Dee Represents North America on OIE PRRS Working Group

July 9, 2008 — 

Scott Dee was selected by the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) to represent North America as part of an ad hoc group on Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) at OIE headquarters in Paris, France from June 9 to 11, 2008. The OIE is the World Organization for Animal Health. Recognized by the World Trade Organization as a reference organization, it currently consists of over 170 member countries and territories. In addition to Scott, veterinary scientists from Asia, Europe and South Africa participated in the PRRS group.

While PRRS is recognized as a notifiable disease by the OIE, at the time of the meeting no chapter had been written for the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code, a document which provides guidelines on the trading of live animals, semen or meat between countries according to disease status. Due to the growing concern over the emergence and spread of highly pathogenic PRRS virus in Asia, the main purpose of the meeting was to discuss the possible development of a Code chapter on PRRS to provide guidelines for international trade and to determine whether disease-specific surveillance guidelines for PRRS needed to be developed. The outcomes of the meeting were as follows:

1. During an extensive discussion, the Group shared concerns regarding the development of a Code Chapter due to the following issues and missing knowledge, specifically:
   1. The global status of the disease;
   2. The lack of a diagnostic marker to accurately predict the virulence of an isolate;
   3. The variation in the diagnostic lab capabilities/resources across and within countries;
   4. A lack of a standardized approach/history of successful PRRS eradication for endemic countries.

   To demonstrate the challenges for developing such a chapter, the Group went through an exercise of drafting (mock) code for PRRS using the existing chapter on Swine Vesicular Disease as a template. Again, due to the aforementioned issues and missing information, this proved to be very difficult.

2. Therefore, the Group decided that they should prepare an educational paper on PRRS to help OIE members better understand and control the disease, rather than drafting a Code Chapter which would have trade implications. The Group noted that any measures referred to in such paper should not be interpreted as OIE recommendations for trade.

3. In addition, the Group reviewed existing OIE surveillance guidelines in an effort to determine whether they were applicable to PRRS. It was agreed that although the current guidelines had value and were applicable to a certain extent, specific surveillance guidelines needed to be developed for PRRS.

In closing, the meeting was an excellent experience. The OIE is a very influential organization that is both proactive and open to new ideas. The AASV is well-advised to maintain a close working relationship with them in an effort to foster a more comprehensive global collaboration on issues of emerging and re-emerging diseases of swine.