Vol. 39 NO. 15
Producers Could Soon See PRRS Vaccine, Says Vet At Pork Congress
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
CAMP HILL (Cumberland Co.)
A vaccine for porcine reproduc
For the first time in its eight-year history, the Keystone Pork Bowl was won by an
FFA chapter, Mifflinburg FFA. From left, Dave Woodllng, coach; Matt Christ; Lucas
Criswell; Daryl Ebersole; Derrick Moyer; and Tom Moyer, Hatfield representative.
Winter Ice Storms Hard On Cattle As Well As People
HOPE HOLLAND
Maryland Correspondent
REISTERSTOWN, Md.—The
recent weeks of ice storms in
Maryland have had a tragic side
effect for dairy and beef cattle far
mers in the area. Many of the
state’s veterinarians have had to
spend much of their date destroy
ing cattle that have injured them
selves from falls in icy pastures.
During a conversation with Dr.
William Rosenberger of the Reis
terstown Veterinary Center in
northern Baltimore County, he
stated that he knows of at least 50
head of beef or dairy cattle that
have had to be destroyed as a
direct result of the ice storms that
have plagued the counties that
border the Maryland/
Pennsylvania line.
“I’ve probably spent most of
Experience Helps Dairy
Recover From Fire
RANDY WELLS
Indiana Co. Correspondent
INDIANA (Indiana Co.) In
years past, Indiana County dairy
man Donald Simpson has helped
four other farmers rebuild their
bams after they were destroyed by
fire.
That experience will benefit him
now.
On Saturday, Jan. 29, a flash fire
leveled the 98-year-old bam on the
Simpson farm designated three
years ago as a Century Farm
about three miles southwest of
Indiana.
Even while his bam was still
burning, concerned neighbors and
other farmers pressed Simpson for
a decision.
“What are you going to do?”
they asked.
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tive and respiratory syndrome
(PRRS) will be available within
the next 18 months. But for now,
producers can take steps to ensure
my time these past three weeks
just trying to get downed livestock
up on their feet and back onto safe
ground,” he says. “Farmers are
trying to use their tractors to help
lift the cattle, but even the tractors
can’t do anything on ice that is
sometimes as much as four inches
thick in the fields. I had one far
mer call me and ask what he could
do for five cows that were just lay
ing down out in his field and
wouldn’t even try to get up. He
said that he had gone out to get
them with the tractor, but that the
tractor had spun around three
times on the ice in the field and
almost turned over on him! I told
him that about all he could do was
to put water and hay in reach of
each cow and pray for a thaw!”
He went on to say, “I’ve had to
put a few horses down from inju-
The neighbors realized Simpson
and his wife Laßue and two sons
did not have the luxury of taking a
lot of time to decide what they
should do first to start rebuilding
the dairy business they have oper
ated since 1968.
In just a few hours, the Simp
sons’ 60 head of Holsteins would
need milked. Approximately
1,700 pounds of milk would need
chilled and stored. And almost
everything they needed to do that
was buried under the smoldering
debris of his bam.
Don Simpson made the deci
sion; The cows would have to
leave at least temporarily.
And once that decision was
made, dozens of other farmers and
friends took over.
(Turn to Pag* A2O)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 19, 1994
Wins Keystone Pork Bowl
the debilitating disease is con
trolled in their herds.
Three major companies are
“feverishly working” on the vac
ries sustained from falls on the ice,
but it’s the poor cattle that are get
ting the worst of it”
Dr. Lee Miller of Woodsboro
Veterinary Clinic in Frederick
County has much the same thing
to say. According to Dr. Miller,
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) An expanded animal clas
sification program, among a num
ber of other topics, was outlined
last week by leaders of the national
Holstein-Friesian Association of
America, during a local issues for
um at the Sheraton-East in
Harrisburg.
Marion Cantor dairymen Richard and Wayne Black, center and right, offer Don
Simpson some wrapped hay to replace some of the hay he lost when his barn burned
Jan. 29. A barn on the Black farm burned in 1975.
Holstein Association Outlines
New Classification Program
cine, said Dr. Tom Wetzell, South
Central Veterinary Associates,
from Wells, Minn. On Wednes
day, Wetzell told about 100 pork
producers at the Keystone Pork
Congress that once the vaccine is
available, it will have as good an
effect on controlling PRRS as the
PRV vaccine had on pseudorabies.
Wetzell spoke about the history
of PRRS and studies undertaken
recently to understand how the vir
us works and methods producers
can use to control it.
Increasingly, Pennsylvania
herds are being tested positive for
the virus in herds. The incidence of
PRRS, which was once called
mystery pig disease (MPD), swine
infertility and respiratory syn
drome (SIRS), and blue ear dis
ease, has steadily increased in the
major Midwest and southeast pro
ducing states since it was identi
fied in 1987 by researchers in
“Horses seem to have enough
muscle to sustain the shock of
these falls, and, from what I’ve
been seeing, they seem to fall on
their sides. The cattle fall more
awkwardly, or, even worse, do a
split when they fall and suffer
The meeting was one of many
held across the nation in an effort
for members of the board of direc
tors to better gauge member con
sensus on issues pending board
action at the HFAA annual con
vention, scheduled to be held in
Seatde during July.
Despite poor driving conditions
because of continued winter
storms, about 40 people from
Five Sections
Lelystad, Netherlands. But the dis
ease has been in U.S. herds, based
on serological evidence, since
1984.
The disease surged in herds in
1988 until methods of detection
and treatment helped decrease the
prevalence of the disease m the
ensuing years, according to
Wetzell.
The disease effects pigs from
3-8 weeks of age. “Naive herds”
those that have never tested
positive for the presence of the vir
us are most susceptible. In an
advanced infection, sows and fin
ishing pigs become off feed and
lethargic. They develop fevers
ranging from 103-107 degrees.
Newborn pigs start “thumping,”
which is rapid, shallow breathing.
There are abortions and early far
rowings. Stillbirths and mummifi
cation rates nse rapidly moitah
(Turn to Pag* A 34)
injuries to their hips and pelvic
bones. They seem to either break
their femurs, break the socket of
their hip joints, or wrench the ball
out of the hip socket and dislocate
their hips. I’m seeing a lot more
(Turn to Pago A 27)
around the state attended the all
day forum.
The forum was lead by two
national directors representing the
slate John Howard, of Willow
Street, and Thomas Kelly, of
Tyrone and by HFAA Vice
President John Cope.
Among a list of 10 major issues
slated for consideration before the
(Turn to Pag* A3l)
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