The 2020-2021 swine health season ended with the fourth-lowest porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus breeding herd cumulative incidence (25.8%) during the last 11 years of monitoring, according to the Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project (MSHMP), funded in part by the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC).
During the most recent year, MSHMP kept a close watch on the emergence and dissemination of the PRRS 1-4-4 L1C variant that caused production losses in the Midwest and changed the seasonality pattern historically observed with PRRS, a major epidemic occurring during spring-summer 2020.
“Exploratory data analysis showed that reporting PRRS outbreaks and manure pumping activities are associated as 40% of the breaks occurred within 30 days of this event regardless of type of manure storage. PEDv continued to be present at a low incidence level as the cumulative incidence remained at 3.5%,” SHIC reports in its latest newsletter.
MSHMP provided outbreak investigation support by comparing PRRSv sequences to the MSHMP database in nine separate occasions as it was requested by six participants throughout the year, the article said.
“Transport data is acquired actively and has been analyzed. Movement data can be obtained at a granular level allowing for traceability but most importantly, allows the producer to follow the truck in real-time. Transport biosecurity compliance continues to become an achievable goal including every single step between the truck-wash, loading of pigs, unloading, and return to truck-wash,” SHIC reports.
Analysis of transport data has revealed that few transport vehicles come in contact with one-third of the farms of the participating production system, indicating an important level of connectivity. It also highlighted the need to monitor vehicle biosecurity protocols towards disease control as trucks in this system will need to go through the truck wash before returning to a farm. Therefore, truck traceability (e.g. contact tracing) is possible with the current system which aids in complementing outbreak investigations, SHIC said.
MSHMP expansion continues at three levels: sow, boar and growing pig populations. According to the SHIC report, an approximate total of 42 boar studs from 13 participants have been added to the database. The growing pig population added seven companies sharing their growing pig locations. Work is being done towards linking sow and growing pig populations in the MSHMP database, too.
MSHMP monitors trends in pathogen incidence and prevalence, including PRRS and the PRRS 1-4-4 L1C variant. MSHMP data analysis evaluated manure pumping activities and PRRS outbreaks as well as helped with outbreak investigations by comparing PRRS virus sequences. The project also facilitates the sharing of health information by tracking multiple diseases, including transport and health relationships, and is growing into adding boar stud and growing pig data to the sow information already gathered.
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