Swine Disease Update Provided in Domestic Disease Monitoring Report

The second Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) domestic disease monitoring report includes veterinary diagnostic laboratory (VDL) information about porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), and porcine enteric coronavirus (PEDV) testing, documents an increased porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) detection, as well as news on an increase in central nervous system (CNS) tissue submission.

This VDL collaborative project is aided by an advisory group to help give context to the data and interpret it. The goal is to aggregate swine diagnostic data from participating reporting VDLs then present it in an intuitive format via shared reports and web dashboards. The current report uses Iowa State University VDL information to refine the template with plans to add additional VDLs as soon as possible.

Per the report, sequences requested for PRRSV in the first three months of 2018 were up 16% over the same time period in 2017, suggesting increased interest in better characterizing viruses during outbreaks. Data further show a significant increase in percentage of cases testing positive for PRRSV by rPT-PCR, which may be an indication of increased PRRSV activity this winter.

Similarly, the report reflects PEDV information consistent with ongoing, expected incidence of positive testing and anecdotal data on an increase in PDCoV detection. The advisory group’s perception is that the PDCoV increase may be related to clinical disease in suckling pigs, as well as non-clinical, incidental, PDCoV detection in finishing-age pigs.

Information on the incidence of CNS pathogens are based on their identification in tissues from clinical CNS cases. Data show a significant increase in submission of tissues related to clinical CNS signs, again consistent with reports from the field on increased CNS cases.

SHIC’s domestic disease monitoring report describes dynamics of disease detection by pathogen over time, specimen, age group, and geographical space. These reports, as well as SHIC’s global disease monitoring reports, are posted on the SHIC website: www.swinehealth.org and accessible from the homepage navigation menu under Disease Monitoring.