Swine Health Information Center Investigates Seneca Valley Virus

By Bruce Cochrane

The executive director of the U.S. based Swine Health Information Center is investigating the identification of Seneca Valley Virus and Seneca Valley Virus infection that were found in the U.S. this summer.

Although Seneca Valley Virus in swine is not considered to be a production limiting infection, the resemblance of its symptoms to Foot-and-mouth disease is cause for vigilance.

Dr. Paul Sundberg, the executive director of the Swine Health Information Center, notes Seneca Valley Virus has been identified in South America, Australia, New Zeeland and Europe and there have been regional infections identified in the U.S. this summer.

Dr. Paul Sundberg-Swine Health Information Center:
For the most part Seneca Valley Virus is not a severe production disease.

It can cause vesicles on the mouth and snout and cause vesicles on the coronary bands of the feet of pigs.

It also have been found in cattle and other animals and so it's not specifically a pig disease but we're certainly concerned about it.
Those vesicles and those lesions will look like Foot-and-mouth disease, so each one of those instances needs to have a foreign animal disease investigations done and done very quickly to ensure that we don't have an incursion of Foot-and-mouth disease.

So any time that a producer sees a blister on the nose or mouth or on the feet of their pigs they should involve their veterinarian right away so that can be tested out, checked out and make sure it's not Foot-and-mouth disease.

Dr. Sundberg says the Swine Health Information Center will be funding research aimed at identifying any changes in the Seneca Valley Virus or its pathogenicity, and developing improved diagnostic tools to make the differentiation of it from FMD quicker and more accurate and to learn more about its distribution in the U.S.

Source: Farmscape