Porcine Respiratory Reproductive Syndrome is causing serious production issues in Minnesota and Iowa. Swine Health Information Center Executive Director Paul Sundberg says PRRS is the number one domestic swine disease threat. “It causes inflammation and infection throughout the pig, so you get respiratory disease in weaned pigs, pigs on the finishing floors and you get reproductive symptoms in the breeding herd. It can cause abortions and stillbirths. The National Pork Board found that it cost the U.S. pork industry more than $600 million per year in lost production.” PRRS can be transferred through contact and through aerosol spread. “This is the season for PRRS; the barns we have are very tightly controlled for ventilation and heat which means there’s more opportunity for stuffy air and for PRRS to share pathogens and diseases. It’s not unusual for us to have an outbreak of PRRS in the countryside this time of year.
