Good
day from ADDL. As this is written, it appears spring has finally arrived. It
seems that this past one has been a long winter, one that has been difficult
for many of our Indiana outside farm animals.
The
ADDL continues to participate in national surveillance programs for classical
swine fever, avian influenza, chronic wasting disease, scrapie and foot and
mouth disease. The national program for routine surveillance for exotic
Newcastle disease has been discontinued. The program for surveillance for
classical swine fever has been expanded to include samples collected by
Indiana private practitioner veterinarians. This should markedly increase the
number of tonsil samples received by the Laboratory for CSF testing.
As
reported in the last Diagnostic
Forum, we completed immunohistochemistry testing of 610
lymph node samples collected from Indiana white tail deer during the '07
hunting season for chronic wasting disease. The test samples were collected by
the Indiana DNR; all samples tested "No resistant prions detected". The
Indiana surveillance program was started in 2002. Since that time 9609 deer
have been sampled and tested. To date, no evidence of CWD has been found in
our state.
Dr.
Roman Pogranichniy, head of the ADDL virology and serology sections, has made
available sequencing of PRRSV and porcine circovirus to fingerprint virus
isolates of these swine pathogens. This allows pinpointing the source of
infection in epidemiologic studies and investigations of the disease in
affected swine herds. These assays that become available in virology section
may be invaluable in identifying type of virus present in affected herds.
To
better acquaint various agencies with intercommunication, familiarity and
responsibilities for dealing with the occurrence of a catastrophic disease
outbreak in our state, ADDL participated in a table-top exercise on epidemic
avian influenza in the Indiana poultry population and pandemic bird flu in
Indiana human population sponsored by the Indiana Department of Health on March
28, '08 in Indianapolis. To further enhance interaction of the potential
involved agencies in the instance of such a disease outbreak, a table-top
exercise sponsored by the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, of
which ADDL is a member, will be held at the ADDL on May 16, '08. The May 16
exercise will involve many of the same agencies as the March 28 exercise with
the addition of assistance from adjacent state veterinary diagnostic
laboratories' contribution to a potential catastrophic disease occurrence.
In
closing, I wish you a great Indiana spring season; may the morels flourish. If
there are things we can improve to better serve your veterinary diagnostic
needs, please do not hesitate to let me know.
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