PRRS Elimination Projects Utilize PADRAP

December 28, 2011 — 

Numerous regional PRRS control/elimination projects across the country are gaining momentum and most are utilizing PADRAP to help producers see the benefits of participating in the project. Those in programs that are a couple years old have been able to pinpoint areas to work on and are now seeing the benefits of changes in biosecurity protocols and compliance.

It can be time-consuming to collect PADRAP surveys for numerous sites and producers in each project, so some veterinarians and coordinators have recruited students to assist with the data collection. Last summer 30 veterinary and pre-veterinary medicine students from several universities were trained to use PADRAP. They traveled to farms, vet clinics, schools, and church basements to go through risk assessments and enter them via the PADRAP website, under the direction of herd veterinarians and project coordinators. Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. and Pfizer Animal Health funded the internship program and Iowa State University conducted the training sessions.

In other news, four industry partners (Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc., Harris Vaccines, National Pork Producers Council and Newport Laboratories) have now joined the National Pork Board and Iowa State University to provide support for the PADRAP website.

To date, 302 AASV members have been trained to use PADRAP. These members have conducted 3204 assessments on 1607 breeding herds and 750 assessments on 645 grow-finish sites.

Additional PADRAP news is available at http://www.PADRAP.org.

Source: PADRAP Fall/Winter 2011 Newsletter