State agriculture officials have lifted a quarantine for a Cuming County farm where the first case of a recent pseudorabies outbreak was discovered. The farm was the first of 13 hog farms quarantined in northeast Nebraska since late March. The other farms remain under quarantine. Fifteen other cases of the disease were confirmed in surrounding counties, including 10 in Platte County, three in Colfax County, two in Boone County and one in Antelope County. Pseudorabies can be spread from pigs to other animals.
Inanimate objects can also carry the disease from one herd to another or one farm to another.
The disease is a herpes virus that causes abortions, breathing problems and problems with the central nervous system. Besides pigs, pseudorabies is fatal to cattle, sheep, dogs and cats. It does not harm humans. Nebraska had been on the verge of being free of pseudorabies last November. The state had no affected herds for the first time in 26 years before the recent outbreak.