During the AASV Annual Meeting, 29 veterinary students interviewed conference speakers to gainadditional information about their presentation topic. The next of these MP3 audio interviews is now available to members on the AASV website at https://www.aasv.org/podcast/. Student member Elizabeth G Noblett interviewed Dr. Katie Woodard who presented “Serum and mammary secretion antibody responses in PEDV-exposed gilts following PEDV vaccination” in the “Research Topics” Session. This podcast explores the use of the PEDV vaccines in both naive and endemic herds and Dr. Woodard’s thoughts for vaccination implementation and effectiveness. The podcast also touches on the presence of PEDV within the industry and its potential future effects, as well as biosecurity issues that could affect the industry in the future.
Monthly Archives: May 2017
Environmental Persistence of Porcine Coronaviruses in Feed and Feed Ingredients
Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV), Porcine Delta Corona Virus (PDCoV), and Transmissible Gastroenteritis Virus (TGEV) are major threats to swine health and contaminated feed plays a role in virus transmission. The objective of our study was to characterize inactivation of PEDV, PDCoV, and TGEV in various feed ingredient matrices. Samples of complete feed, spray dried porcine plasma, meat meal, meat and bone meal, blood meal, corn, soybean meal, and corn dried distillers grains with solubles were weighed (5 g/sample) into scintillation vials and inoculated with 1 mL of PEDV, PDCoV, or TGEV. Samples were incubated at room temperature for up to 56 days. Aliquots were removed at various time points followed by preparing serial 10-fold dilutions and inoculating in cell cultures to determine the amount of surviving virus. Inactivation kinetics were determined using the Weibull model, which estimates a delta value indicating the time necessary to reduce virus concentration by 1 log. Delta values of various ingredients were compared and analyzed as to their nutrient composition. Soybean meal had the greatest delta value (7.50 days) for PEDV (P < 0.06) as compared with all other ingredients. High delta values (P < 0.001) were observed in soybean meal for PDCoV (42.04 days) and TGEV (42.00 days). There was a moderate correlation between moisture content and the delta value for PDCoV (r = 0.49, P = 0.01) and TGEV (r = 0.41, P = 0.02). There was also a moderate negative correlation between TGEV survival and ether extract content (r = -0.51, P = 0.01). In conclusion, these results indicate that the first log reduction of PDCoV and TGEV takes the greatest amount of time in soybean meal. In addition to this, moisture and ether content appear to be an important determinant of virus survival in feed ingredients. Trudeau MP1, Verma H2, Sampedro F2, Urriola PE1,2, Shurson GC1, Goyal SM2; Environmental Persistence of Porcine Coronaviruses in Feed and Feed Ingredients; PLoS One. 2017 May 24;12(5):e0178094. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178094. eCollection 2017. PMID: 28542235 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178094 Free full text
Evaluation of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Stabilization Protocols in 23 French Farrow-to-Finish Farms Located in a High-Density Swine Area
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is responsible for reproductive disorders in sows and respiratory problems in pigs, and has a major economic impact. Controlling PRRSV is therefore a priority for the swine industry. Stabilization of a herd, defined as the production of PRRSV-negative pigs at weaning from seropositive sows, is a common method of control, and different protocols have been described in the literature to achieve this stabilization.
Minnesota Veterinary Student Earns 2017 Zinpro/Schugel Scholarship
Zinpro Corporation recently awarded its 2017 Zinpro/Schugel Scholarship to Hunter Baldry, a fourth-year student at the University of Minnesota, College of Veterinary Medicine, who hails from Maple Plain, Minnesota. Baldry, plans to work as a swine veterinarian, with a focus on infectious disease eradication. [Source: Zinpro Press release, May 25, 2017]
Improving Animal Health Data Collection through the OIE’s Renovated System WAHIS+
WAHIS, the OIE’s World Animal Health Information System is being renovated to meet new sanitary challenges and to be prepared to future demands. The new tool WAHIS+ will be complete with new technological features in order to improve the collection and dissemination of data on animal diseases. [Source: OIE Press Release, May 25, 2017]
Major Victories for Veterinary Priorities in New Spending Bill
If you’ve been following politics lately, you’ve probably heard that Congress is facing ongoing challenges in reaching agreements on spending levels. Lawmakers must navigate a limited budget and many competing priorities for funding, which means they need to make hard decisions and many important programs are at risk for cuts. That’s why the AVMA works hard every year to protect and increase funding for programs related to veterinary priorities. [Source: AVMA@Work, May 8, 2017]
PACCARB Seeking Nominations
The Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (Advisory Council) provides advice, information, and recommendations to the Secretary regarding programs and policies intended to support and evaluate the implementation of U.S. government activities related to combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The membership consists of 15 voting members, including the Chair and Vice Chair, and 15 non-voting members: five liaison representative members and ten federal ex-officio members. [Source: US Department of Health and Human Services]
Canadian Association of Swine Applauds New Rules Governing Antimicrobial Use in Livestock Production
The Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians is applauding new rules governing the use of antimicrobials in livestock production. To help reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance the Government of Canada has unveiled new rules for veterinary drugs. Dr. Blaine Tully, the President of the Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians and a partner with Swine Health Professionals in Steinbach, says all medically important antimicrobials used in veterinary medicine will become prescription only and regulations governing imported active pharmaceutical ingredients and products imported for own use on farms have been tightened. [Source: Farmscape.ca, May 30, 2017, By Bruce Cochrane]
Doc Tales
With the AASV salary survey currently underway, I thought some comments from an employee and employer perspective might be apropos this week. An employee, who asked to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, recently commented: “I wouldn’t work for anyone that would actually hire me.” In a similar vein, employers Tom Burkgren and Paul Sundberg have often been overheard lamenting that, “They sure didn’t interview that way!” when referring to a couple of desperation hires that shall remain unnamed.
A Novel Porcine Kobuvirus Emerged in Piglets with Severe Diarrhoea in China
Since the first report of porcine kobuvirus (PKV) in 2008, it has been confirmed that PKV is widely present in several countries and plays an important role in diarrhoea outbreak in pigs. Studies have shown that the biggest difference among PKVs is the presence or absence of a specific 30-amino acid (aa) sequence in the 2B region of the polyprotein gene. Based on this unique feature, most PKV sequences could be divided into two groups (Group 1 without deletion and Group 2 with deletion), but a few sequences did not follow this rule due to possible recombination. In this study, two PKV genome sequences, designated JXAT2015 (8,123 nucleotide) and JXJC2015 (8,120 nucleotide), were identified on two different commercial swine farms with the severe diarrhoea outbreak accompanying with highly PKV infection (90%, 18/20) and moderate infection (40%, 8/20) of porcine bocavirus 1 (PBoV1) in Jiangxi province of China. Sequence analysis based on the polyprotein gene showed that they shared low nucleotide similarity (86.3%-88.1%) with other known PKVs. Although both possessed the 30-aa deletion in the 2B region, phylogenetic analysis showed that JXJC2015 was distinct from Group 1 and even Group 2, and formed a new Group (designated Group 3). The findings of this study further revealed genetic diversity and the possible pathogenic role of PKV in conjunction with other pathogens in piglets. Zhai SL, Zhang H, Lin T, Chen SN, Zhou X, Chen QL, Lv DH, Wen XH, Zhou XR, Jia CL, Wei WK. A Novel Porcine Kobuvirus Emerged in Piglets with Severe Diarrhoea in China. Transbound Emerg Dis. 2017 May 11. doi: 10.1111/tbed.12663. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 28497552 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher] DOI: 10.1111/tbed.12663