Dr. Jette Christensen, manager of the Canada West Swine Health Intelligence Network blames last fall’s flooding in British Columbia for a spike in the number of cases of injury welfare syndrome reported during the fourth quarter of 2021. 
The CWSHIN released its swine disease surveillance report for the fourth quarter of 2021, and people in the quarterly conference call reported the effect of last fall’s flooding. Much worse for hog producer farms in BC than reported in the news resulting in increased reports of injury and poor animal welfare. 
Injury-welfare syndrome ranked fifth. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s usually ranked the eighth most frequent, so it jumped up. That was in connection with the comment made in BC that injury welfare was a huge problem since the flooding in November. 
The situation on the farms was dire with animals in water which increased lameness, prolapses, back injuries, lack of feed for periods and excessive feed when they got it. Poor feed quality was also an issue contributing to injuries and poor welfare on those farms.  
Dr. Christensen also encouraged Canadian pork producers to request African Swine Fever rule out testing when they see possible symptoms of the infection. 
CanSpotASF, part of Canada’s ASF surveillance, allows veterinarians to direct cases where symptoms are similar to ASF for follow-up testing. Participants identified and discussed several eligible conditions in the region during the fourth quarter. The region is still doing good. 
“We have tested 86 percent of the eligible cases at the pathology laboratories in the region testing 27 percent of all pathology cases no matter what their diagnosis. So, yes, all tests for African Swine Fever were negative.” 

Dr. Christensen said a note for producers and practitioners that they briefly discussed diseases like sow mortality, torsions, and erysipelas. They are all conditions that are eligible for ASF rule out testing, so that means that these diseases could mask the very early occurrence of ASF should it enter a herd. 
“That’s why we want to have as many of these cases tested for ASF as a rule-out diagnosis to be sure that we detect ASF as soon as possible should it ever come into Canada.” 
Dr. Christensen said the encouragement is for producers to ask their practitioners to request ASF rule out testing if they see any diseases. That would help the pathologists at the laboratories make sure they get all of the cases tested that could be eligible. 
The first results from a Strep suis project launched last April should be ready within one to two months.  
There is an increase in systemic syndrome caused by septicemia typically linked to Strep suis. There was a shift in the number of cases between 2018 and 2019. 
“Because it showed up quarter after quarter, I investigated it more thoroughly and the recommendation going forward is to only look at cases from 2019 and forward. That would give a more accurate and better tool for detecting changes in Strep suis and septicemia and also in the systemic syndrome.” 
Because Strep suis is such a frequent organism and causes these problems, they started a Strep suis project in April of last year using herd surveys for the first 64 farms. 
“We no longer call practitioners to get these herd surveys but occasionally we might select new isolates, a new case of strep suis for sequencing and antimicrobial resistance testing.” 
Dr. Christensen said helpful data from that project should be available within the next month or two. 
People can access the entire fourth quarter 2021 report at the Canada West Swine Health Intelligence Network website at CWSIN.ca •
— By Harry Siemens