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U.S. swine health experts watch Australian outbreak closely

U.S. researchers are closely watching a swine disease that has impacted the Australian pork industry. 

Dr. Megan Niederwerder with the Swine Health Information Center says, “It’s a virus that we do not have in the United States but we are aware of the virus.” She tells Brownfield that Japanese encephalitis has cost between six and ten percent in production losses in Australia. “It causes reproductive losses in sows, thinking about mummified fetuses, increased stillbirth, increased abortions, weak neonatal piglets that may have congenital tremors, so this virus is really a reproductive outcome disease.”

Niederwerder says the Swine Health Information Center is focused on helping producers keep this disease out of the U.S. “It is a mosquito-borne disease so we are really starting to look at research priorities and how do we answer the questions to provide the most value for prevention of that disease entry into the U.S. herd.” She says producers need to continue using good biosecurity measures to prevent this or another disease from infecting their animals.

Niederwerder says the virus has impacted herd numbers, but it has not affected Australia’s ability to export pork.