Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome is a highly transmissible viral infection that affects the reproductive performance of sows, causes respiratory disease in nursery and finisher pigs and is considered the most costly disease affecting swine producers in North America.

Dr Laura Batista, the knowledge manager with Boerhringer Ingelheim Vetmedica USA, reports several regional projects have reached phase four, where there are no more field strains circulating in the area.

Laura Batista-Boerhringer Ingelheim Vetmedica USA

Some of these projects have started and are led by producers.

That is really interesting because they understand that if they don't control it they aren't going to be profitable.

Other areas have been more the clinics or the veterinary leaders because they have to deal with the virus every single day of their lives.

Not all of the projects have complete buy-in.

They have meetings, they talk, they explain what's going to happen and the best buy-in there is in projects is 85 percent of the producers that have decided to share their information and some of the projects it's about 60 per cent.

But what I see is that, as some producers that are not convinced of the idea, they start to see successes then they come in and say OK let's try to do it and they understand that if they work together their risk of infection is going to reduce.

Dr Batista acknowledges there are many different routes of transmission making PRRS difficult to control so it's critical to maintain good husbandry such as washing, disinfection and good internal and external biosecurity.

She suggests producers need to be aware of what's happening with their neighbors, the status of pigs that are in close proximity, whether pigs are coming in from other areas, and if they're PRRS positive so it's a global approach.

Further Reading

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Find out more information on PRRS by clicking here.