The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) advises stepped up biosecurity as the colder weather hits. SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says colder weather is always more challenging and we’re seeing increased disease pressure.
Unfortunately, we are starting to see increased activity with PRSS. Our case positive rate has increased from September and we’re seeing that in both sectors, in sow and in wean to harvest or grow finish. There are some regional differences of what viruses are being seen with increased activity in Iowa, Indiana, South Dakota and Oklahoma and the L1C strain really is a predominant challenge that we’re seeing in these areas. However, we are seeing an increase in other diseases such as PED and that’s being seen in Iowa, Oklahoma and Missouri and so those infections are also noted.
We see several different challenges. One, we’re coming in on the tail end of manure application season before the ground freezes and we do know that there can be an increased risk of disease transmission through manure application and aerosolization of some pathogens. So, it’s very important to keep that in mind when producers are out there applying manure, especially if they have to apply anywhere near barns. We’re also losing the power of the sun. We know in warmer temperatures a lot of our viruses have a lot shorter survival times and colder weather months do seem to promote more survivability of different viruses such as PED. So, it really is important to ensure, when we’re looking at biosecurity, when we look at washing trailers and even look at washing of hallways and loading chutes to do everything we can to ensure they’re clean and disinfected but also dry because drying will help reduce the survivability of these pathogens on some of these different surfaces.
~ Dr. Lisa Becton, Swine Health Information Center
SHIC’s full swine disease monitoring reports can be accessed at swinehealth.org.
