Vet says state livestock in good health

The annual Pork Congress wraps up today, and a workshop on “herd health” will be one of many offered to visiting farmers at Vets Auditorium in Des Moines. State Veterinarian Dr. Patrick Webb put together the presentation, and he says Iowa’s taken an aggressive approach to keeping its hog herds healthy. The state’s now nearly free of the pig disease pseudorabies, and Dr. Webb says that’s taken a lot of work. The state vet says the health of Iowa’s animals is very high, but farmers and state officials need to keep making plans to handle any contingencies. Webb says in the case of pseudorabies, there are no known infected herds right now, and Iowa can hope to achieve “free” status within a year or two. Eventually, pseudorabies could become a “foreign” animal disease, as it’ll be completely wiped out in this country.