October 17, 2013

Chile reports blue ear disease outbreak

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) received an immediate notification from the Chilean veterinary authorities on an outbreak of blue ear disease at a pig farm in Santiago.

The OIE received the notification on Tuesday (Oct 15). The blue ear disease, also known as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, outbreak was first observed on September 3 and confirmed on October 9 after an antibody detection ELISA test was carried out at the Agrovet laboratory.

Further tests - antibody detection ELISA on October 10, immunohistochemical test (October 11) and real-time reverse transcriptase/polymerase chain reaction (RRT-PCR) (October 15) - were carried out at the Official Laboratory Lo Aguirre and the University of Concepción, where all tests alluded to the fact that the causal agent of the outbreak was the artevirus.

The affected population comprises breeding females and their offspring. Some of the main clinical signs in females were cough, fever, loss of appetite, blue ears, vulvar oedema, abortions, premature births, increase of the number of mummified foetuses and birth of weak offspring. The piglets showed signs of respiratory distress and diarrhoea.

A total of 8,229 pigs showed signs of susceptibility, of which 2,554 cases were reported and a total of 1,651 deaths were recorded. No animals were destroyed and/or slaughtered.

According to the OIE, the outbreak is limited to a compartment which corresponds to the population in a single commercial farm. Until the date of this report, there is no evidence of other outbreaks. The source of the outbreak has not been determined.