K-State Ag Today: Trying to wipe out costly swine disease
8:32 a.m. Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Swine resources
K-State Research and Extension Web site
Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, also known as "pers", is a devastatingly efficient swine disease plaguing the pork industry.
Bob Rowland, a professor of diagnostic medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University, says the disease can cause influenza-like illnesses, and reproductive problems in sows and gilts.
"But by far the greatest impact to the producer, is really during the latest stages of the production system, in which it really affects the ability of a pig to gain weight," he said.
Rowland is the executive director of the PRRS Coordinated Agricultural Project, a cooperative effort between university researchers and pork industry leaders, dedicated to the eradication of PRRS. Rowland says there are vaccines available, which offer limited hope to producers.
"And so the impact of the vaccine is to really lessen the economic impact of the disease; however, we're looking for vaccines which are much more sophisticated, which can be used in naive herds to actually protect animals from the infection entering a herd," he said.
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