News
Emerging PRRS strain ‘as bad or worse’ than others
A leading swine veterinarian says a Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome strain that emerged this summer is the new ‘bad boy’ PRRS virus.
Dr. Clayton Johnson with Carthage Veterinary Services tells Brownfield feedback from practitioners has been that the virus is as bad or worse than any PRRS strain before, impacting pigs at all phases of production.
“So, if you get it into the sow farm, you not only see tremendous sow death loss, but you see a high number of abortions and you see horrible preweaning mortality numbers,” he said. “To the point where a lot of sow farms would report that they are not weaning pigs for many weeks after the introduction of that PRRS virus.”
Johnson said the playbook to fight this strain, PRRS 1-4-4 Lineage 1C, is the same as the others with biosecurity as the base.
“Organize your resources, prevent at if all possible,” he said. “And, if you can’t prevent it, if you do get infected, be very quick in trying to contain it to just that farm and get it eliminated as fast as you possibly can.”
Johnson said a new PRRS strain emerges every two to three years.
Johnson spoke to Missouri pig producers Wednesday at Missouri Pork’s annual swine health institute.
