USAHA News
United States Animal Health Association
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For immediate release:

ALL 50 STATES NOW FREE OF PSEUDORABIES IN SWINE

        GREENSBORO, N.C., Oct. 27, 2004 -- At the meeting of the USAHA Committee on 
Pseudorabies here this week, the National Pseudorabies Control Board announced that it 
had granted Stage V (Free) status to Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas.  This means that 
all 50 states are now free of pseudorabies in commercial swine for the first time 
in history.

	Committee Chair Dr. Paul Anderson of St. Paul, Minn., said that if the country 
remains free of pseudorabies infection in commercial swine, the target date for declaring 
the United States officially free of this disease is October 2006.  He also noted that 
a remaining challenge is to make sure feral swine, which are infected with both 
pseudorabies and swine brucellosis, do not come into contact with commercial swine herds.

	The committee also called for federal agencies to continue long-range funding 
for research, program support and field studies in feral swine.  In particular, funding 
is needed for (1) conducting population studies that support disease-risk-management 
strategies; (2) developing Brucella strain VTRS-1 for use as a dual vaccine along with 
field trials to demonstrate its efficacy; and (3) studies of how swine brucellosis and 
pseudorabies might be transmitted to domestic swine.  

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