AASV Sponsors PRRS Educational Session at WPX

June 16, 2010 — 

The American Association of Swine Veterinarians sponsored an educational session during the 2010 World Pork Expo entitled "Managing to Eliminate PRRS on the Farm". More than 80 producers participated in the session which discussed efforts to eliminate PRRS virus from swine farms and localized regions.

Participants heard veterinarians and producers present information on virus spread, ideas to prevent PRRS from infecting your farm, creating and implementing a biosecurity plan, the effect of PRRS on herds and production potential, controlling and eliminating the virus from herds, and producers' grassroots regional elimination projects.

Dr. Scott Dee described the benefits associated with filtering incoming air to minimize the risk of airborne transmission of the PRRS virus. Dee described his on-going research project exploring the impact of filtration in commercial herds. Dr. David Nolan with Cargill Pork discussed the company's successful efforts to eradicate the virus from their herds in 2003 but he also relayed the challenge of all elimination efforts - the difficulty in preventing re-infection. Nolan described the unfortunate consequences of a recent outbreak but overall he indicated the eradication project had been successful and economically beneficial.

While producers and veterinarians don't have all the tools they would like to facilitate the eradication of this disease, Drs. Paul Ruen and Butch Baker outlined the steps used to stabilize the virus in herds and the cooperation necessary to achieve successful regional elimination projects.

Producers Jon Caspers and Steve Langhorst also discussed their experiences with PRRS-infected herds and the desire to eliminate the virus' devastating economic effects on U.S. pork production.