Like the old saying there is a new sheriff in town, there is a new virus threatening swine operations across the U.S. Only a few herd cases of Seneca Valley Virus (SVV) has been reported but it is causing a major consternation among veterinary diagnosticians and regulatory authorities. You see SVV symptoms are identical to Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) – one of the most feared diseases around the world. The FMD virus was eradicated in the U.S. in the late 1920’s. U.S. authorities have been diligent in keeping it out of the country since then. FMD would be catastrophic to U.S. agriculture. Consequently anything that mimics FMD causes great alarm to our government animal health agencies and state and federal regulatory veterinarians. Space and time prevents form describing the significance of the economic losses if FMD were to enter the U.S.

The SVV causes blisters of the mouth, muzzle, hooves and pasterns with sometimes lesions appearing on the lower abdomen. These are the precise lesions also observed with FMD. The difference between SVV and FMD is that SSV lesions disappear after a week or so while FMD lesions result in many pigs dying or becoming unthrifty.

It is important to get your veterinarian involved to confirm a diagnosis that it is SVV. The concern is that any of us or all of becoming complacent to those lesions that appear as SVV when in fact it could be FMD.

It is mandatory that your veterinarian get the state or federal diagnostic laboratory involved to verify that those lesions are caused by SVV rather than FMD.