SHIC/AASV Webinar Recap: Mitigation Strategies for Mosquitos as an Emerging Threat to Swine Health

Sep 16, 2024

The Swine Health Information Center, in collaboration with the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, hosted a webinar on mosquitos and their impact on swine health and production August 26, 2024. Goals of the webinar were to understand the role of mosquitos as a vector for disease transmission and to take actions to control mosquito populations near swine farms. The webinar featured four subject matter experts sharing insights on entomology and mosquito life cycles, experience on managing mosquitos in and around swine farms, and best control practices to reduce the impact of insect bites on pork production.

Presenters offering their expertise included Dr. Dustin Swanson, USDA-ARS, Dr. Bernie Gleeson, SunPork (Australia), Dr. Natalee Judson, Pipestone, and Dr. Chris Rademacher, Iowa State University. Because of this year’s widespread unusual rainfall during spring and summer, ideal conditions exist for explosive mosquito population growth. Mosquitos can transmit many pathogens and pose a risk to swine health and production.

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Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.