For the first time ever, Senecavirus A (SVA) has been detected in feed ingredients imported from an endemically infected country that are potentially linked to cases of SVA in pigs from a historically negative national herd.
“This is one of the biggest pieces of news the pork industry has had in regard to disease control in many years,” says Scott Dee, director of research for Pipestone Applied Research, and co-author of a paper published in Transboundary and Emerging Diseases about this real-world proof that links virus transmission in feed to an outbreak of disease in swine.
Although a great amount of laboratory work has proven over and over again that viruses, including SVA, can survive well in feed, researchers have never had a real-world case where they could come to a strong conclusion that a new virus entered a country through feed imports, Dee explains.
“This is a wake-up call big time,” Dee says. “It turned out to be SVA – which isn’t that hard to deal with – but it easily could have been foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or African swine fever (ASF). This country got lucky it was ‘only’ SVA and not one of the real bad boys.”
SVA is a single-stranded, non-enveloped RNA virus that is within the same virus family as FMD. It can cause vesicular lesions in pigs that are visibly indistinguishable to those caused by FMD virus. One of the big differences between SVA and FMD is that once a differential diagnosis of SVA has bee confirmed, the presence of SVA in pig populations does not prohibit the sale or export of pork meat and pork products.
Unexpected Phone Call
About a month ago, Dee was contacted out of the blue by a country requesting a virtual seminar on the risk of virus introduction through feed. After presenting a two-hour seminar, he was asked a day later to speak to the country’s government.
“Well, that was intriguing,” Dee says. “They wanted the same seminar, but to a very different audience, more regulatory in nature.”
Another day passed and he was contacted about an outbreak of SVA in this country. The pork production company suspected imported soybean meal and other ingredients from endemically infected countries that had SVA historically.
The company had imported 40,000 tons of soy from multiple countries, and it was combined in a big pile in their warehouse, Dee explains. They were feeding it and using it in multiple farms. Meanwhile, multiple farms were breaking with vesicular lesions – SVA.
“They were getting suspicious that perhaps the feed importation had brought the virus, not just to their farms, but to their country because this country had never had SVA,” Dee says. “They were a historically negative national herd until now.”
The pork production company performed a diagnostic investigation and discovered SVA virus in the soy. Dee says they were feeding this soy at the time that the pigs broke – a real-world bioassay.
While performing dust and core sampling of the 155 tons of soy left from the original 40,000 tons, they found the virus in that remaining amount. The fact it happened in real time made it even more authentic, Dee says.
Their conclusion was the imported soybean was the vehicle that moved the virus in the country. They also determined the virus was live as well.
A Real-World Risk Factor
“Once I learned this, I thought we have to write this up. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Dee says. “This never happens, where you’re at the right moment at the right time, where you can actually almost get a smoking gun result. All the vets in the country, as well as our team, were convinced of the facts of how the virus got in. It was live, it was getting fed to pigs and it was causing disease.”
For Dee, this validated the lab work that many had done over the past eight years. He also hopes it serves as a wake-up call to everybody in the pork industry around the world that this is not just a laboratory phenomena. It’s a real-world risk factor, he says.
At first, the country’s government was averse to publishing this case, Dee says. They were worried they would lose trade opportunity even though SVA is not a trade-limiting disease. Dee then got approval from the country and pork production company to write up the case with their data but not share where the outbreak occurred. The editor-in-chief of Transboundary and Emerging Diseases agreed to this approach.
“The company got to review it, and they checked off on it. Our team did the same. Hopefully full disclosure will take place later – that’s actually the goal of the pork production company,” Dee adds.
“Currently they’re working towards the elimination of SVA and it’s going well. Everything’s calming down and people aren’t as nervous as they used to be.”
Ultimately, Dee says it doesn’t matter where it happened – it’s the fact that it happened.
Why U.S. Pork Producers Need to Tune In
There are three reasons why this case is important for U.S. pork producers to think about, Dee says.
1. It validates all of the virus transmission in feed research.
“This shows that all that lab work for the last eight years has not been for naught,” he says.
2. It’s a wake-up call for the U.S.
“Right now the U.S. is doing very little about this risk factor of feed importation because we’re still importing feed ingredients from countries that are very high risk. We don’t have a lot of federal support, so the industry is having to do it themselves. If you’re doing something about this for your company or your farm, good for you because this is a real important risk factor,” Dee says.
3. It’s an opportunity for the global pork industry to learn without long-term damage.
“This country is extremely lucky that this was not FMD or ASF – it easily could have been. We’re fortunate to have this type of a lesson without any real long-term damage to the global industry,” he adds.
This real-world case also supports the U.S. Swine Health Improvement Plan (US SHIP) feed biosecurity standard, he says. Dee encourages producers to enroll in US SHIP, participate and try to help that initiative succeed.
“These results should raise awareness throughout global agriculture that feed ingredients can serve as vehicles for the transboundary movement of viral pathogens and support the adoption of Responsible Imports practices to manage this risk,” Dee wrote in the journal article. “Fortunately, this was SVA, and not FMD; however, it might not be the case next time.”
Read More from Farm Journal’s PORK:
One of the Most Important Questions Every Pig Farmer Should Ask
The Role of Feed in Disease Spread: The Risk is Real
5 Ways to Extend Biosecurity into the Feed Supply Chain
How Long Does African Swine Fever Live in Feed?
African Swine Fever Survives in Feed, Now What?
Reduce the Risk of African Swine Fever Virus Transmission in Feed
Lessons Learned From PEDV Could Keep ASF Out of the U.S.
Pathogen Risk in Feed: Research Outlines Roadmap For Future
City Boy and Vet School Reject: How an Unlikely Path Proved Successful for Scott Dee
Why We Need a New Partnership Between Swine Farms and Packing Plants
We Can Always Be More Prepared, Says National Pork Board President
