Farmscape for January 22, 2026

A professor with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine says a range of factors need to be considered when formulating strategies for addressing Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome.
Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, a viral disease that affects all ages of pigs, can be transmitted from pig to pig, through feeders, waterers or other equipment, through transportation and through the air.
Dr. John Harding, a professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Scieinces with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, says PRRS costs the swine industry a lot of money but, in certain cases, the cost of eliminating the infection can't be justified.

Quote-Dr. John Harding-Western College of Veterinary Medicine:
It can be a very challenging disease that causes a lot of treatments, extra antibiotic use, mortality, reduction in efficiency and productivity so take the disease very very seriously.
It is one of those that we're going to live with because it's not going away.
If you have or work in a PRRS negative farm, congratulations.
Take measures to keep it that way.
If you're in a positive farm but it's stable, you may choose to live with it and the strains that we're dealing with in western Canada quite often are not that severe so it will be costing but it won't be excessive at this point in time.
You may also want to eliminate it and if you do eliminate it, it may return unless you have good biosecurity.
That's part of the problem we see in the U.S., that they eliminate a strain and every two years they get reinfected with a new strain and that's just because of their biosecurity and their hog density.
Take this into consideration before you make any plans to eliminate it.
What is the risk of you breaking again?
And, if you can't eliminate it or you would likely rebreak if you tried, the control options to be honest are quite limited.
You can use vaccination and that works to some degree but no vaccines are 100 percent effective so you need to have a good discussion with your veterinarian about your best options.

Dr. Harding says. when you see PRRS move across regions in waves, a lot of that is driven by location and hog density.
He says, if you're in a very densely populated area with lots of other hog farms, it's difficult to stay negative.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers