Ingelvac PRRS KV - Reduces reproductive loss due to PRRS

PRRS is now endemic in the UK. The disease infects all herd types including those with a high health status and both indoor and outdoor units, irrespective of size. It can enter the herd by various routes, e.g. movement of carrier pigs, airborne transmission (up to 2 miles), contaminated vehicles, equipment or clothing.

The disease causes impairment of reproductive function in sows as well as respiratory disease in growing pigs.

Reproductive PRRS is associated with abortions, weak and stillborn piglets, early farrowing and a reduction in reproductive performance. Infected nursery piglets are weak and prone to secondary infections. Many farms infected with PRRS considered to be largely under control, have still to recover the reproductive performance they experienced before PRRS arrived in the UK.

Until recently, there has been no vaccine available to protect farmers from the reproductive losses associated with PRRS.
Now, there is Ingelvac PRRS KV.

Ingelvac PRRS KV helps reduce infection rates
(stabilise the herd)

Once the PRRS virus has entered a herd, animals that become infected show sustained viral shedding and short lived immunity. Once a herd is infected, the infection may persist for a number of reasons:

• A few months after infection, sows produce antibodies against PRRS that protect them from new infections. However, after a few months, the level of antibodies decreases thus making previously resistant animals susceptible to re-infection.
  
  
• It may take up to a year in large breeding herds for the infection to spread around the farm. This means that at any one time there will be groups (sub-populations) of animals in the farm that have become newly infected and, as a result, are shedding the virus.

• Gilts introduced into an infected herd are unlikely to have any immunity to PRRS and will therefore be susceptible to infection circulating in the herd.

• Maternal antibodies passed on to piglets are short-lived, leaving them susceptible to virus transmitted from older groups of previously infected growers.

Sows vaccinated with Ingelvac PRRS KV produce fewer infected piglets and pass on better colostral immunity.

Control through vaccination and proper herd management

Eradication of PRRS from a breeding herd requires complete or partial depopulation followed by extensive disinfection measures, and so is not always the most cost effective method of re-establishing a negative status.

Any repopulated herd is then at risk of re-infection due to the endemic nature of the disease. Effective management of PRRS is the most likely way of achieving successful control.

Your veterinary surgeon may already be working with you to run a multi-step PRRS control programme for your individual farm.

Such management programmes may differ from farm to farm since not all farms? needs are the same. There are, however, some basic rules that can be applied generally to all pig farms, regardless of size. They are:

• High standard general hygiene. This applies not only to the animals and their housing but also to the staff on the farm, e.g. disinfection of footwear and change of clothing from unit to unit. Reproductive PRRS is associated with abortions, weak and stillborn piglets, early farrowing and a reduction of other reproductive parameters.
  
  
• Herd-wide diagnostics - to determine the pattern of PRRS infection in your herd. Diagnostics are imperative in determining the relevance of the disease to the clinical picture being presented and to help understand what is happening on your particular farm.
  
  
• Strict piglet management programme. Good husbandry, no retention of underweight piglets, no transfer of animals between different age groups, optimal occupation densities and litter balancing no later than 24 hours after farrowing.
  
  
• Gilt acclimatisation and breeding-herd stabilisation. Until now, this has been the most important of all disease control measures since the introduction of susceptible gilts to a PRRS-positive herd can have disastrous consequences. Equally, actively infected gilts will provide additional sources of infection for the rest of the herd.

A 60-90 day, off-site quarantine period makes good management practice and provides the ideal opportunity to vaccinate pigs with Ingelvac PRRS KV, so ensuring more uniform immunity on entry to the breeding herd.

Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome in a pig breeder operation is a challenging disease that needs to be managed by the farmer and the veterinarian in a concerted manner. Once infection has occurred and the PRRS status has been diagnosed, a multi-step procedure should be established to meet the individual farm?s needs. The ultimate objective of these efforts has to be to stabilise the disease occurring on site in order to regain the reproductive performance that the farm had before the infection.

Ingelvac PRRS KV is a killed vaccine based on a European strain and will be an essential part of most PRRS control programmes. It is administered to sows and gilts to reduce reproductive loss due to PRRS such as premature farrowing, stillborn and mummified piglets, so leading to the production of more live and weaned piglets. The weaning-to-service interval is also reduced.

In addition, Ingelvac PRRS KV helps stabilise the immune status of the herd, so reducing circulation of the virus.