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Wisconsin vet concerned about Seneca-A swine vaccines

Wis. State Veterinarian Dr. Paul McGraw addresses the state’s Ag Board

STORY UPDATE from National Pork Producers Council, NPPC:  According to our veterinarian, USDA’s Center for Veterinary Biologics did a LOT of testing and found evidence of dead virus in a small number of cases. There doesn’t appear to be any evidence that vaccine has been spreading the disease, especially considering that in Wisconsin most of their cases would be sows that wouldn’t have been recently vaccinated. What the USDA notice is asking is for the vaccine companies to demonstrate that their methods would address any Seneca contamination if it were to occur. ~

Wisconsin State Veterinarian Dr. Paul McGraw has told the state’s Ag Board his investigators have been busy, “Normally, we would do 10 to 15 foreign animal disease investigations a year, and we’ve done 701 since October.”

McGraw says the large number of investigations is taxing his agency’s resources, and now he’s learned of a possible reason for the large number of Seneca A infected animals.  “USDA reported that it’s possible that some of the swine vaccines, the biologics, may be contaminated with Seneca A virus which is a virus we’ve been detecting at slaughter plants over the last year and a half or so in cull sows and boars.”

McGraw tells Brownfield he’s awaiting more information from USDA.  “There’s different adjuvants, different things that are used to build the foundation of vaccines.  Sometimes they’re used among different manufacturers.  It appears somehow, something, some product got contaminated but I don’t have any more information on that yet.”

McGraw says testing is a slow process since investigators cannot go to another site until their last investigation’s test results come back negative for foreign diseases like Foot and Mouth Disease.  He says there is no human health risk from the findings of Seneca A investigations.

McGraw reported the contamination to the Wisconsin Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection Board Thursday.

Dr. McGraw talks about contaminated vaccines with Brownfield’s Larry Lee.

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