Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said Monday the pseudorabies virus had been contained and eradicated in the state. Pseudorabies is highly contagious and often fatal for pigs, the primary host, but it can infect other livestock, pets and wildlife. The virus is not considered a risk to the general public.
In late April, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed five boars shipped from Texas to a farm in central Iowa had the virus. The disease is prevalent in feral pigs and likely spilled over to the Lone Star herd, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.
It marked the first case of pseudorabies in commercial swine in the U.S. since 2004.
Naig said the state followed the pseudorabies response protocol outlined by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. After the infected herd was euthanized, farms in a 5-mile surveillance zone were quarantined and tested. Negative results prompted officials to shrink the zone for a second round of testing, which also came back negative.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) said Monday that producers within the control area can resume routine animal movements.
Speaking at the World Pork Expo on June 3, Naig said responding to animal health threats requires coordination across IDALS, USDA and producers.
“Without those three legs of the stool, you can't effectively respond,” Naig said. “We were able to [quickly] and collaboratively eliminate the threat, while also protecting Iowa's disease-free status, and maintain confidence on our food supply and export markets.”
Canada and Mexico restricted exports of certain uncooked pork products after the pseudorabies detections, according to National Hog Farmer.
Naig said the impacts to trade were minimal and short term.
“Now, had this spread beyond one site, had we not been able to address the site as quickly as we did, we would have potentially lost our [disease] free status, and that would have really tipped us into some potential additional trade impact,” Naig said.
Iowa Pork Producers Association CEO Pat McGonegle commended the quick response to the virus while speaking on a policy panel at the World Pork Expo, and anticipated more conversations this year.
“We’re going to sit down and learn and look at how we do this better,” McGonegle said. “For producers, particularly those that were in the 5-mile circle, it was an early opportunity to look like what a foreign animal disease outbreak might look like.”
