The Western Canada PRRS-Free Herd Certification Pilot Project, an initiative of the Canadian Swine Health Board, is being administered by Sask Pork and provides a protocol under which suppliers of pigs or semen are able to certify their stock is free of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome.

The testing protocol was developed in consultation with field veterinarians, epidemiologists, researchers from Canada and internationally and outlines testing procedures as well as types and numbers of tests needed.

Sask Pork producer services manager Harvey Wagner says the web based data-base explains the programme and provides the tools necessary to participate.

Harvey Wagner-Saskatchewan Pork Development Board

The web site is available at www.prrsfree.com.

It has some publicly accessible information on it.

Under resources there's the producer publication that explains the project, it also has the full protocol and it has a point simulation calculator that you can download and plug in your own numbers to see how many tests you'd have to do on your farm.

The one thing about this, historical tests are acceptable if they've been done in accordance at an approved laboratory and most of the Canadian labs are approved.

If a farm has done historical testing that can be entered in there and they can bring their point total up so they wouldn't have to do as much initial testing.

There's also a frequently asked question page and we just have a number of questions that people have asked us or that we know are issues, things like how does the project work, how is it administered and is there any help or compensation.

There is some compensation so farms are eligible for some compensation to do their testing so that's quite an important hook to this project as well.

For more information on the The Western Canada PRRS-Free Herd Certification Pilot Project visit the PRRS-Free web site.

Further Reading

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Find out more information on PRRS by clicking here.