Farmscape for December 23, 2022
| Full Interview 9:40 | Listen  |
North American pork producers are being encouraged to consider adding insect control to their biosecurity programs to mitigate losses from insect bites and to reduce the risk of spreading diseases, such as Japanese Encephalitis. The Swine Health Information Center’s December eNewsletter discusses Japanese Encephalitis Virus in Australia and recaps information shared during an October Japanese Encephalitis seminar.
SHIC Executive Director Dr. Paul Sundberg notes a new genotype of Japanese Encephalitis identified in Australia has resulted in production losses of six to ten percent and over 40 infections in humans including seven deaths so it’s important to take action to keep it out of North American and to be prepared if it does get here.
Clip-Dr. Paul Sundberg-Swine Health Information Center:
Every year in my career, just about every year during the late summer especially there were reports from packers that contacted the National Pork Board and said that we’re getting a lot of skin lesions from biting flies and from mosquitoes and we have to let people know that we’re getting those and that decreases the value of the hide, it decreases the value of the pigs and we’re asking producers to do something about that. It’s a similar thing with JEV. If there are no mosquitoes around, there is a very low transmission opportunity. I know we’re going into the winter season but, especially as we come out of winter and we get more rain and more humidity and more mosquitoes, mosquito control is absolutely important in this and it’s something that pork producers may not usually look at, may not usually think about. But that’s something to add to their biosecurity list to try to figure out how they can best help to control mosquitoes around their farm because that’s how JEV is going to be transmitted.
Information on Japanese Encephalitis as well as links to the October JEV seminar can be accessed through the Swine Health Information Center web site at swinehealth.org.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca. Bruce Cochrane.
*Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers
