Research Shows Infectivity of Seneca Valley Virus Remains Well After Symptoms Clear Up

By  Bruce Cochrane.

Research conducted on behalf of the Swine Health Information Centre indicates shedding by infected swine of the agent responsible for Seneca Valley Virus will continue for a considerable period after the infection has cleared up.

In response to a spike in Seneca Valley Virus cases in the U.S. this past summer the Swine Health Information Center initiated research to determine distribution of the virus, identify pathogenicity and reasons for transmission, determine probable shedding times and immunity levels and assess the effectiveness of disinfectants.
Swine Health Information Center executive director Dr. Paul Sundberg say interim results are coming in and have been posted to the swinehealth.org web site.

Dr. Paul Sundberg-Swine Health Information Center:
We know that the virus is at least detected in shedding for quite awhile after an infection.
It looks like it may be 45 days or longer that shedding continues after infection.

That is based on detecting antigen.
It's not necessarily based on virus isolation so we have to have some caution there in that the antigen may be detected for quite awhile after infection while it may not be viable.
We don't know that yet but it looks like shedding is fairly extended.
The shedding time is fairly extended.
The usual disinfectants that we use in biosecurity practices look to be effective against this virus.
That's a good thing.

We know that the virus is distributed across the country.
That's an important aspect in trying to figure out how to manage this as a country and as an industry.
We've got those kinds of research results that are up on the web site even now.

Dr. Sundberg stresses the need to report any signs of Seneca Valley Virus to your state or federal animal health official to trigger an investigation because these symptoms look like foot and mouth disease and we don't want to assume Seneca Valley Virus and miss a foot and mouth outbreak.

Source: Farmscape