Pig Watch thread-Research finds pigs are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2

[Treyfish]

:tiphat:I'm on the watch for confirmation of covid-19 infected pigs. They are already prone to other coronavirus' and I don't like the idea of any such outbreak involving them. I expect it though and I will be keeping my pig reports here.


Another Coronavirus Decimated US Pig Farming, Now We're Following The Same Path

Apr 14, 2020 11:42 AM

In 2013, a coronavirus epidemic swept across 32 states, killing eight million.

But you never heard much about it in the news, did you? That's because the coronavirus epidemic of that year decimated the population of hogs on U.S. farms. If you did hear about it, it was likely as an explanation for why the prices of pork-related products rose at the time and why their supply had diminished.

Like the SARS-CoV-2 virus behind 2020's COVID-19 pandemic, the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDv) had its origins in China, where once it arrived in the U.S., the coronavirus quickly spread among hog farms where the population of pigs had no immunity. There was no vaccine and no veterinary treatment to combat it, so American farmers had to quickly develop other approaches to cope with it.

Those other approaches are very similar to the personal hygiene and 'social-distancing' practices that many Americans have adopted to reduce their risk of infection from the COVID-19 coronavirus. The...:tiphat:https://finance.townhall.com/columni...draft-n2566892

 

[Treyfish]

Can livestock get COVID-19?
March 27, 2020

While there’s no evidence so far that pets, livestock, or their owners can infect each other with COVID-19, there’s also very little research about a potential crossover.

The novel coronavirus started with an animal, then mutated to transfer to people, but research hasn’t yet shown if the virus has jumped back to animals, said Scott Kenney, a researcher at The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES).

“Viruses are constantly sampling and evolving, trying to find other hosts,” said Kenney, who studies coronaviruses, including those that cross over from one species to another.

Quickly spreading among people across the world, COVID-19 is believed to have originated in bats, but the bat virus changed, altering surface proteins to be able to efficiently transfer from person to person. These surface proteins are different in the mutated bat virus, so COVID-19 is now less likely to affect the original bats. Whether other animals are susceptible to COVID-19 has yet to be tested, Kenney said...

...Coronaviruses are common among farm animals.

If COVID-19 were to jump species again and be receptive to animals, a likely animal on the farm to catch it would be pigs, Kenney said. That’s because pigs have a similar protein to humans that the SARS virus, a coronavirus cousin to COVID-19, uses to infect humans. Studies show that it may work in pigs, too.

Among farm animals, pigs seem to be the most susceptible to coronaviruses, able to contract up to six different pig-specific coronaviruses, Kenney said.

“I’m not sure anyone really knows why,” he said. “Outside of bats, pigs and humans seem to be infected by the largest numbers of different coronaviruses.”

More studies are needed to understand whether this is because of something in pigs’ physiology or genetic makeup, or just that humans and pigs encounter coronaviruses more frequently than other animals. And that results in more virus spillovers, Kenney said.

One of the more devastating coronaviruses among livestock in recent years affected only pigs: the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus. During a 2013 outbreak, the virus killed significant numbers of pigs in the United States and China, all of them young pigs....:tiphat: https://www.ocj.com/2020/03/can-livestock-get-covid-19/

 

[Treyfish]

Pigs and chickens 'not susceptible' to Covid-19

14 April 2020 | by FarmingUK Team |
Research looked at whether pigs and chickens become infected, whether the pathogen replicates and if the animals show symptoms of disease

Pigs and chickens are not susceptible to the coronavirus and do not pose a potential risk to human health, according to new research.
Covid-19 is believed to have originated from bats, fist occurring in humans in China about three months ago, before becoming a pandemic.

Various studies worldwide have been looking at whether it can also infect other animal species.

Now new research by the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) in Germany has backed up the findings of a similar study in China....:tiphat:https://www.farminguk.com/News/pigs-...-19_55417.html

 

[Treyfish]

PRRS virus still causing trouble for US pork industry


The Executive Director of the Swine Health Information Center reports, controlling PRRS remains one of the US pork sector's most difficult challenges.
by The Pig Site
14 April 2020, at 11:45am
The Swine Health Information Center's April Domestic and Global Disease Monitoring Reports were released last week as part of its monthly newsletter.

Dr Paul Sundberg, the Executive Director of the Swine Health Information Center, says we've seen a seasonal increase in the incidence of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRSv), which is not surprising given the weather conditions in March, coronaviruses including both PED and the swine delta coronaviruses are up slightly as expected and incidents of mycoplasma decreased in March compared to February.

"The increased incidence of PPRS is of concern," explains Dr Sundberg,
"Some of that is happening on sow farms with sow farms re-breaking. There's also an issue of different strains that may persist longer on farms and be harder to get rid of...:tiphat:https://thepigsite.com/news/2020/04/...-pork-industry

 

[Treyfish]

New swine rules so dangerous they could spur another zoonotic pandemic

• Apr 10, 2020 Updated Apr 13, 2020

Newly received data released shows that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new rules for swine slaughter plants, or the “New Swine Inspection System,” dramatically curtail federal government inspection of animals and carcasses showing signs of diseases and other food safety or public health related conditions, including potentially those showing signs of diseases that can move from animals to people, such as coronaviruses.

Food & Water Watch’s analysis of data obtained as a result of a federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit shows that USDA veterinarians were able to evaluate 3.5 times fewer potentially diseased animals and carcasses in plants that piloted USDA’s NSIS rules, compared to plants that were operating under normal inspection, during the select years in the plants for which data was available.

The newly released data contradicts USDA assurances that long-standing inspection requirements would be unaffected by the new NSIS rules, which allow slaughter plant workers to first determine which animals are fit for slaughter, which carcasses are fit for commerce, and to set their own line speeds. The Federal Meat Inspection Act, first passed in 1906, mandates that government inspectors evaluate each animal arriving at a slaughter plant and every carcass after the animal is slaughtered. If not immediately condemned, federal inspectors tag those showing signs of disease and other abnormal conditions for further evaluation by a government veterinarian before they can proceed. This protects public health....:tiphat:https://www.hpj.com/livestock/new-sw...3a602fd35.html

 

[Treyfish]

Pirbright to use pigs to test COVID-19 vaccine


BY ALISTAIR DRIVER ON APRIL 1, 2020
The Pirbright Institute will be using pigs to test the safety of new vaccines being developed to control COVID-19.

Pirbright, a world leading centre of excellence in research and surveillance of virus diseases of farm animals and viruses that spread from animals to humans, is joining in the global battle to develop vaccines to protect against the virus causing the current pandemic.

Working in collaboration with researchers at the University of Oxford and Public Health England, a team of scientists at the Surrey institute will begin testing new vaccines for their ability to induce protective antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.

The vaccines will include the chimpanzee adenovirus vaccine vector (ChAdOx1), which is soon to enter human phase I clinical trials and has been used to create vaccines for diseases like Ebola, Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (MERS) and flu.

The vaccine candidates developed at Oxford will contain the spike protein from SARS-CoV-2, the protein against which protective antibodies are generated in infected patients.

Pirbright scientists will measure the level of antibodies produced after vaccination of pigs and assess whether the antibodies can block SARS-CoV-2 from infecting cells, thereby preventing infection.

Importantly, the pig immune system shares significant similarities to that of humans, so a good response to a vaccine in pigs will help to predict the success of vaccines for human use. Researchers will also test the safety of the new vaccines and monitor whether any adverse effects are observed in the pigs....:tiphat:http://www.pig-world.co.uk/news/pirb...9-vaccine.html

 

[Treyfish]

14/04/20

Don’t panic, experts say after COVID-19 animal killings

Studies in Germany and China find pigs, chickens, ducks not susceptible to SARS-CoV-2

• India food safety authority says chicken eggs, meat safe to eat, after poultry culled in China
• Expert urges people not to be concerned domestic livestock could become COVID-19 source

By: Fiona Broom

• In many societies, chickens, cows and other animals are kept at home for eggs, milk and meat. Recent reports that cats and tigers have contracted COVID-19 — the disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2 — have sparked fears that agricultural and companion animals could be next.

China was already struggling with protein shortages, as African swine fever led to a cull of 40 per cent of the country’s pigs last year, before millions of chickens were slaughtered because of feed shortages caused by coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

In Lebanon, municipalities and individuals have been accused of leaving poisoned meat in the streets to kill dogs because of coronavirus fears and economic pressures, prompting welfare group Animals Lebanon to issue advice on identifying sources and symptoms of poisoning.

“From a farming perspective, there don’t seem to be any human to animal — anthropo-zoonotic —cases despite the fact it came from animals originally.”
...​

F?vre says people should not be concerned about their domestic livestock becoming a COVID-19 source....

Germany’s national institute for animal health, the Friedrich-L?ffler-Institut, is testing the susceptibility of animals to SARS-CoV-2, with final results and analysis expected at the beginning of May. The findings so far, that pigs and chickens in particular are not susceptible to the virus, tally with other recent studies.

Researchers in China found that SARS-CoV-2 replicates poorly in dogs, pigs, chickens and ducks, but efficiently in ferrets and cats. The study, currently a preprint that has not yet been certified by peer review, found that cats were able to transmit infection to other cats in the laboratory, but F?vre says there is so far no evidence that humans can acquire COVID-19 from cats...

In order to infect a host, the virus has to be able to get into respiratory tract cells, which requires matching cell surface proteins. While species are susceptible to their own coronaviruses, they cannot jump between species if the cell surfaces are different, F?vre says.
While SARS-CoV-2 was able to mutate and infect humans, the protein does not have the ‘lock and key’ match with other species, he says...:tiphat:https://www.scidev.net/global/corona...-killings.html

 

[Emily]

https://www.nationalhogfarmer.com/livestock/holding-back-hogs-after-smithfield-covid-19-closure

Holding back hogs after Smithfield COVID-19 closure

Producers making changes to feed rations; searching for shackle space at other plants.

Ann Hess | Apr 14, 2020

 

[Treyfish]

[TD="align: center"] ■ Handan Wei County farmer Lao Han died 62 piglets within a week
■ Daming County Agricultural and Rural Bureau surveyed and waited for the test results after sampling. Source: Shijiazhuang News Net [/TD]

[TD="class: px12c, align: center"] [/TD]
[TD="class: px12, align: right"] [/TD]

[TD="class: px12c, align: center"]

[TD="align: left"] Newspaper (Reporter Yang Weiguang) "The little piggy who originally wanted to raise pigs to get rich, but could have bought it for more than 100,000 yuan, died out of his head!"

On the afternoon of April 14, Han Haibing, a farmer in Wei County, Handan City, was sad Say, he bought 74 piglets from Jize County for more than 110,000 yuan a week ago. Somehow 62 of them died one after another. The remaining piglets are in poor health and may die at any time. lost heavily.
According to Han Haibing, his family's life is very difficult, so he wanted to engage in breeding to ease the pressure. On the afternoon of April 8th, under the introduction of a middleman, he purchased 74 piglets from Fengjun Hog ​​Farm in Chengguanying Village, Wuguanying Township, Jize County, Handan City, and bought them back with a small truck at a price of 1,500 yuan each. Wei County Farm.

When the truck was unloaded that night, one of the piglets was found to have red ears and buttocks. After measuring the temperature, it showed 40.5 ℃. It was suspected that the piglet had a fever. And gave the pig a shot. Han Haibing said that on April 9, the piglet's symptoms were not relieved, but worsened, and died that night.
On the afternoon of April 11th, Han Haibing wondered if the piggery environment made the piglets uncomfortable, so he pulled all the piglets to the yard of a relative's house in the nearby Daming County. I thought the situation would get better, but it turned out to be counterproductive, and a cute pig died strangely ...
:tiphat: http://yzwb.sjzdaily.com.cn/html/202...nt_1996172.htm [/TD]

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[Treyfish]

The CDC and WHO Have Already Said Mosquitoes Don’t Spread Coronavirus. Now USDA Will Study It, Too.


An adviser for the American Mosquito Control Association says the possibility of mosquito transition of the coronavirus is “nil.”

by Yeganeh Torbati

April 15, 2 p.m. EDT

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture is studying whether the novel coronavirus can be spread through mosquito transmission.

Is the United States Prepared for COVID-19?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is studying whether the novel coronavirus can be spread by mosquitoes, although the theory was ruled out last month by the World Health Organization and independent experts say such transmission is virtually impossible.

The research effort is cited in an internal briefing memo on the coronavirus response dated last week and reviewed by ProPublica. The memo does not say how much money the study will cost, and the USDA did not respond to questions.

Joseph Conlon, a former U.S. Navy entomologist and technical adviser for the American Mosquito Control Association, said the possibility of mosquito transmission of the coronavirus is “nil.”

Conlon has encountered claims online and in his email inbox that the government is covering up mosquito transmission of the coronavirus. He called that idea a “conspiracy theory.”..:tiphat: we will see:magnify: https://www.propublica.org/article/t...l-study-it-too

 

[Treyfish]

Wednesday, April 4, 2018:magnify:
New coronavirus emerges from bats in China, devastates young swine


Identified in same region, from same bats, as SARS coronavirus.
What


A newly identified coronavirus that killed nearly 25,000 piglets in 2016-17 in China emerged from horseshoe bats near the origin of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which emerged in 2002 in the same bat species. The new virus is named swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV). It does not appear to infect people, unlike SARS-CoV which infected more than 8,000 people and killed 774. No SARS-CoV cases have been identified since 2004. The study investigators identified SADS-CoV on four pig farms in China’s Guangdong Province. The work was a collaboration among scientists from EcoHealth Alliance, Duke-NUS Medical School, Wuhan Institute of Virology and other organizations, and was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. The research is published in the journal Nature.

The researchers say the finding is an important reminder that identifying new viruses in animals and quickly determining their potential to infect people is a key way to reduce global health thre...:tiphat:https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news...es-young-swine

 

[Treyfish]

Theories on origins of COVID-19 disease

April 15, 2020 - 22:32

....In 2016 four pig farms in Qingyuan County in Guangdong suffered acute vomiting and diarrhea killing 25,000 animals. The cause of illness, called swine acute diarrhea syndrome (SADS), turned out to be a virus 98 percent identical to coronavirus found in horseshoe bats in a nearby cave.

Given the scale of swine farming in many countries, such as the U.S. and China, scientists say looking for coronavirus in pigs should be the top priority....:tiphat:https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/446...VID-19-disease

 

[Treyfish]

As Slaughterhouses Close, A New Novel Coronavirus From Pigs Looms

By
Martha Rosenberg
-
Thu April 16, 2020
Smithfield Foods, the nation’s largest pork producer has closed its Sioux Falls, SD, slaughterhouse after 238 Smithfield employees grew sick according to South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.

....While many U.S. slaughterhouses are closing, pork slaughterhouses and pork producers are bracing for another coronavirus challenge: a virus called Severe Acute Diarrhea Syndrome or SADS-CoV that also originated in China and targets pigs. Like SARS, MERS and COVID-19, SADS-CoV is bat-originated and hosted by an eaten animal.

Two years ago, it was identified by Chinese and U.S. researchers as it was triggering die-offs in piglets on Chinese farms in Guangdong province. In 2018, SADS-CoV had already killed 24,693 piglets on four Chinese farms.
.....

According to Farm Journal Ag Web:

“In 2018, Swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), related to the bat coronavirus HKU2, was associated with severe outbreaks of diarrhea with high mortality rates in pigs in China. Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) and porcine delta coronavirus (PDCoV) are closely related to SADS-CoV, according to the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) newsletter.

Following devastating outbreaks of PEDV and PDCoV in the U.S., the swine industry was concerned with a potential outbreak of SADS-CoV. If SADS-CoV were to enter the U.S. the industry needs to be prepared to implement control strategies to mitigate the disease’s impact on pork producers, the article says. To do so, SHIC is supporting the development of rapid diagnostic tools for timely detection of SADS-CoV nucleic acid and/or antigens in clinical samples.”

Previous U.S. PEDV Epidemic Hidden From Public

....
The scourge was so relentless, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) caught a Kentucky farm that lost 900 piglets within a two-day period feeding dead pigs to other pigs in an attempt to induce “immunity” in survivors.

.... “Infected piglets five or fewer days old had a mortality rate of 90 percent, while older piglets had better outcomes.”
...
Can the Pig-Hosted SADS-CoV Jump To Humans?


In 2018, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported that pork workers exposed to pigs with SADS-CoV had not caught the virus. Yet Dr. Paul Sundberg, executive director of the Swine Health Information Center, told National Hog Farmer coronaviruses can and do mutate quickly.

“They can jump from species to species and certainly that’s been the U.S. pork experience with coronaviruses,” he says. “TGE [transmissible gastroenteritis virus] is a coronavirus. Then in 2013, we got PEDV [porcine epidemic diarrhea virus], which is another one and deltacorona virus is the third. There’s another coronavirus in China right now, called Severe Acute Diarrhea Syndrome or SADS-CoV, that we are watching and developing a diagnostic test, to make sure that we can find it should it get here.”

Certainly SARS, originated in bats but hosted by civet cats and MERS originated in bats but hosted by dromedaries, put no pork producers’ at ease about SADS-CoV.

Will SADS-CoV Become Another Surprise Epidemic?
..
The same scenario is occurring with SADS-CoV. ...

Given what is known about the ability of novel viruses like SARS and MERS to enact recombination and the sudden closing of pork slaughterhouses, shouldn’t a novel, pork-based coronavirus like SADS-CoV be acknowledged?
:tiphat:https://newsblaze.com/usnews/health/...m-pigs_162206/

 

[Treyfish]

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team arrives in Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls, SD
CUDAHY, Wis. (AP) — Smithfield Foods will temporarily close its meat processing plants in Cudahy, Wisconsin and Martin City, Missouri because of the coronavirus pandemic. The plant near Milwaukee will be closed for two weeks while the facility in Missouri is closed indefinitely. The Missouri plant receives raw material from the company’s Sioux Falls facility, which is also closed.:tiphat:https://www.brookingsradio.com/cente...n-sioux-falls/

 

[Treyfish]

SARS-CoV-2 replicates efficiently in the respiratory and digestive systems of infected cats, causing pathological damage and inflammation:tiphat:http://www.hvri.ac.cn/xwzh/zhdt/231683.htm

 

[Treyfish]

Hazoken has made important progress in studying the molecular mechanism of swine as a "mixer" of influenza virus

Source: horse infectious diseases and slow virus disease research and innovation team of: Mia Release date: 2020-02-25 12:14 Views: 2494

Recently, the team of Wang Xiaojun, State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, Harbin Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, revealed for the first time the molecular mechanism of swine as a "mixer" of influenza virus, proving that the host protein ANP32A is a necessary host factor for swine to support the replication of avian influenza virus , And clarified the key sites of its interaction with avian polymerase. Relevant research results were published in PLoS Pathogens, an international academic journal of etiology, on February 21, 2020, entitled "A unique feature of swine ANP32A provides susceptibility to avian influenza virus infection in pigs".



Influenza A virus is the main cause of human and animal influenza, which poses a huge threat to human health and social life. Pigs have always been regarded as a "mixer" of human, avian, and swine flu, and are an important intermediate host that promotes the genetic rearrangement of avian influenza and other species of influenza and causes pandemic influenza. The four known global influenza pandemics in 1918, 1957, 1968 and 2009 are closely related to the genetic recombination of influenza viruses of avian origin and other species. Due to the barrier effect of the host species, it is difficult for the avian influenza virus to spread directly to humans, but it can easily spread to pigs. The cross-species transmission of avian influenza virus needs to break through two barriers, namely hemagglutinin (HA) binding receptor type and adaptation of viral RNA polymerase. The surface of pig cells has been confirmed to have both human and avian influenza virus binding receptors, which establishes the first step of influenza virus infection. However, the adaptation mechanism of avian influenza virus RNA polymerase in pigs is currently unclear...:tiphat:http://www.hvri.ac.cn/xwzh/zhdt/227380.htm

 

[Treyfish]

Coronavirus causes surge in dog and cat meat sales in Vietnam and Cambodia, investigators say


Stop the Wildlife Trade: Even doctors sometimes recommend it in false belief it protects against viruses and heals scars

• Jane Dalton @JournoJane
• 5 minutes ago

Sales of dog and cat meat have risen in Vietnam and Cambodia since the outbreak of the coronavirus because people believe it has “warming” properties that head off flu viruses, an investigation has found.

Even some hospital doctors recommend the meat to patients, claiming it helps protect them from cold weather and recover from surgery, according to campaigners.

But experts say caging the animals in large numbers and slaughtering them in insanitary conditions actively increases the chances of starting dangerous diseases, and there is no evidence of the meat having any beneficial effects.
The trade is part of the “ticking time bomb” of live animal markets strongly thought to have sparked the pandemic and could spark another one, they warn.
.......
Covid-19 has also led to a sudden hike in dog and cat meat dishes being advertised on food delivery apps as restaurants in Vietnam switch to takeaway services.
Meat buyers in both Cambodia and Vietnam told the investigators that the World Health Organisation's announcement on cats and dogs not catching the virus prompted people to think that eating them was safe.....:tiphat:https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a9464946.html

 

[Emily]

Not exactly pig related??? but certainly cruel. (Love how they are always "euthanized" whether suffering or not.) I think they are looking for an animal model for more research or misdirecting the real source of the virus. Did the researchers do PCR testing on themselves before they went home?

"We first investigated the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in cats. Seven subadult cats (aged 6-9 months, outbred domestic cats) were intranasally inocu-lated with 105 PFU of CTan-H. Two animals were scheduled to be euthanized on days 3 p.i. and 6 p.i., respectively, to eval-uate viral replication in their organs. Three subadult cats were placed in separate cages within an isolator. To monitor respiratory droplet transmission, an uninfected cat was placed in a cage adjacent to each of the infected cats. It was difficult to perform regular nasal wash collection on the subadult cats because they were aggressive. To avoid possible injury, we only collected feces from these cats and checked for viral RNA in their organs after euthanasia"

 

[Emily]

Sad but creating irrational fears won't end consumption of companion animals. That was tried in Africa during the Ebola outbreak. People who enjoy dog meat were not impressed and kept eating dogs and the panic caused even more cruelty directed against dogs by other people.

 

[Emily]

Probably not relevant since chilling doesn't destroy C19 virus.

https://www.pigprogress.net/Health/...ig-industry-will-rise-like-a-phoenix-560395E/

'
Health
Background Apr 8, 2020
China’s pig industry will rise like a phoenix

....
Demand fell as restaurants closed, since people eat more meat in restaurants. Wet markets that sell fresh ‘hot’ pork to consumers were closed for the duration, striking another blow to the traditional pork value chain and boosting chilled pork in modern retail and e-commerce.