As part of its mission to fund research with direct application to the profession, the American Association of Swine Veterinarians Foundation awarded more than $100,000 in funding for research. Ross Kiehne, chair of the AASV Foundation, announced the selection of four research proposals for funding during the AASV Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. The foundation granted funds to support efforts by principal researchers from the University of Minnesota and Iowa State University.

University of Minnesota researcher Cesar Corzo and coinvestigators, including graduate student Marcello Melini, were awarded $29,827 to fund the proposal, “Advancing biocontainment strategies through advanced viability qPCR for PRRSv environmental contamination assessment.” The project will focus on understanding whether environmentally detected PRRSv in pig barns remains viable. In addition, investigators plan to assess whether frequently touched surfaces by personnel contain viable virus particles which can represent a risk for dissemination to other farms.

The foundation granted $22,442.50 to Daniel Linhares and coinvestigators from Iowa State University to fund the proposal, “Assessing the effect of pooling commonly used samples on the probability of Influenza A virus sequencing and virus isolation.” The objective of the project is to compare the success of sequencing and virus isolation by using different cycle threshold levels from pooled sample types for influenza A virus in swine.

Ana Paula Poeta Silva and coinvestigators from Iowa State University received $30,000 to fund the proposal, “Improving extraction and PCR protocols to enhance Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (MHP) DNA detection in oral fluid samples in field conditions.” The goal of this study is to compare the diagnostic performance of six MHP detection protocols for MHP DNA detection in field oral fluid samples.

The foundation partially funded Giovani Trevisan and Iowa State University coinvestigators’ proposal, “Further characterization of PRRSv diversity and other pathogens in Live Virus Inoculation (LVI) material used in breeding herd stabilization programs,” at $18,000. The study aims to characterize the genetic diversity of PRRSv and the potential presence of other pathogens of interest in LVI samples used in swine production.

Investigators will share results at various swine meetings and in peer-reviewed publications.

Brett O’Brien chaired the scientific subcommittee responsible for reviewing and scoring the 16 proposals received for consideration, and she joins the AASV Foundation in thanking Eva Jablonski, Christine Mainquist-Whigham, Tom Petznick, Rebecca Robbins and Todd Williams for their participation on this important subcommittee.

An overview of past and current projects funded by the AASV Foundation is available here. The foundation will issue its next call for research proposals in fall 2024.