MANKATO — A former professor, swine veterinarian and researcher says a virus that has plagued swine farms since the late 1980s is finally able to be reined in.
“This is good news,” Scott Dee told attendees Tuesday at the Minnesota Pork Congress in Mankato.
The emeritus director of research at Pipestone, a farm management and research center in the city of Pipestone, Dee said their “next generation biosecurity” research has unlocked the way to successfully limit porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, more commonly known as PRRS.
“I think the reign of terror of PRRS is over.”
Pipestone helps manage and consult at hog farms in several states and was able to try the higher-level biosecurity on a large number of farms that had a total of more than 321,000 sows in eight states. For two years in a row, the biosecurity reduced new virus infections that traditionally infected up to 50% of herds down to around 8% or 9%. On the farms where the complete biosecurity protocols could be used, the virus fell to around 4%.
“The results were astounding. I’d never seen anything like this during my career,” Dee said.
He said that for 30 years “PRRS has been holding the global swine industry hostage.” And up to now, actions taken to try to control it have been less than successful with cases rising most every year in the past 15 years.
Dee and his colleagues discovered a variety of ways the virus is spread.
It was long known that it spread directly, through semen and pig-to-pig contact.
Researchers also traced the spread of the long-lasting virus to things like trucks, boots and other equipment.
In 2000, Dee and colleagues learned the virus also could spread through the air, able to travel at least several miles.
And Dee discovered, for the first time, that the virus can sometimes be spread through hog feed.
Each of those discoveries led to more biosecurity measures on hog farms, including strictly limiting visitors, sanitizing trucks, boots and equipment, bringing biosecurity protocols to feed mills and distributors and, more recently, outfitting barns with filters to keep out airborne viruses.
Dee said they now know how to mitigate all of the routes the virus can take to a hog barn so PRRS as well as other viruses and diseases will be much better managed or prevented.
He said the hog producers have been hammered in recent years by too much production, reduced domestic demand for pork and higher production costs.
“This is a bad time for the industry. It may be worse than 2008.”
But he said the hope that the devastating PRRS can be much better contained is a bright spot.
Dee said the higher-level biosecurity takes some investment and producers must ensure that all the proper protocols are being used at all times.
Last year Dee was honored by the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine for his contributions to veterinary medicine.
He graduated from the college in 1987 and joined the faculty in 1999. He left the college in 2011 to join Pipestone Veterinary Services.
The Minnesota Pork Congress, hosted by the Minnesota Pork Board and Pork Producers Association, continues through Wednesday at the Mayo Clinic Health Systems Event Center.