International PRRS Symposium – Summary

December 23, 2009 — Lisa Becton

The 2009 International PRRS Symposium was held December 4 - 5 in Chicago, IL. In addition, the AASV PRRS Task Force met prior to the Symposium and Boehringer-Ingelheim held an informational meeting to discuss the company's strategy for PRRS elimination. Dr. Lisa Becton, Co-Chair of the Symposium Organizing Committee, offers the following summary of all the activities.

The National Pork Board contributed $6,000.00 this year to the Symposium to help defray costs of AV equipment and room rental as well as covered the costs for Proceedings, name badges and signs for a total contribution of nearly $10,000.00 for 2009. There was record attendance for this meeting and many overseas scientists attended that are contributing to PRRS research efforts. Overall, the meeting was a great success. And the weather cooperated as well! That's saying something for December in Chicago!

Additional meetings held prior to the Symposium included BI's PRRS Invitational Meeting. In this meeting, many people covered their ongoing projects for PRRS elimination and reviewed information regarding other interventions that can assist in elimination efforts (filtration etc.). Some interesting new information that was discussed was presented by Dr. Paul Yeske regarding the cost:benefit of PRRS elimination. This did show a benefit for PRRS elimination and time interval of payback for efforts. His information compared the costs between several different intervention strategies such as full depop-repop, herd closure and rollover. All of this information served as a very valuable review of ongoing efforts and benefits for PRRS elimination strategies.

Next, BI revealed their strategy for their PRRS Regional Control teams. Additional information will likely be presented at the 2010 AASV Annual meeting. They have information available regarding what their efforts will be and what services they offer. Overall, the BI meeting was a review of the current status of regional elimination efforts as well as some of the supporting technologies that can be done to reach PRRS elimination.

The AASV PRRS Task Force also met for several hours prior to the start of the PRRS Symposium to review the next steps for the continued efforts towards PRRS elimination. A veterinary survey was reviewed regarding the attitudes towards the different PRRS elimination strategies. This small survey pointed out the need for continued education among veterinarians regarding PRRS strategies and suggests that there is not currently one consensus on how to handle PRRS.

The Task Force did approve the white paper developed by Dr. Derald Holtkamp and Dr. Dale Polson to standardize definitions and breeding herd classifications to be used for discussions and development of elimination strategies. This action will be presented to the AASV Board for consideration. There was also discussion regarding the need for a "PRRS Champion" to lead the eradication charge and take information to producers. There is a need to consolidate all current information and activities into one document that can be used to provide a "roadmap" of information to producers and other veterinarians to promote the idea of regional elimination before the mass effort is made to "federalize" such an attempt.

The Minnesota Pork Producers Association has a resolution that will be voted on (and was subsequently passed on the 16th) regarding PRRS elimination. There are ongoing efforts to conduct PRRS regional elimination in areas where it is feasible (i.e. low density with less pig traffic in/out of an area). However, the issue of how to handle elimination in hog dense and high traffic areas remains yet unanswered. The next main step from the Task Force is to consolidate and create a PRRS elimination roadmap that can be presented to multiple groups (producer and veterinarian). At a later date (even 2011) the roadmap can be presented to USAHA for further actions, however, the efforts are not yet consolidated enough in order to make a push to a formalized "federalization" of PRRS elimination.

[AASV e-Letter thanks Dr. Becton for providing this summary for inclusion in this week's newsletter. If you have attended a meeting recently that you think would be of interest to our membership, please feel free to provide a summary for the e-Letter.]

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Lisa Becton, Director, Swine Health Info & Research, National Pork Board