Alo—Lancaster Fannins, Saturday, June 27,1981
Get concerned about PRV
After a year and a half, the
wheels of government are
squeaking ahead on the road
to helping Pennsylvania swine
producers combat the con
tagious disease,
pseudorabies, which has been
slowly growing like a cancer in
Lancaster County.
Why has it taken so long to
act on this problem?
Government red tape is
often blamed for most of the
time lags. But, the real
problem might be seated a
little uncomfortably in the laps
of the state's hog producers.
Disinterest in a disease that
seems to be concentrated in
one county actually in one
50 square mile radius may
be stiflmgconcern.
How quickly hog producers
seem to forget the devastating
effects of cholera that swept
through the state not too
many years ago. Although
cholera has been brought
under control in the U.S., this
dread disease and another
known as African swine fever
lurk on our doorsteps.
Just across the border and a
few miles over ocean waters,
the Dominican Republic and
Haiti have had to depopulate
their swine herds because
these contagious diseases
were somehow brought into
their country. And the same
thing could possibly happen
here, if government officials
and hog producers aren't
prepared.
Although most Penn
sylvanians aren't troubled
with small planes smuggling
drugs into the U.S. landing in
their corn fields, their fellow
farmers in Florida and some of
the other southern states find
this happening with regularity.
To avoid being apprehended,
smugglers fly into the country
and ditch their planes in some
out-of-the-way spot (some
farmer’s field, at times) and
desert the aircraft once the
'precious cargo' has been
delivered.
Unfortunately, a lot of this
drug traffic is coming from
areas where hogs are carrying
cholera and African swine
fever.
What would happen if one of
those small planes landed in a
field used to pasture hogs, and
the pilot happened to leave
behind a pork sandwich, with
the meat having been im
properly cooked?’
After the farmer finds the
plane and notifies officials, all
the garbage inside the craft is
casually tossed out for the
hogs. One of them dines on
the leftover sandwich. Sud
denly, the disease has
sneaked past every- defense
regulation enacted arid U.S.
hog farmers are faced with an
overwhelming epidemic
Hopefully, this dramatic
situation will never materialize
Off the
Sounding
By Sheila Miller, Editor
but the possibility is there
Are hog producers and animal
health staff members ready
for such an onslaught? Are
producers willing to work
together for regulations that
would safeguard breeding
swine as well as feeders?
If the pseudorabies case is
any indicator of cooperation,
it’s going to be a long row to
hoe.
The National Pork
Producers Council recently
went on record in opposition
to the current PRV eradication
program. Carson Rogers,
chairman of their Swine
Health Committee said, “Until
we have a test or vaccine that
allows discrimination between
the vaccinated animal and the
naturally infected animal, and
information on how the
disease spreads, we cannot
support an extensive
eradication effort."
However, NPPC ■ admits
pseudorabies poses an
“economic hardship for many
producers, with eight percent
of all U.S. hogs infected and
strict quarantines and
regulations being used to
restrict movement of infected
hogs.” Last year alone there
were 1,217 confirmed cases in
the U.S. with the highest
incidence of PRV being found
in the Cornbelt states of lowa,
Illinois, Nebraska, Missouri,
Indiana, and Minnesota.
According to Rogers,
producers feel nothing will be
lost if there is a delay of a few
years until the technology to
effectively eradicate PRV is
available. NPPC also
requested USDA withdraw its
federal pseudorabies
regulations pertaining to the
interstate movement of hogs.
Pork producers seem to be
asking for problems mstead.of
trying to solve them. Why?
Economics, paperwork, time
and labor? All of these seem
HAVHAWS
I ' /
V ,\
Thanks again, Clair, for our anniiai Dairy Month
vacation. I enjoyed the whole afternoon.
Board
yeas and • nays 9
like lame excises when
considering a disease that
wipes out profit in one fell
swoop.
It seems most producers are
looking-for a vaccine to save
the day. But, these PRV
vaccines camouflage the
disease any hog that has
been vaccinated reacts to the
PRV test. It’s impossible to
differentiate between a
diseased hog and a vaccinated
one at this point.
But, there may be hope on
the horizon. The lowa State
University is -working on a
subunit PRV vaccine.
In a letter to Secretary John
Block, lowa' Congressman
Berkley Bedell ‘‘strongly
urged” financial support of
this research, stating, “If its
use were made practical, the
subunit vaccine would reduce
the loss from the disease and
slow the spread of the virus.
Unlike available commercial
vaccines, it would allow for
differentiation . between
vaccinated pigs infected with
pseudorabies and vaccinated
pigs that have not been in
fected.”
Bedell estimated it would
cost $400,000 over a four year
period, in addition to the
funds the university already
has committed.
Bedell said he was “greatly
concerned about the
pseudorabies problem" and .
that it “makes more sense to.
spend a few well-placed
dollars now to prevent sub
stantial and more costly losses
among hog producers later."
Let’s hope hog producers
-soon start sharing this
legislator’s concerns.
' r '
Background Scripture
Deuteronomy 4:15-49.
Devotional Reading:
No matter how wise the
teachings, no matter how beautiful
the rituals, nor authoritative the
scripture, no religion can long
remain, fresh and alive when its
adherents lose the experience of
the divine presence. Many of the
problems which we face in our
churches today can be traced, I
believe, to our failureto maintain a
first-hand ‘religious experience.
God cannot help but be remote and
ineffective in our lives when' our
source of contact with him is
second and even third-hand.
Religion cannot help but seem
remote when most of our activity is
relegated to talking about God as
an article of faith or an abstract
idea. People and particularly
the younger generation today
reject Christianity, not because
our Christian teachings are
unattractive, Jnit because we have
failed to convince others that we
have ever been in communion or
relationship with the God we
profess. '
He Let You See and Hear
In Deuteronomy 4 tire are
reminded that what made God so
real to the Hebrew people was not
the presuasiveness of the Hebrew
NOW IS THE TIME
To Check Lighting -
For Layer*
One of the cardinal rules of
.poultry management is to never
decrease the light period of flocks
in production. Most - flock
■ managers would never ' in
tentionally decrease the day length
to a flock in production but we are
in the season of the year when this
can happen accidentially.
Most are in light
controlled not light-tight housing.
The major sources of lightleakage
are the exhaust fans and air'ih
takes. Bullet-flocks placed in the
laying'house during the late fall,
-winter or spring canhe given a 14 To Control Flies
hour day. summer approaches The good growing conditions that
andpatural dayjength exceeds 14 we - ve experienced this spring for
hours, layersm non-hght tight - ft e id crops* also favor the build-up
housing will be exposed to arum- of fly pulations . JThe good
creasing day length dueto thehght moisture presents ideal conditions
entering the building through the for m to devel nies
faiw and air intakes. Tins increase We ]i / estodk and
m day length causes no problem poultnT operators use residual
The longest day occurs on June 21 msecticide f on th eir buildings and
and f« c - re “ es De f m^ r 2 l - pit walls to cut dowh on the fly
It is this decrease in day length p Co biem. Materials such as Rabon,
that can cause layers ogo out of - Va K orlan. Ectiba and
production unless, the time clock*
conti-oUmg the lights are* read- of the xea} keyS , for contro!, is to
♦l1 st to i pr^ d ?», the laye - rs J” 111 use different materials at different
the day length they received on Intervals to break the cycles.
*2? i*- -ft u •- > One of the -most important
The fwopoinfs to remember are: practlces in keeping down the
irf U^^ t i«. la C rfh rS !? number of flies is to qlean up the
unless* time 1 clocks place^d
are reacl J“s t «9 areas. Manurepacks and other
on thedayersm non-hght < debpis go( £f eeding
tight houses could be exposed to . places v
f P n Jf tent, ° nal de ° reaSe m day Good sanitation' along with in
~ secticides can-keep flies -Under
control. Always follow" label in
structions fof ratesof application.
{ i t.'
(Turn lo Page Al 2)
63®
Be Alert For
Annyworm Activity „
We" have seen armyworm ac
tivity in wheat and corn fields and
‘ 1
THE PRESENCE
June 28,1981
Hosea6:l-6.
By Jay Irwin
LancMtw C*unty Africuttiir* AaxK
Wmm7l7-3M0151
priests nor the brilliance of what
they said about God. What made
God so real to the Hebrew people
' was their experience of his
presencelntheir lives. In the midst
of their needs, they encountered-
God in a living experience. They
saw what he did and they heard his
voice: “on earth he let you see his
great fire, and you heard his words
out of the midst of the fire.”
The key to the Hebrew religion
was always the Hebrew experience
of God. “And because he loved
your fathers, and chose their
descendents after them, and
brought you out of Egypt with his
own presence, by his great power.
.. know therefore this day, and lay
it jto your heart, that the Lord is
God in heaven above and on the
earth beneath; there is no other”
(4:37). For the Hebrew, God was
never just a great idea, but a
profound experience of the divine
presence.- They believed in him
and covenanted with him, not
because it was logical, but because
it grew out of their experience.
His Own Presence
Have you experienced the
presence of God in your own life? If
you have, you don’t need any
arguments about the existence of a
Divine Being. But, if you haven’t,
why haven’t you? Is it that God
chooses not to reveal himself to
you? Is it that the expenence of
God’s presence is limited to a
' chosen few or a Bygone time?
.Or is it that you haven’t
recognized the presence in your
life because you haven’t allowed
yourself to be aware of it? In The
Lark, a play about Joan of Arc, the
Dauphine of France is Jealous
because Joan’s “voices” come to a
simple maid and not himself. But
Joan explains, “They do come to
you, but you do not listen.”
God is present, even if we are
oblivious to him.
have received several reports of
activity'from farmers iir the New
Holland-Leola areas. They have
started to snip off heads of grain
and consume com plants. As of the
19th, the worms were quite im
mature and infestation-appeared
to be spotty. Thus, recom
mendations for widespread
spraying did not appear to be
necessary. However, we urge
farmers to check their fields,
closely, to report any activity
observed and, ask for control
recommendations by contacting
the Extension Office.