The Colorado Swine Health Committee held a special meeting last week the Brush Fairgrounds to discuss the most common diseases that threaten local pig populations, and how farmers can avoid them. The meeting was hosted by the Colorado Department of Agriculture and featured Keith Roehr, the state veterinarian, along with several other swine health experts. More than 60 people attended the meeting to discuss ways to keep pork farms free of PRRS, PEDV and other common swine diseases.
Marlin Eisenach, livestock agent for the Morgan County extension office, helped coordinate the meeting. It featured talks from Ian Mackay of Seaboard Foods, Steve Tousignant of Swine Vet Center in Minnesota and Paul Thomas of Audobon-Manning Vet Clinic in Iowa.
"The biggest take-away [from the meeting] was the importance of biosecurity," Eisenach said. "Swine are susceptible to disease so much more than cows or other animals."
The most serious and widespread diseases currently affecting Colorado herds include Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus, Swine Enteric Corona Disease and Seneca Valley Virus (SVV). Eisenach said the diarrhea virus has been particularly devastating for Colorado farmers this year.
Although these diseases are treatable, they're difficult to contain once they've been introduced to a herd, so Eisenach and the speakers at the meeting advised farmers to be careful when accepting new shipments of pigs.
"Farmers need to make sure if they're being transferred, that the truck has been cleaned and washed," Eisenach said. "Especially with the viral diseases. A producer can carry the virus on his shoes and go into a 7/11 and get a cup of coffee, and another producer comes in, and the virus gets transferred that way."
Big pork operations are particularly vulnerable to epidemics, but all five of the diseases discussed at the meeting have recently appeared in the smaller farms of Morgan County. Even the best biosecurity measures don't guarantee that the hogs won't get sick.
But the speakers at the meeting, as well as Eisenach, assured farmers they could greatly reduce their risk of infection by screening new shipments and making sure their herds don't come into contact with other pigs.
To learn more about swine health and upcoming pork-related events, go to www.copork.org.