Just as progress is being made on PRRS, another “mystery“ disease surfaces.

US - The newest “mystery disease“ is PMWS, or postweaning multi-systemic wasting syndrome. It shares many features with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS):

15 February 2006

2 minute read

Both started out as mysteries to scientists and veterinarians;
Both seemed to begin in Europe and slowly spread to North America;
Both are very economically devastating in the most severe form;
Both seemingly have a porcine-specific virus as their root cause;
Both have distinct strains that dictate the severity of the disease; and
Both have had scientists scratching their heads and arguing in the early stages of the syndrome.

The other similarity is the variation in clinical signs and severity between farms. Nearly every farm and population of pigs has evidence of circovirus — with some farms seriously impacted, and others showing little or no clinical signs. In some cases, there may be one finishing barn out of four with severe signs, while the pigs in the other three barns remain clinically normal.

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