Listen to or download the podcast Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) has challenged producers and swine veterinarians for decades. During that time, outbreak management and strategies have evolved along with the virus. “If you ask 20 different people how they are managing PRRS outbreaks, you may get 20 different answers,” Daniel Linhares, DVM, associate professor at Iowa State University (ISU), told Pig Health Today. “People are still trying different things to succeed in their management program.” To learn more, Linhares is collaborating with Giovani Trevisan, DVM, ISU resea ..read more

Listen to or download the podcast Today’s sow farms are highly efficient production systems, yet pre-weaning mortality can remain a challenge. A lot of time and effort is directed toward fixing the problem — finding reasons for and solutions to address pre-wean mortality rates. But Seth Krantz, DVM, Tosh Farms, believes that “reasons can be distracting; they become excuses.” Instead, he advised concentrating on enriching the human factor. “Pre-wean mortality is sometimes less about the pigs than it is the folks taking care of pigs,” Krantz told Pig Health Today. “We have a lot of opportunity i ..read more

Listen to or download the podcast African swine fever (ASF) has spread like a slow burn across the globe since the 2007 identification in the Republic of Georgia. It moved into the EU, and by 2018, surfaced in China then continued across Asia. In 2021, for the first time in 40 years, ASF was discovered in the Dominican Republic. “Put simply, the global status of ASF is that it’s here and it’s here to stay, unfortunately,” Patrick Webb, DVM, director of swine health with the National Pork Board (NPB), told Pig Health Today. Yes, foreign animal diseases (FADs) “are a constant threat…because the ..read more

Listen to or download the podcast Efforts are underway in Canada to develop an ASF-Free Compartments strategy allowing farms to market hogs in the event of an African swine fever (ASF) outbreak. Egan Brockhoff, DVM, veterinary counselor with the Canadian Pork Council, discussed plans to work with government veterinary authorities and industry to help high-biosecurity farms participate in an ASF-Free Compartments Program that allows them to continue marketing hogs in the face of foreign animal disease. He hopes the US will consider following a similar plan. ASF-free compartments Key to the plan ..read more

Listen to or download the podcast US pig producers know that many different strains of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) exist, and that immunological cross-protection amongst different strains can be variable.  However, the continual emergence of new sub-lineages continues to destabilize progress towards PRRS control, said Kim VanderWaal, PhD, associate professor at the University of Minnesota. In recent work, VanderWaal and her colleagues have analyzed more than 20,000 PRRS sequences from the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory to reveal the evolu ..read more

Listen to or download the podcast US pig producers have made a big push to eliminate Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (Mhp) from their herds as a way to capture more value in finishing pigs, said Melissa Hensch, DVM, director of health and animal care at The Maschhoffs, headquartered in Carlyle, Illinois. But like any control program, management of Mhp takes time and commitment. Over the last 3 to 5 years, The Maschhoffs have eliminated Mhp and maintain a completely negative herd all the way through to their commercial operations. They started at the genetics level to make sure they had negative repla ..read more

Listen to or download the podcast When a sow doesn’t reach her full potential, the cost to the farm and the cost to the income stream of the sow herd is often “grossly underestimated,” said John Deen, DVM, PhD a professor at the University of Minnesota. Current estimates of $500 to $1,000 per sow due to an early exit may be much lower than the actual cost, Deen told Pig Health Today. “It really is a measure of opportunity costs,” he said. Opportunity cost refers to a sow reaching six parities, for example, and then being sold into the marketplace at a premium. The comparison is similar to a pi ..read more

Listen to or download the podcast From the person doing the power washing to the owner of the farm business, everyone involved in a pork-production system plays a vital role in keeping the operation safe and secure, Clayton Johnson, DVM, with Carthage Veterinary Services in Carthage, Illinois, told Pig Health Today. When he thinks about biosecurity, Johnson  compares a farm to a fortress. A fortress has limited points of entry, which help control who or what goes in and out, so it’s a good analogy to use for pork operations. Limiting the points of entry is the first critical step in makin ..read more

Listen to or download the podcast Regular biosecurity checks with a close look at filtration and ventilation systems will help prevent the spread of airborne pathogens like porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSv), according to Jeff Feder, DVM, Swine Vet Center, St. Peter, Minnesota. “With all the [PRRS] breaks we had last fall that continued into June…it’s an important time to start refocusing on biosecurity if you’re not already,” Feder said. “And one way we’ve done that is to have a system of conducting audits on farms, whether you call it a filtration audit or biosecurit ..read more

Listen to or download the podcast Most, if not all, pigs harbor some strains of Streptococcus suis (Strep suis). Lately, challenges by the bacteria appear to be on the rise, but that could be interpreted as a positive. “It’s up for debate whether Strep suis is on the rise. It could be we’re doing things to make Strep worse or we have better diagnostics, because it’s always been around,” reported Daniel Gascho, DVM, Four Star Veterinary Service in Mexico, Indiana. If producers have an outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea or porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, then Strep suis often t ..read more