A new more virulent strain of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome has infected over a dozen swine farms in Manitoba over the past winter and into the spring and summer.
Dr. Blaine Tully, the President of the Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians and a partner with Swine Health Professionals in Steinbach, says in the past other regions have been successful in eradicating PRRS and he believes the will is there to eradicate this new strain.
At this point we’re quite optimistic that we can restrict transmission to new farms. We also know that on an individual farm basis that, like other strains of PRRS, we can eliminate. The fact is many of the farms that have been infected are in an active elimination process to not have to live with this virulent strain of PRRS.
At this point though we’re probably too early into these new strains of PRRS to know if we’re able to and how quickly to eliminate it from regions. Obviously that would take a concerted effort amongst industry stakeholders, transportation and the veterinary community to come together to do that.
That said, other regions in Canada have successfully eliminated other strains of PRRS virus and so the model is out there to do it if there is intent and at this point I think there will be intent as there’s a lot of anxiety amongst those that don’t have this virulent strain of PRRS to keep it out and also anxiety in those farms that unfortunately have been infected and would like to not have to live with this strain on their farms.
~ Dr. Blaine Tully, Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians
Dr. Tully says the pork industry has been in a heightened biosecurity awareness mode for many months due to PED and fortunately all of those safeguards also apply to PRRS.
