The Swine Health Information Center advised pork producers to focus on biosecurity in response to higher-than-expected Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea and Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome in certain states. 
SHIC released its monthly domestic and global swine disease surveillance reports in its April newsletter. 
Associate Director Dr. Megan Niederwerder said PED virus levels have been higher than expected in Nebraska, Oklahoma and Iowa since the beginning of the year.  
“We’re hopeful as the weather warms the cases of PEDv will drop over the next month. But, unfortunately, the PRRS virus cases also increased in Missouri, Nebraska, Illinois and Indiana.” 
One of the exciting things highlighted in the SHIC report is that the diagnostic labs tested almost 40 thousand cases of gastrointestinal diseases. A promising sign is the various coronaviruses, the TGE virus, and all 40 thousand cases tested negative over the last 12 months.  
“When we see increases above what we would expect of any diseases, we have to go back to biosecurity procedures and protocols to reduce the risk of transmission from farm to farm.” 
The Swine Health Information Center also encouraged pork producers to question their feed suppliers about biosecurity protocols and sources of feed ingredients. 
As part of research conducted by Kansas State University on behalf of SWIC two feed mills and three breed-to-wean facilities diagnosed with Porcine delta coronavirus, or PDCoV, were investigated for possible connections. 
SHIC executive director Dr. Paul Sundberg said when common feed mills are part of an outbreak, it presents an opportunity to look at their possible role. So researchers looked at what transpired on the farms and the feed mills supplying those farms.  
“There wasn’t any evidence that the feed mills were directly involved in spreading PDCoV to different farms. And researchers found no evidence through the supply chain indicating that feed or feed delivery was associated with those outbreaks and that’s a good thing.” 
Sometimes researchers want to find a result, but the findings were negative in this case. Therefore, no implication for the feed supply chain in these farms. 
Other things may occur on these farms that cause them to break simultaneously. Still, researchers wanted to make sure that feed was or was not implicated and was or not ruled out as a source for PDCoV on these farms. 
Dr. Sundberg said producers must ask questions because the feed has transmitted foreign animal diseases and suggested asking about how the feed mills monitor for pathogens. And whether they are sourcing supplies from regions where a foreign animal disease is present and, if so, if they can source those supplies from somewhere else. 
Dr. Niederwerder said that the number of diagnostic labs and pathogens has increased since this reporting system started.  
“We added Influenza A to our detection system giving us real-time data on the Influenza A detection in the U.S. swineherd with additional funding to add Influenza A. We’re always looking for the priorities for the industry to make sure that we are covering the pathogens of interest in these disease monitoring reports,” she added.  
Influenza A is one of the three major causes of respiratory disease in U.S. swine and that also includes Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae and PRRS virus. Therefore, from the advisory group’s perspective, adding the Influenza A virus is a crucial component of broadening and increasing the number of disease agents as part of the report. 
The next step is to standardize the data across the different diagnostic labs. Then, finally, to enable reporting as aggregate data to give producers and veterinarians an idea of the general diagnostics and detection for Influenza A across U.S. swine. •
— By Harry Siemens