The goal of this Aug. 1 webinar is that when discussing PRRSV with your peers we are all talking the same “language.”

July 18, 2019

2 Min Read
Webinar examines current PRRSV strains in the U.S.

What’s in a name? For porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus, there are multiple classification systems used to describe PRRSV strains (i.e. restriction fragment length polymorphisms, genotype and lineage), and all of that and the history and evolution of these systems and how they are used today will be addressed during the 1 p.m. (Central) Aug. 1 Science Talks. webinar, “A review of PRRSV nomenclature and current circulating PRRSV strains in the U.S.”                                  

The goal of the webinar is that when discussing PRRSV with your peers we are all talking the same “language.” A summary of what PRRSV strains the diagnostic labs are seeing circulating today will also be discussed.

Kimberly VanderWaal from the University of Minnesota and Jianqiang (JQ) Zhang from Iowa State University will present this informative webinar that will be moderated by Kevin Schulz, National Hog Farmer senior staff writer. This National Hog Farmer webinar is the fifth in the Science Talks. series sponsored by Merck Animal Health.

VanderWaal is an assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary Population Medicine at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota. She is a disease ecologist and epidemiologist who has worked extensively on understanding transmission of pathogens in animal populations. Her research interests relate to the viral evolution and epidemiology and the use of animal movement data to improve surveillance, prevention and control of infectious pathogens of livestock.

Key areas of ongoing research include the interplay between host immunity and viral genetic diversity of PRRS and the use of surveillance data to forecast future risk of outbreaks of porcine epidemic diarrhea at the farm level.

Zhang is an associate professor and virologist at the Virology/Molecular diagnostic section of the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. He has extensive experience in classical virology and molecular diagnostics of veterinary viruses. His current research is focused on diagnostics, pathogenesis and vaccine development of viruses of veterinary significance especially swine enteric coronaviruses and PRRSV.

He has 93 refereed journal publications, 27 factsheet and Extension publications, nine book chapters, 216 conference proceedings/abstracts and 58 invited presentations. He is also an editor of the book Diseases of Swine (the 11th edition). The recent awards he received include the 2015 Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine Early-Career Achievement in Research Award, the 2016 Zoetis Award for Veterinary Research Excellence, the 2016 Iowa State University Award for Early Achievement in Research, the 2018 JVDI Best Full Manuscript Award, and the 2019-20 cohort of Iowa State’s Emerging Leaders Academy.

Click here to register for this Aug. 1 webinar. This link will also provide access to previous Science Talks. webinars.

Not able to attend? Register anyway. Archived versions of National Hog Farmer webinars are available to watch On Demand shortly after broadcast. You will receive an email with login instructions as soon as the replay is available.

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