University of Minnesota Research Shed Light on Senecavirus A Incidence in U.S. Swine Herds

Research conducted by the University of Minnesota has shed new light on the incidence of Senecavirus A in U.S. Swine Herds.As part of a Swine Health Information Center funded study researchers with the Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project evaluated over 36 thousand samples submitted to different diagnostic labs from January 2015 to December 2024 to characterise what the Senecavirus A  burden looks like.

SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says the team looked at PCR results for  Senecavirus A, the types of samples submitted and the locations of premises that submitted samples.

Quote-Dr. Lisa Becton-Swine Health Information Center:

What they found is that the cumulative incidence across the ten years was roughly 2.5 precent, so not a huge incidence but it's still a presence in the sow herd.The other thing noted was a seasonality to when cases were detected with peak detections occurring between the months of July and December.
Last lastly there also appeared to be a regional impact of the diagnoses or the case findings with the Midwest being more predominantly reflected in cases that were positive.

This information is helpful because it can help inform response and preparedness strategies, not only for SVA but potentially for Foot and Mouth disease Viruses as well.So, it's important to understand where the virus is, how widespread it is and also to understand if there's things that can be done in different seasons, how can differently control measures such as biosecurity be employed to help reduce transmission.All of these things are very important to be able to understand the epidemiology and transmission risks of this particular virus.

Dr. Becton notes the only way to differentiate between Senecavirus A and foot-and-mouth virus is through a foreign animal disease investigation and diagnosis at a veterinary diagnostic lab so it's very important for producers to action if they do identify lesions in their herds.Full results of this study can be accessed through SHIC's August eNewsletter at swinehealth.org.