SenecaVirus Enters U.S. through Feed Ingredients

For the first known time in U.S. history, Senecavirus A (SVA) has been detected in pig feed ingredients imported from an infected country. The virus is potentially linked to cases of SVA in pigs from a historically negative national herd.

The news marks an alarm for the industry, even though a great amount of laboratory work has proven over and over again that viruses, including SVA, can survive in feed ingredients. According to an applied research scientist, SVA isn’t hard to deal with, but the breach in biosecurity could have just as easily been foot-and-mouth disease or even African swine fever.

There are three reasons pork producers need to pay attention to this case:

1. It validates all of the virus transmission in feed research.
2. It’s a wake-up call for the historically pig virus-free U.S.
3. It’s an opportunity for the global pork industry to learn without the long-term economic damage usually accompanying virus transmissions.

Read more on SVA’s entrance into the U.S. here.