Pork Producers Advised to Examine Biosecurity Heading into the Colder Fall and Winter Months

The Associate Director of the Swine Health Information Center suggests now is an appropriate time to be assessing on farm biosecurity. As part of its September eNewsletter the Swine Health Information Center has released its monthly global and domestic swine disease monitoring reports. SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says now is a good time to be assessing biosecurity.

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

For this month PRRS case positivity was below 20 percent and this is expected for summer months. However, activity in both Iowa and Minnesota was above expected levels.PED case positivity also remains low however there was a significant increase in the wean to harvest or wean to market sector of the industry raising concerns about biosecurity breaches potentially in that area.

Influenza virus was below expected levels and then for tissue diagnosis and case diagnosis there was an increase in Sapovirus identified. Now is the time to assess the different cleanliness in and around the farms because we know a lot of our viruses do have stability and can transmit quite well in cooler and wetter weather and so it really is important to asses that.

As well, we're starting to come into the time for manure spreading and manure application and, again, it's very important to assess biosecurity when running these different operations because the process of manure application can also spread pathogens of concern. So, focus on everyday biosecurity is really important.

The Swine Health Information Center's global and domestic swine disease monitoring reports can be accessed through SHIC's September eNewsletter at swinehealth.org.