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From the Director
Stephen
B. Hooser |
| Since
the spring newsletter, two disease have made the headlines: TB and pandemic
H1N1 2009 influenza virus. Fortunately, at this time, TB has only been
diagnosed in captive cervids in Indiana, and Indiana's TB free status for
cattle and bison remains unaffected. Definitive diagnosis of TB in the U.S. is
made by the USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) in Ames IA.
However, in some cases, the ADDL does assist the Indiana Board of Animal Health
with necropsies and sample collection in cases dealing with TB suspect animals,
and its pathologists are constantly on the watch for lesions in domestic
animals and wildlife that could be due to Mycobacterium sp. Of course,
when performing evaluations of TB suspect animals, the necropsies are most
secure, and offer the least amount of risk to personnel, if performed in a BSL3
laboratory environment. If built, such a laboratory would provide a higher
level of biosecurity for TB and other zoonotic diseases. The other disease
which has received a great deal of air time is pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza
which early on was misnamed by the press, much to the detriment of the swine
industry. As a full-service diagnostic laboratory, the Virology, Serology, and
Molecular Diagnostics sections of the ADDL have various capabilities and levels
of detail for the diagnosis of influenza in swine. At the most basic level,
diagnosis of respiratory disease in swine as influenza only confirms that the
animal has type A influenza, usually either H1 or H3. Although the ADDL has
the capability to isolate the influenza virus, determine if it is an H1N1, and
perform DNA sequencing to determine if it is the same as the human pandemic H1N1
2009 virus, this will not be done without the express permission of the
submitting veterinarian or owner. We can only hope that Indiana swine do not
catch pandemic H1N1 2009 from the people with whom they have contact. |
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