Farmscape for November 3, 2010   (Episode 3449)

A University of Minnesota veterinary professor suggests strong local leadership is key to the successful control and potential elimination of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome.

PRRS is a viral disease that causes reproductive problems in sows and it has a respiratory component in which pigs are susceptible to respiratory disease.

Dr. Bob Morrison, a veterinary professor with the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota, told those on hand last week in Quebec City for Canadian Swine Health Forum 2010 regional efforts to control the disease are showing success.

Clip-Dr. Bob Morrison-University of Minnesota:
Individual farms all have their biosecurity programs to try and keep the virus out if they're not infected or they might have a herd specific control program to try and bring it under control but what's relatively new is that some farmers are going together within a region to try and control the virus and that's a relatively new effort, a voluntary effort, that started in Minnesota and now is in I'm guessing six or seven different state projects.

Most of the projects are relatively new and so they're at the stage of trying to find the farms, trying to enlist participation, trying to establish their status.

The one project that has gone the furthest along is one within western Minnesota.

It has historically been called the Stevens County Project.

That was started in 2004 and since then has had quite dramatic effect in terms of decreasing the prevalence of PRRS and the risk to farmers and that project has recently expanded now to include all of Northern Minnesota.

Dr. Morrison says, with a voluntary PRRS eradication program, you need effective diagnostic tests and good methods to control and eventually eliminate the virus and we have those but when you go to the regional level the biggest driver is leadership.

He says you need good leadership and motivated producers within that region to make it work.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council