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Swine industry reaches milestone Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Agri News staff writer
Minnesota's swine industry has reached a milestone -- pseudorabies has been eradicated.
The contagious disease that forced the cancellation of hog shows and disrupted the hog industry has been eliminated from the nation's domestic swine herd. Four states: Iowa, Pennsylvania, Florida and Texas; are stage 4.
Minnesota has reached stage five status, meaning the state hasn't had a case of pseudorabies for a year.
The last case was in Mower County in October 2002. In 1992, 903 swine herds were quarantined.
The Minnesota Board of Animal Health started working to control the disease in the 1970s, said Paul Anderson, a veterinarian and assistant director of the state Board of Animal Health. The federal government got involved in 1989.
The disease causes lower rates of gain in hogs and kills piglets. It's fatal for cattle, sheep, cats and dogs.
Minnesota's last big outbreak was spring 1999, when 312 farms were newly infected.
Minnesota continues to monitor its swine herd for pseudorabies through slaughter surveillance, Anderson said. About 80,000 hogs are tested annually.
Bob Peters, a retired veterinarian from Harmony, remembers when he was 1,500 sows behind in blood testing. He did all the blood testing for clients.
"The people were really good about it . . . most of them," Peters said.
The disease forced most feeder pig producers to quit, especially his Amish clients. No one wanted to finish pseudorabies-positive pigs, he said.
He tested his purebred breeders' hogs heavily, some as often as once a month. Others tested every three months.
At first it was tough to control the disease because state officials weren't knowledgeable about pseudorabies, Peters said. It was only mentioned in his swine disease course. The instructor said it was something the aspiring veterinarians would probably never see.
Technology was critical in eradicating pseudorabies, Peters said. At first, a blood test couldn't differentiate between a hog that had been vaccinated for pseudorabies and one that had the disease.
Welcome pork producer Jim Lewis agrees being able to differentiate boosted the eradication effort.
Lewis served on the state pseudorabies advisory committee and the National Pork Board's swine health committee during the pseudorabies epidemic.
Pseudorabies resulted in testing requirements and travel restrictions for hogs. Purebred producers were hard hit if they came down with the disease because they couldn't sell their hogs for the premium they needed to recoup the extra investment they had in genetics, Lewis said.
He still vaccinates his sows for pseudorabies, but said he'll likely quit soon since the disease has been eradicated.
Producers deserve credit for the incredible amount of work they did to eliminate the disease, Anderson said.
Free-roaming swine in the southeastern United States remain infected with pseudorabies and brucellosis, Anderson said, making it a priority to keep them from crossing with domestic swine. |
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