The Swine Health Blackbelt Podcast

Rotavirus, without an effective commercial vaccine solution, continues to be a problem for the swine industry. Numerous methods have been tested to help develop immunity in piglets, one of which involves feeding rotavirus frozen into ice cubes to sows so that they will develop antibodies to the virus and pass those antibodies to her piglets through colostrum. In this episode, I talk with Seth Mels...

What if I told you that you could improve litter growth rate without any nutritional changes? Sounds too good to be true, right? Well in this episode with Dr. Jay Johnson, we discuss his research on sow heat stress and the impacts it can have on litter performance as well as technological innovations that can help reduce heat stress on the sows. Dr. Jay Johnson received his B.S. and M.S. from the...

We’ve seen several studies on gastric ulcers being influenced by either feed outages or by particle size, but we still don’t know the exact physiological mechanism that causes the onset of these gastric ulcers. In this episode, I talk with Agbee Kpogo about his work continuing the research on gastric ulcers to further understand the mechanisms behind this animal welfare concern. Agbee Kpogo origin...

Modified live virus vaccines are one of the best ways to prevent and control PRRSV today, but PRRS cases continue to be a problem. When testing for PRRSV though, its hard to tell if a positive test is from the live vaccine or from the wild type. In this episode Dr. Guarav Rawal talks about his MLV vaccine specific PCR assay that can detect the presence of a vaccine virus in a sample and what that...

Much of the United States has become mycoplasma naive in the last several years, but that doesn't mean it isn't a threat for producers, especially regarding the gilt movement. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Ana Paula Poeta Silva about her work with Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae identifying different sampling methods and even what to do in the case of a false positive. Meet the guest: Dr. Ana...

PRRS virus continues to create new variants, what a surprise… However, as unfortunate as it is, we need to tract the spread and transmission of these new variants to best keep our herds healthy. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Mariana Kikuti about her work tracking a novel PRRSV 1C variant across many farms in the Midwest and what its presence could mean for many farms in the US. Dr. Mariana Kiku...

We all know that PRRSV has been a big concern shared by many swine producers and veterinarians across the US. It is therefore important to determine effectively the PRRSV status of the pig population, especially at weaning age. In today's episode, I talk with Dr. Onyekachukwu Henry Osemeke about how family oral fluids (FOFs) can be used to determine PRRSV status of weaning age pigs. Meet the g...

Since its discovery in 2015, PCV-3 has been a concern for veterinarians and swine producers worldwide. Fully knowing the economic impacts that PCV-2 can have on a farm, a third member of the Porcine circovirus family should not be ignored. In today's episode, I talk with Dr. Fabio Vannucci about his work with PCV-3, different methods of testing, and how it presents itself in our swine herds. M...

We are back with a third episode with Dr. Daniel Linhares and Dr. Giovani Trevisan to discuss what they recommend in times of a PRRSV outbreak and how best to respond. PRRSV can seriously impact the economic and welfare status of your farm, and handling those issues is essential for maximizing productivity and income. Listen to the results of this study to learn how best to respond if your farm ha...

One important step in discovering a solution to PRRS, is first trying to figure out where in the world all these variants are coming from. That is what Dr. Nakarin Pamornchainavakul is trying to do. In this episode, he and I talk about his work trying to track the ancestry of PRRS L1C 144 to better understand how it spread and how this virus mutated to its current variant. Dr. Nakarin Pamornchaina...

Part of a veterinarian's job is tracking disease outbreaks to identify the probability of their farm coming into contact with certain pathogens so they can best be prepared for any situation that may arise. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Giovani Trevisan and Dr. Daniel Linhares about their collaborative project, which is designed to collect data on swine pathogen outbreaks across the US and...

ASF continues to be prevalent internationally and can be an economically devastating disease for pig farmers. The United States has successfully kept the disease out of its borders but it is crucial that we are prepared to handle the situation if it finds its way in. In this episode, I talk with Li Peng about his work in China developing a new farm response strategy that is designed to quickly and...

We all know the dangers of PRRSV, but how many strains are out there, and how many can you have at a given time? In this episode, I talk with Dr. Daniel Linhares and Dr. Giovani Trevisan about their work performing whole genome sequencing of PRRSV on multiple farms to get a deeper understanding of the current situation of PRRSV and to see how many strains a single farm has circulating at a given t...

Often being overshadowed by more “famous” swine diseases such as PRRSV and PEDV, Senecavirus A has been silently moving through swine herds since the late 80s. Not much is known about its epidemiology and detection has so far been mainly limited to vesicular fluid. Guilherme Preis shares his work on Senecavirus A with me in this episode and discussed his work at further understanding its epidemiol...

Controlling and minimizing PRRSV outbreaks is a major priority for farms everywhere. We currently have PRRSV regional control programs to better regulate how to respond when challenged or exposed to PRRSV. In this episode, Dr. Clayton Johnson talks with Dr. Edison Magalhães who is currently working on a proposal for a new updated program that may help with PRRSV monitoring and the development of a...

Even with different types of vaccines available for PEDv, it still is a common issue that swine farms struggle with. In this episode, Dr. Clayton Johnson interviews Dr. Brent Sexton about his experiencies with PEDv vaccines and how he has been utilizing a different vaccination method to try and increase the effectiveness of the vaccine in his sow herds. Take 10 minutes out of your day and give thi...

Disease classification is a very important aspect for both swine producers and veterinarians. It helps provide a roadmap for how to manage viruses within herds, and PRRSV has been a major problem for the swine industry for many years. In the first episode, Dr. Derald Holtkamp shares with me Dr. Clayton Johnson about the many years he has spent developing his swine herd PRRS classification system....

Have you ever wanted to stay current with the latest developments in swine health without spending hours online? The Swine Health Blackbelt Podcast is a new 9-minute podcast by Swine it, where you’ll get the latest cutting-edge swine health insights from the brightest minds of the global swine industry. Welcome to The Swine Health Blackbelt Podcast: The latest swine health research, digested for y...