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FMD threat in contaminated feed

Researchers are simulating feed contamination to better understand Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) threats to the U.S. livestock industry.

 

Scott Dee with sow management company Pipestone System—based in southwest Minnesota—says foreign disease vulnerabilities stemming from feed contaminants were exposed during the PEDv outbreak.

“If contaminated feed is consumed by naive pigs they can get infected, (which) we demonstrated.  Then we developed a model that showed if the ingredient is right, the virus can live in a simulation from Beijing to Des Moines.”

While PEDv cases have diminished significantly, Dee tells Brownfield more testing shows Foot and Mouth Disease could enter the U.S. through contaminated feed as well.

“We used Seneca virus, (which) causes blisters and is in the same family as FMD.  We used that as a surrogate for our FMD virus because we can’t work with (FMD) obviously.  But (Seneca virus) is very stable and lives very well in feed and was shown in our model to survive Chinese, U.S. shipment.”

The National Pork Producers Council is asking Congress to authorize $150 million annually for an FMD vaccine bank in the next Farm Bill.

Brownfield interviewed Dee at Minnesota Pork Congress in Minneapolis Tuesday.