Monitor outcomes to ensure long-term PRRS control success. Track diagnostic results and pig performance data across sow, grow-finish, and whole production systems to detect low-level virus circulation, guide decisions, and move herds toward stable or negative status.
The Guilty Gilt Guide was written with a clear objective – to maximize the whole-herd performance of pig populations by helping gilts to reach their full reproductive potential and produce healthy pigs that reach their full genetic potential during grow-finish.
The open reading frames (ORF)5 represents approximately 4% of the porcine repro- ductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV)-2 genome (whole-PRRSV) and is often determined by the Sanger technique, which rarely detects >1 PRRSV strain if present in the sample.
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is an important swine pathogen affecting the global swine industry.
Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) is the most costly viral disease in pigs around the world. Estimated annual costs in the US alone are $664 million (Holtkamp et al. 2013). Although much emphasis has been placed on development of preventative measures to control the spread and impact of PRRS, including vaccination and regional eradication efforts, PRRS continues to be a major problem in the industry (Darwich et al. 2010, Huang and Meng, 2010, Chand et al. 2012).
We propose that the strong humoral immunity bias of the host response to PRRSV is mostly responsible for the difficulties in the development of a vaccine deemed effective in the field.
This presentation will review the experiments collaboratively conducted between our laboratory and that of Dr. Federico Zuckerman at the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign. These joint experiments are focused on obtaining a better understanding of the events that characterize the early and convalescent periods following PRRSV infection in swine. We have studied the infection by PRRSV in groups of gilts, young weaned pigs, and sexually mature pigs using viral isolation and several virus detection methods, including RT/PCR, in situ hybridization (ISH), and immunohistochemistry (IHC). At the same time, the PRRSV-specific humoral (ELISA and SN) and cellular (IFN-gamma prod cells) responses were studied in these animals. Regarding early pathogenesis of PRRSV, we have extensively used the techniques of ISH and IHC to detect the cells and tissues that are targeted during early infection with pathogenic strains of PRRSV. We found some important exceptions to the generally accepted concept that macrophages are the main (or only) type of cell to be infected by PRRSV in vivo.