The executive director of the U.S. based Swine Health Information Centre is advising pork producers to be on the watch for signs of Seneca Valley Virus.
Seneca Valley Virus is not considered to be a production limiting disease but, because it’s symptoms resemble those of Foot-and-mouth disease, each instance needs to have a foreign animal disease investigation done quickly to ensure we don’t have an incursion of Foot-and-mouth.
Dr. Paul Sundberg, the executive director of the Swine Health Information Center, notes Seneca Valley Virus has been identified regionally this summer in the U.S. so producers need to be aware.
One of the concerns there is that this virus, although it’s not proven to be pathogenic, it’s been associated with vesicles and coronary band lesions that look like Foot-and-mouth disease. Any time that a producer sees a blister on the nose or mouth or on the feet of their pigs to call a veterinarian right away.
Call their vet right away because the real risk here for producers is the risk of complacency and missing something that could be even be more devastating, that would be more devastating than Seneca Valley Virus and that would be FMD.
So one of the risks is complacency and, anytime that a producer sees a blister on an animal, 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.
From that point Seneca Valley Virus has resolved relatively quickly and the infections and the experiences that we’ve had and, within a week or so, usually they’re healed up.
Dr. Sundberg says Seneca Valley is an example of something the Swine Health Information Centre will be very active with in looking at emerging diseases, predicting diseases that may come into the country, monitoring diseases across the globe and being better prepared both diagnostically and for response.
