Speaking to Farmscape, Dr Paul Sundberg, the Executive Director of the Swine Health Information Center, says domestically neurological viruses are showing up on the radar.

"We continue to monitor PRRS and to monitor the endemic diseases like Strep suis and Circovirus," says Dr Sundberg. "Things have been relatively quiet over the spring and early summer as you would expect with PRRS and that's a good thing.

"However, we are seeing some increased but sporadic reports of neurological diseases and neurological viruses. Those continue at a very low level but they certainly continue sporadically and that's something that we've got to watch for as an emerging issue.

"It might be emerging on a farm but what we're real concerned about is if this starts to emerge regionally or nationally and becomes a wider issue.

"Veterinarians have been fairly effective at managing those diseases on the farm, those outbreaks on individual farms and keeping them contained. Top of mind for producers and for veterinarians should be biosecurity.

"That is an issue that's going to affect not just endemic diseases but also will help prevent foreign animal diseases like African swine fever, foot and mouth disease and classical swine fever from coming into the country."

Dr Sundberg encourages producers to not assume they know the cause of an animal health event but rather to get a professional diagnosis every time there's a mortality on the farm. For more information visit swinehealth.org.