From porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) pathology to converging factors that fuel PRRS epidemic waves, the conversations that took place during the Carlos Pijoan Swine Disease Eradication Center (SDEC) Symposium at the 51st Allen D. Leman Swine Conference in St. Paul, Minn., centered around the question of is PRRS worse today than it used to be?
Here are some things worth repeating.
“Better communication about PRRS leads to a better response.” – Kimberly VanderWaal with the University of Minnesota in “The Perfect Storm: Converging factors that fuel PRRS epidemic waves”
“[When it comes to PRRS] I think we’re using the tools we have to be able to do the best for the pigs, which in my mind is to reduce the losses and accelerate that time to get the virus out of the herd. There is a lot of variability in the dataset on how people manage the outbreaks. I think it’s because we don’t have a silver bullet just yet. But I don’t underestimate the creativity of the practitioners in the room to put together those solutions and do what’s right for the pigs. I think we’re doing what we can taking advantage of the existing technology and solutions.” – Daniel Linhares with Iowa State University in “Production parameters in PRRSV infected farms over the years”
“The biggest difference that I see right now is the change in that we’ll try just about anything to try and get to negative faster.” – Laura Bruner with Swine Vet Center in “Successes and Opportunities Regarding Intervention Strategies for the Control of PRRSV”
“I think biosecurity is very important, and we need to increase our awareness and our work. But for us, biosecurity has always been a little too centric on bioexclusion, not enough on the biocontainment. We need to work on our farm and protect our farm, but we need to also think of it at the greater level.” – Luc Dufresne with Demeter Veterinary Services, Inc., in “Successes and Opportunities Regarding Intervention Strategies for the Control of PRRSV”
“All PRRSV variants are pathogenic to non-edited pigs. The types of gross and microscopic lesions associated with PRRSV infections have not dramatically changed over time. The severity and distribution of lesions are affected by the PRRS variants infecting the pig and any concurrent diseases. Current 1C and 1H PRRSV variants tend to be highly virulent.” – Matt Sturos with the University of Minnesota in “Severity of PRRSV pathology”
“[Which vaccine strategy is the best?] Limiting to one vaccine is a good approach, at least within the individual pig or population, to not confuse with too much genetic material in there. I think the reality is we don’t have the science to answer that question. As an industry, we need to continue to advance the science so we can answer those questions with good, sound data to help us make the right decisions. Because right now, you’re hearing practitioner perspective from frustration that we don’t have better solutions. So we try. Putting data behind it is very important.” – Evan Koep with Pipestone Veterinary Services in “Successes and Opportunities Regarding Intervention Strategies for the Control of PRRSV”
“L1C5 grows better in pigs than the tested North American PRRSV isolates. The high level of virus and resulting cytokine response is at least part of the reason for the more severe clinical signs.” – Mike Rahe with North Carolina State University in “Comparison of immune response to circulating PRRSV isolates”
“The amount of virus that these pigs make is incredibly higher than what it used to be, so it makes execution of everything we do even more important. There’s less and less room for error because there’s more virus out there and it doesn’t take as much to infect pigs. The biosecurity procedures that we do today have to be executed perfectly. That worries me because you could go into a farm today and find 10 things that they’re not executing correctly. I think about how we get better at helping with that execution, whether that’s video cameras or AI technology. How do we find the problems before they actually become a problem?” – Laura Bruner with Swine Vet Services in “Successes and Opportunities Regarding Intervention Strategies for the Control of PRRSV”
“It does seem that immunity in our population does accelerate genetic change in the virus. The idea of why this happens is that the virus is evolving to evade host immunity.” – Kimberly VanderWaal with the University of Minnesota in “The Perfect Storm: Converging factors that fuel PRRS epidemic waves”
“The biggest opportunity is still the biggest unknown – further understanding immunity in the pregnant sow and how can we better manage that. Now, as far as what works the best, honestly, every farm is different. What works on one farm doesn’t always work on the next farm, and sometimes nothing works 100%. At the end of the day, it’s really trying to sort out does one particular work better for one particular farm than another and then trying to see what direction that goes.” – Mark Wagner with Fairmont Veterinary Clinic in “Successes and Opportunities Regarding Intervention Strategies for the Control of PRRSV”
“Teamwork and communication are really important for a good immune response.” – Mike Rahe with North Carolina State University in “Comparison of immune response to circulating PRRSV isolates”
