Iowa State University veterinarians are investigating how an aggressive bacterial strain called APP has spread among nine central Iowa pork production facilities. The bacteria infect the respiratory system in pigs. Veterinary Diagnostic & Production of Animal Medicine Professor Derald Holtkamp says the disease typically infects hogs close to market. “Generally, the industry has done a good job managing the disease, but occasionally we have situations like this where we get an outbreak in multiple groups of growing pigs. It’s particularly devastating because it kills pigs close to marketing.” This outbreak is unusual because of its concentration, with all the affected production systems within a 20-mile radius in North-Central Iowa. Holtkamp says they’re not sure where the disease started. “I don’t know if we’ll ever have the answer of how the first case started there. What we do know is it moves around that area almost exclusively. We do think it may be spreading around due to rendering trucks. Several of these positive sites were also in marketing phase so there were trucks going back and forth to the packing plant, which may have also caused the spread of the disease.” Investigations on the cause are still ongoing.
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