A swine virus that acts a lot like Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) is spreading across the country.
Dr. Paul Sundberg, executive director of the Swine Health Information Center, reports, "Seneca Valley virus is in the family of picornavirus, and that's the same family that Foot-and-Mouth disease is in. So the signs of Seneca Valley are going to look exactly like what you would see if you had FMD."
He tells Brownfield Seneca Valley was first identified in the U.S. in 1988, but there has been a noticeable increase in infection over the summer.
Sundberg says the virus seems to be associated with pigs under stress.
"We've had it in farrowing barns as sows farrow. We've had it in 4-H pigs that are transported. Transportation seems to be enough of a stresser to make it kick in. We really don't know yet though exactly what the interplay of the virus is."
The virus has been found in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and other parts of the Midwest as well as Georgia and North Carolina in the southeast.
Sundberg says symptoms include inflammation around the top of the toenail and blisters forming on the snout. Mortality is possible with piglets.
"It might cause scours in small pigs, especially one to three days old. There can be some fairly high mortality that's associated with (Seneca Valley virus). At the same time you see the symptoms in the sows."
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