The Canadian Swine Health Board is confident the appointment of two new PRRS Area and Regional Control and Elimination Coordinators will help speed up efforts aimed at eliminating Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome.
Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome is a viral infection that affects the reproduction of sows, causes respiratory disease in nursery and finisher pigs and is considered the mostly costly disease affecting swine producers in Canada.
The Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians has named two PRRS Area and Regional Control and Elimination Coordinators.
Dr. Francois Cardinal, the Chair of the Canadian Swine Health Board’s oversight committee and a member of the Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians, says the coordinators will provide technical support those groups involved in projects aimed at controlling PRRS.
There’s a lot of projects ongoing but all of these have to be coordinated.
The Canadian Swine health Board is trying to fill that mandate and that’s a reason why the Canadian Swine health Board funded our project at the Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians.
There’s a lot of regional projects that are going or that are starting actually.
That’s going to be a role of those coordinators, to be aware of what projects are starting or are going on and make connection between those projects.
We will try to eliminate duplication and to improve the speed of those projects achieving their objectives.
Dr. Cardinal notes PRRS reduces swine production and is one of the most costly diseases in pig farms in Canada.
He suggests, if we want to improve our competitiveness with other pig producing countries, PRRS is a disease that we will need to control.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
