Overall objective: Identify key biosecurity measures to quantify probability of PRRSv outbreaks and promote targeted data-driven disease management and prevention.
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) costs the US swine industry more than $1 billion/year. Biosecurity and immunization have proven to be a successful combination to control PRRS in several countries. However, in the US, the development and maintenance of biosecurity programs is precluded by its high cost, especially when swine producers are constantly seeking to reduce cost per pig. Thus, there is a critical need for tools to identify the most effective biosecurity measures to optimize swine production at lower costs. Our goal is to leverage a national research and extension program to develop an easy-to-use biosecurity tool, available to all producers, and economically effective, providing the industry with the capacity to greatly curtail PRRS virus introductions.
We target extension activities to collect biosecurity information and PRRS virus outbreak data from two major pig production states, North Carolina and Iowa. Partnerships with industry stakeholders will ensure the success of our data collection and extension activities. The collected data will be used to develop a predictive tool to calculate specific farm’s probability of a new PRRS virus outbreak.
Extension and Continuing Education Material
Review of basic epidemiological concepts and definitions applied to swine diseases
Review of PRRSV virus, symptoms and economic impacts (NC State University, Dr. Juliana Ferreira)
Risk events for disease spread (Iowa State University, Linhares + Silva)
A comprehensive description of PRRSv global and local distribution
PRRSv Biosecurity Measures
Biosecurity 101 (Iowa State University, Dr. Silva)
A comprehensive review of quantitative biosecurity approaches (Iowa State University, Dr. Silva)
How to Use RABapp-biosecurity via MrIML
Overview of tool and its uses (NC State University, Abagael Sykes)
How to interpret the results — benchmarking (global) and local (farm-level) (NC State University, Abagael Sykes)
For the general scientific community — overview of mrIML-biosecurity (NC State University, Abagael Sykes)
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Publications
Funding
We are grateful for the funding agencies:
