College of Veterinary Medicine
Twin Cities
These researchers currently lead the largest swine health monitoring project in the United States, the Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project (MSHMP). This industry-funded project, active for almost a decade, has access to health, location, and sequence data from approximately half of the sows in the US. Diseases that are currently monitored include Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), Porcine Epidemic Virus (PEDv), Porcine Delta Coronavirus (PDCoV), and Senecavirus A (SVA), among others. The researchers obtain weekly health status updates from project participants in which outbreaks or health status improvements are reported voluntarily. For PRRSv, they also obtain ORF 5 sequences that have been linked to location and dates. There are more than 20,000 sequences in their database; therefore, they are interested in understanding viral transmission from an spatio-temporal standpoint. There are three main objectives:
- Assess whether sequences are clustered in time and space
- Assess whether sequences reported in one season are responsible for outbreaks in the following season
- Understand PRRSv evolution
Results from these studies will contribute to the foundational process of the understanding of the epidemiology of this costly disease in the US swine industry.