More in Health

A team of researchers at Iowa State University (ISU) has received a $3 million grant to study genetic resistance to the costliest disease threatening the pork industry and transfer this technology to the industry. The researchers, led by Jack Dekkers, an ISU professor of animal science, will seek to identify genes in pigs that make them less susceptible to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), a viral disease that costs U.S. pork producers about $664 million a year....More

  On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unveiled two new proposed food safety rules, one aimed at food makers and the other at the produce industry, that are part of implementing the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), according to the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy, University of Minnesota. The FDA posted the rules Friday in the Federal Register and asked for public comments by May 16, which it will take into account before issuing final rules....More

Rotaviruses (RVs), a major cause of diarrhea in young animals and humans, are classified in eight groups (A-H) based on classifications of the inner viral capsid protein 6....More

Calling it vital to the U.S. pork industry’s ability to more quickly control and eradicate foreign animal diseases and keep export markets open, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) today praised the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for issuing a final rule to implement a national animal identification system....More

Antibiotic use in animal agriculture and headlines about antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” are a common theme in popular media, among activist groups, some legislators, regulatory agencies and perhaps the general public....More

A study at the University of Minnesota compared the PRRS outbreak history of 20 filtered and 17 control (non-filtered) sow farms. Data was collected from October 2004 to June 2011. The information encompassed 120,000 sows from high-density regions in the Midwest....More

In the largest field study of its kind, a team of University of Minnesota researchers evaluated the impact of immunization in herd closure strategies on eliminating porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus from breeding herds....More

Brachyspira, the organism responsible for swine dysentery infections, is controlled at low concentrations of tiamulin and carbadox, according to a study at Iowa State University. Control by lincomycin was observed at much higher levels. Not all Brachyspira are equally susceptible to antimicrobials commonly used to treat swine dysentery....More

An Iowa State University researcher has identified genes that may one day enable pork producers to select pigs with reduced shedding and/or susceptibility to salmonella infection. Genetic markers can be used to select animals that shed fewer salmonella organisms and are less likely to cause contamination across pens and in the holding pens at the slaughter facility....More

Most of the infectious causes of diarrhea in pigs are commonly present in herds but only occasionally expressed. These “endemic” diseases include rotaviruses, E. coli, Isospora (coccidiosis), salmonella and Lawsonia intracellularis (ileitis)....More

  Consumers Union, an advocacy group, this week published an article – in its magazine Consumer Reports – designed to scare consumers into purchasing only organic pork by using junk science against pork from conventionally raised hogs....More