The Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians reports regional efforts to control the spread of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome are showing signs of success.
The Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians in partnership with the Canadian Swine Health Board is coordinating 10 area regional control and elimination or ARC and E projects across Canada.
Dr. Leigh Rosengren, one of two PRRS Area Regional Control Coordinators, says the goals of these projects range widely with some focusing on eliminating the virus but most are focusing on controlling PRRS and bringing down the frequency and severity of outbreaks.
My feeling is that these projects have done an excellent job of building awareness.
I think producers have really gained a strong understanding of the biology of the virus, of the ways that their herd could become infected and most importantly of how to minimize that risk.
This has gone hand in hand with a lot of the biosecurity training that’s gone on with the Canadian Swine Health Board and I think that that collectively has really brought up both our awareness of disease risk in general and of PRRS.
We have evidence in many of our regions that the prevalence of the virus has been brought down.
By that I mean that there’s more negative sites now than when they started.
But in some areas it’s simply not practical to be a negative site because you’re sort of a sitting duck.
In those sites we’re really understanding how to bring down the severity of infections by controlling the amount of different strains circulating.
We have evidence of that through the maps and the diagnostic testing that’s being done so I really think the coordinated effort in these regions is paying off because it’s a relatively low investment for a very solid return.
Dr. Rosengren says these regional control efforts have been very successful and she encourages anyone interested in these projects to contact their local veterinarian.
