PRRS. PED. African swine fever. Biosecurity. The list of concerns for pork producers continues to grow.
Dr. Lauren Glowzenski, DVM of Tri-Oak Foods, joined PORK editor, Jennifer Shike, on AgriTalk on Monday to discuss some of these top-of-mind-issues that producers face across the U.S.
Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRS)
When it comes to PRRS, Glowzenski believes, “This year is probably no different than previous years in terms of herd spread and shed around the industry, but I do think that it’s certainly increased in severity and prevalence the past two years in particular.”
Glowzenski explains PRRS has been seen more frequently with finishing hogs where they might be placed with one strain and get lateral infections with potentially several different strains throughout the term.
When eliminating PRRS, Glowzenski describes the roadmap to ‘day zero.’
“We would definitely opt to eliminate PRRS from farms that we believe can stay negative. So what we’re doing is load, homogenize and close the herd down from any new gilt replacements or new replacement introduction to the farm. It is taking us anywhere from 210 days to 250 days in our system, in general, or at least 34 weeks of closure time with no new gilt introductions during that time. Once you homogenize the herd, that establishes a true day zero, and then we just move on from there,” Glowzenski explains.
What used to be considered more of a seasonal virus, PRRS has become more of a year-round disease. Glowzenski believes this transition has resulted from a more consolidated industry, where people, such as vaccination crews, loadout crews and caretakers, crossover more than ever before.
Labor on the farm presents additional issues. Glowzenski describes knowledge of biosecurity as a gap, especially in lower-level employees.
“People are exposed to different types of production in different regions, and I just think there’s a gap in understanding of industrial biosecurity here in the United States,” Glowzenski says.
Proper and diligent language translation and providing educational videos have become great assets in helping bridge this gap, Glowzenski adds.
Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED)
Glowzenski describes PED as another challenge that has been worse in 2022 than in previous years.
“We’ve had a lot of sow farms here in the United States break, especially in the corn belt with PED this season, just during the past 12 weeks, and that’s a really big concern,” Glowzenski says.
Glowzenski believes PED is efficiently cleaned up but raises concerns about the similarity of PED and African swine fever.
“I think the two diseases are one in the same in terms of spread and ability to shed and move between barns and units, so I’m very concerned that we’re moving so much PED around this season,” Glowzenski explains. “Again, I go back to asking, ‘What is the crossover? Is it truck washes? Or feed ingredients? Why are we moving so much PED around between systems this year?’”
Biosecurity
When it comes to protecting your farm, Glowzenski encourages producers to focus on individual site biosecurity, closing the gaps and making sure your farm has a bio-secure way of entering the building, disposing of dead stock and protecting your barns against bad entities who do not use bio-secure practices. Additionally, all people that come in and out of your barn and everything that touches your facility should have a process with biosecurity in mind.
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