Page 79 of articles about swine-diseases in Swine news

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.

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

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 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.

International experts on Foot-and-Mouth disease (FMD) have agreed on a plan to control the infection in Western Eurasia and stop it spreading west to Europe and North Africa, following a serious epidemic in several Middle Eastern countries.

After the detection of the A/H1N1 virus in pigs in Canada transmitted by a human, FAO has again urged national authorities and farmers to carefully monitor pigs and investigate any possible occurrences of influenza-like symptoms in domestic animals.

The novel A/H1N1 influenza virus has been identified and being very closely related to the human strains based on the genes sequenced so far. Full characterisation is continuing and so is virus isolation in eggs. It is highly probable that the pigs were exposed to the virus from a farm worker who had recently returned from Mexico and had been exhibiting flu-like symptoms.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) indicates that it has found H1N1 flu virus in a swine herd in Alberta. The safety of the food supply is not affected and Canadian pork continues to be safe to eat. While further testing is needed to more fully characterize the virus, the CFIA is taking a precautionary approach. The herd has been placed under quarantine, and the Agency is working with public health colleagues to determine the most appropriate next steps to ensure that public and animal health remain protected. The chance that these pigs could transfer virus to a person is remote.

The Philippines has again failed to receive its FMD-free status with vaccination after the Office Internationale des Epizooties (OIE) turned down its request, said National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc President Albert Lim.

A new outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease has been reported in Hunan province.