Peoria seminar addresses pseudorabies problem
BY DR. LARRY HUTCHINSON
Extension Veterinarian
The Pennsylvania State University
UNIVERSITY PARK - Pork
industry leaders met in Peoria, H
on Jan. 20 and 21 to discuss the
future of pseudorabies control and
the prospects for eradication.
About 200 people attended the
National Pork Producers Council
sponsored seminar and they
represented a broad cross-section
of pork producers, researchers,
regulatory and extension per
sonnel, practicing veterinarians
and allied agribusiness groups.
Out of this meeting will emerge
recommendations for future
strategy toward this disease.
Pseudorabies is a virus disease
of pigs as well as other mammals
that has been of major concern to
the pork industry in the past
decade. Pseudorabies does not,
however, affect humans. While
pseudorabies (PR) is widespread
in the Midwest, the infection has
been diagnosed in only a small
area of southwestern Penn
sylvania. A national slaughter
survey conducted in 1984 revealed
that 8.5 percent of market hogs
carry antibodies agains PR, a sign
that they have been exposed to the
disease or to PR vaccine.
Participants at the Peoria
symposium discussed the
changing nature of the clinical
disease. Explosive outbreaks of
abortions, stillbirths and baby pig
losses are uncommon today but
can occur with exposure of a highly
susceptible herd to a large dose of
virus. Most PR herd episodes are
clinically inapparent, although
reproductive efficiency and feed
efficiency may be affected.
Pneumonia in feeder-age pigs is
increasingly being recognized as
one form of PR.
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Special Swine Report
New Technology
University and industry
researchers are developing tools
for diagnosis and control of
pseudorabies. Today, serum
neutralization and ELISA blood
tests are the standard test for PR
antibodies. Two new tests, a latex
aggultination test and an ELlSA
card test will soon be available.
Each will take 10 minutes or less to
run and can appreciably speed up
the identification of positive hogs.
At least five companies are
currently developing subunit
vaccines. These high-tech products
of genetic engineering may sim
plify the problem of identifying
blood test positives as either in
fection-caused or vaccine-caused.
Another new vaccine, with the
impressive name of thimadine
kinase deficient mutant, is being
field tested and may offer superior
protection than currently available
vaccines. Manufacturers of
several of the new types of vac
cines expect to have USDA ap
proval by late 1986.
Controlling Pseudorabies
Experience gained in Penn
sylvania and four other PR pilot
project states, as well as con
tinuing research, is giving us some
new insight into how the disease
spreads and what control methods
are most effective.
Movement of swine is the major
source of spread. Other animals,
domestic and wild, can spread PR,
but swine are the only significant
reservoirs of the virus. Cold and
moisture maintain the virus, but
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heat and drying rapidly kill the
virus. Recovered carriers will
shed the virus during periods of
stress, especially at farrowing.
The Livestock Conservation
Institute has developed suggested
clean-up plans for individual
herds. An updated version of these
guidelines reflecting new findings
from the five state pilot projects
will be available during March ’B6;
clean-up options include; -Test
and removal of blood test
positives. -Offspring segregation
with or without vaccine use. -
Depopulation and repopulation.
Each of these options has
variations to meet individual farm
needs. Any clean-up plan must
meet state regulatory
requirements.
Important elements in any
control procedure are sanitation,
traffic control, reduction of pig
density and frequent testing. Blood
testing of a statistical sampling of
each herd or group may yield
adequate information to assess
infection status. With killed vac
cine use, blood titers decline within
two to four months after vac
cination unless field virus is
present.
At the Peoria seminar, par
ticipants had ample opportunity to
discuss both the economic and
emotional costs of pseudorabies
and PR control. Owners of PR
infected herds varied in the
assessment of dollar losses. Some
felt that health and productivity
were unaffected. Estimates of
dollar losses due to a PR acute
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The Total Cost
outbreak in the Marshall County,
lowa pilot project was $153 per
sow, while the losses sustained in a
chronic PR herd were $ll9 per
sow. Many owners of quarantined
PR herds attested to severe
psychological stresses due to
quarantine, economic losses,
government regulations, and
public pressure.
Almost all participants in the PR
Symposium supported PR
eradication as a nationwide goal.
Some felt that the current
economic situation and/or the lack
Lancaster slates pseudorabies meeting
LANCASTER Dr. David Thawley, a national authority on
swine pseudorabies will address an open public meeting scheduled
for Wednesday, Feb. 5, 1986 from 1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. at the
Lancaster Farm and Home Center, Arcadia Road, Lancaster. Dr.
Thawley, of the Veterinary Microbiology Department, University
of Missouri, serves on the National PRV Technical Committee
involved wiht PRV Pilot projects in cooperation with the National
Pork Producers Council and USDA.
Dr. Thawley will bring the group up to date on current PRV
issues and will report on the PRV Symposium - Follow-up on Pilot
Projects held recentlly in Peoria, Illinois.
While in Pennsylvania, Dr. Thawley will also address the Penn
sylvania PRV Planning Committee and meet with State Secretary
of Agriculture, Richard Grubb and BAI Chief Max A. Van Buskirk.
Wheat offer to Zaire
WASHINGTON - The U.S.
Department of Agriculture has
announced that a wheat offer to
Zaire will be the fourteenth
initiative under the U.S. Depart
ment' of Agriculture’s Export
Enhancement Program. As with
previous announcements under
this program, sales will be made at
competitive world prices.
USDA said this program will
give U.S. exporters the opportunity
to sell up to 40,000 metric tons of
wheat including a Commodity
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ot adequate technological tools
made immediate steps toward
eradication undesirable. A widely
expressed sentiment was that all
segments of the pork industry and
perhaps other segments of the
livestock industry at risk should
share in the costs of eradication.
The debate on pseudorabies
eradication, both here in Penn
sylvania and across the nation, is
bound to continue. This recent
conference in Peoria has moved up
a step closer to a national con
sensus on where we go from here.
Credit Corporation bonus in the
form of wheat to be provided to
U.S. exporters from CCC stocks.
The CCC bonus will enable U.S.
exporters to compete at com
mercial prices in the Zaire market
in response to future tenders for
wheat.
The announcement and in
vitation for offers from exporters
will be issued in the near future.
For further information call
William R. Randolph, (202 ) 382-
9254 or Larry T. McElvain (202)
447-6225.
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