Biosecurity Key to Preventing Spread of Porcine Circovirus

The Associate Director of the Swine Health Information Center is advising pork producers to step up their focus on biosecurity in the face of porcine circovirus.In February the Swine Health Information Center and American Association of Swine Veterinarians hosted webinar that looked at emerging trends related porcine circovirus, a multisystemic inflammatory viral infection of pigs that is considered to be among the top three disease challenges encountered by veterinarians in the field.

Dr. Lisa Becton, the Associate Director of the Swine Health Information Center, explains there are four main genotypes of porcine circovirus and this webinar was intended to address questions about these pathogens and how the diagnosis and treatment of the four genotypes differ.

Quote-Dr. Lisa Becton-Swine Health Information Center:

PCV diagnosis and interpretation of results isn't quite as easy as some of the other diseases that we face.It's very important to understand the clinical picture that is being seen and the reason for samples being submitted and then compare that to what are the diagnostic results because it really is important to guide what questions are you asking, what are the clinical signs of concern and also are you testing at the right age or stage of growth to be able to answer those questions?

The other impact is looking at is how do coinfections with things like PRRS or Influenza or Mycoplasma, how do they also impact the clinical presentation of PCV.Taking all of those pieces of information together is really important to try to understand what's happening on the herd and where can someone intervene to help improve herd health?

Dr. Becton notes, because circovirus is very hardy and can be transmitted in multiple ways, producers need to maintain their focus on biosecurity.
The porcine circovirus webinar can be accessed through the swinehealth.org web site under podcasts and webinars and there is a direct link in the Swine Health Information Center March eNewsletter.