February 15, 2008

Lack of uniform farm practices may have triggered China's pig herd ailment

Kansas State University virologist and a team of specialists said that the lack of uniform practices among pig producers may have allowed blue ear disease to flourish in China.

Dick Hesse, Kansas State's director for diagnostic virology, set out for China with his team December last year to assist the country with the technology and techniques to understand and control the disease.

The group recently announced that they are close to identifying the disease complex afflicting the country's pig population.

In 2006, China's pig herd has been devastated by blue ear disease resulting to the deaths of millions of pigs.

Hesse's group traveled to several farms to view the clinical signs and collect samples. After which, the experts said that China's herd appears have a multifactorial disease complex as the majority of the samples contained more than one type of virus.

The team suggested several biosecurity control mechanisms to hinder the spread of disease in China.

Furthermore, the team underscored the need to be vigilant in biosecurity so as to veer away from the risk of new disease agents.