Lisa Tokach, chair of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians Foundation, announced the selection of three research proposals for partial funding during the foundation's annual luncheon on March 8 in Atlanta, Ga. The foundation granted a total of $60,000 to support efforts by researchers at the University of Minnesota and Iowa State University.

The Foundation granted $18,372 to Cesar Corzo and co-investigators from the UMN to fund the proposal, "Assessing time to negative processing fluids in breeding herds after a Senecavirus A outbreak." The three objectives of the study are to estimate the time to negative after an SVA outbreak by using processing fluids, assess the role of heat-check boars in the perpetuation, persistence and transmission of SVA within a farm, and estimate the production losses associated with an SVA outbreak. This project will lead to a better understanding of herd-level SVA epidemiology and implementation of aggressive programs for system-level elimination. Results will be shared as a summary in producer-oriented publications, in a peer-reviewed journal, and as oral presentations at swine veterinary conferences (eg, AASV and Allen D. Leman Swine Conference).

Jianqiang Zhang and co-investigators from ISU received $18,372 to "Explore the unrecognized viruses potentially causing vesicular lesions in pigs." They plan to conduct follow-up testing on the selected foreign animal disease cases to explore the unrecognized agents potentially causing vesicular lesions in pigs and develop appropriate diagnostic assays for the identified agents. Investigators will share results at various swine meetings and expect one publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Edison Magalhaes and co-investigators at ISU were awarded $23,256 to fund the project, "Measuring the effect of diseases on the productivity of growing pigs raised in field conditions." The overarching goal of this project is to develop an automated on-going model to allow veterinarians to measure disease-associated determinants of swine wean-to-finish mortality. Results will be shared with the swine industry in the form of a scientific manuscript and submitted for consideration for presentation at swine conferences.

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