07-02-2007
Clark County Pseudorabies Follow-Up Tests Negative

MADISON -- Pseudorabies tests results were negative in a second round of testing near an infected Clark County farm, State Veterinarian Robert Ehlenfeldt announced today.

The negative results mean that the formerly infected farm will be released from quarantine and will be able to move live hogs onto and off the farm again.

A second infected farm was cleaned and disinfected June 22, and swine from properties near that farm will be tested between July 22 and Aug. 22. Until negative test results are received from those animals, that farm will remain under quarantine and trade restrictions imposed by Michigan, Kansas and California will remain in place.

Hogs on the two farms tested positive for pseudorabies in April. Both herds were destroyed April 27. Following the discovery of the virus among animals on those farms, swine within five miles of each were tested. All those tests were negative. Federal regulations require that swine within two miles of pseudorabies-infected farms be retested within 30-60 days after the infected farms are cleaned and disinfected. Those farms have not been quarantined during the waiting period.

During the outbreak in April, swine from 68 farms were tested, including the two infected herds. A total of 21 animals tested positive: 10 from the original 300-head herd near Greenwood and 11 from a herd near Loyal. Animals in the two herds had been exposed to one another when a boar from the Greenwood farm was taken to the Loyal farm for use in breeding.

In this round, 11 farms and 194 head of swine were retested. In the final round, on those hog farms within two miles of the second infected herd, hogs on about 5 farms will be tested.

If that final round of testing is negative, Wisconsin will retain its pseudorabies-free status, because it was likely that both herds had been exposed to feral swine. The USDA considers infected feral swine less of a disease risk to the nation's hog industry than infection in commercial herds. To date, no feral swine have tested positive for pseudorabies.

Losing Wisconsin's pseudorabies-free status would mean that producers had to test for the disease before shipping animals out of state. In 2005, Wisconsin producers shipped 182,000 swine out of state. Wisconsin's pork production in 2005 was worth $120 million, with a total swine herd of 430,000 animals.

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