the use of antibiotics in livestock has been defeated by the California Senate by a vote of 20-15. The bill would have required all school districts in California to make every effort to purchase poultry and meat products that had not been treated with non-theraputic anitibiotics. The original bill was even tougher. It would have prohibited schools from serving poultry or meat products from animals that had been treated with antibiotics at any time during the life of the animal.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that it will make the master seed virus (MSV) for the novel H1N1 flu available to interested veterinary biologics manufacturers.

New cases of classical swine fever in feral pigs in the south of Rhineland-Palatinate have been reported. Accordingly, the plans for eradication and emergency vaccination of feral pigs for classical swine fever need to be applied in that area. Decision 2003/135/EC should therefore be amended accordingly.

Limited cross-reactivity of serum samples from pigs infected U.S swine influenza viruses or vaccinated with commercial vaccines was demonstrated against the new S/O H1N1 influenza virus (A/CA/04/2009) as measured by the standard HI test. The results of this experiment suggest that pre-existing immunity induced by swine influenza viruses circulating in the U.S may not protect pigs against the new S/O H1N1 influenza virus presently circulating in people. Importantly, vaccines currently used to protect pigs in U.S swine operations against swine influenza virus may not be effective against the new S/O H1N1 influenza virus.

Some analysts have predicted that the U.S. pork industry could lose up to $400 million in the next few months, given lower market prices; others estimate that from 25% to 33% of U.S. hog producers may be adversely effected.

Hepatitis E is an emergent human infection and it is thought that swine are the main animal reservoir. Five papers published during 2009 describe the latest results obtained by swine hepatitis E virus (HEV) group at CReSA.

In order to ensure the eradication of FMD virus, Chinese Taipei uses non-vaccinated pigs as sentinel animals on every farm. During the routine active surveillance in the livestock market, a pig was found NSP antibody positive. The prefecture animal disease control competent authority traced back to the original farm. The result of clinical investigation showed that all pigs on farm were healthy. Samples for serological tests and virus isolation were collected and sent to the National Laboratory. The laboratory confirmed positive results for NSP and negative for virus isolation. A total of 57 farms within 3-km-radius of the index farm have been under vigilant monitoring and no clinical or serological evidence of infection has been found.

The OIE has informed about the presence of foot-and-mouth virus serotype A in Guangxi and Guizhou provinces.

The Department of Agriculture is to launch a new salmonella scheme in a bid to tackle worrying levels of the disease in the national pig herd. The EU average for salmonella taken from lymph node samples is 10.3pc. However, the figure for Ireland stands at between 15 and 20pc. Ireland tops the table when it comes to carcass contamination at slaughter, which stands at 20pc. The EU average is 8.3pc.

A pig health improvement scheme is being rolled out in Yorkshire ahead of other regions after the county's pig farmers joined forces with Yorkshire Forward to tackle disease and welfare issues. It will include the mapping of all pig units in Yorkshire and Humberside and an attempt to determine their health status as well as looking at how disease enters the country and spreads.