Feral Swine Disease Surveillance – National Targets and Pilot Projects

The National Feral Swine Damage Management Program (NFSP) in collaboration with the National Wildlife Disease Program (NWDP) and USDA APHIS Veterinary Services works to identify the diseases of national concern in feral swine. The current national disease surveillance program includes classical swine fever (CSF), swine brucellosis (SB), and pseudorabies (PRV). CSF is a foreign animal disease and feral swine samples collected and tested serve as part of Veterinary Services surveillance stream for this pathogen. Both SB and PRV have been eradicated from U.S. commercial swine operations; however, as they are endemic diseases in feral swine populations, monitoring of feral swine for SB and PRV is deemed important to inform the swine industry as well as other livestock entities of the potential risk of reintroduction. Wildlife Services routinely removes feral swine and collects serum (approximately 2,800 samples annually) to conduct serologic tests on these three diseases. Sampling is distributed over both space and time and is currently undertaken in 37 states of the U.S. with counties being ranked high, medium, and low priority based upon risk factors. In addition to the diseases of national concern, the NFSP supports a number of pilot projects to address disease issues that arise at a local level. In close collaboration with Wildlife Services field personnel and others on the ground, the NFSP is able to quickly and robustly identify and sample for additional pathogens of zoonotic, domestic livestock, or companion animal concern. These projects are often multi-agency collaborative efforts and include diseases such as bovine tuberculosis and chronic wasting disease