Hog farmers who might be resistant to the idea of participating in an Area Regional Control and Elimination (ARC&E) program for PRRS (Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome) because they don’t think it’s a problem need to listen to Brent Sandidge’s story.
Brent is a successful producer located in Saline county, Missouri. He was not on the program here at the ARC&E Working Group workshop today hosted by Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) in Chicago, but he showed up to find out more about implementing a program in his area and to tell his story.
“A year ago, I wouldn’t have been here – PRRS was the last thing on my mind,” Brent told the group. But, his operation and a couple of others nearby experienced a major PRRS outbreak in May of this year. “In about a five week period, we hauled off 619,000 pounds of dead (animals),” he said. “We’re about a 3,000 sow farm and it’s roughly going to cost us about $3 million this year.”
Brent believes the disease came from the poor handling of an accident involving a truckload of pigs that had just left his farm. He’s not positive that’s where the outbreak originated but he says it made him decide to spearhead a PRRS ARC&E program in Missouri. “We’re in the process of getting negative again, we’ve got funding from the Missouri Pork Association, we’ve got a committee formed,” and the reason he was at the workshop today was to find out what they need to do next.
Listen to Brent’s story here: Brent Sandidge
A growing number of the projects are being implemented around the country, thanks to the strong support of BIVI. Today’s workshop was focused on ways to overcome challenges in implementation, as well as the progress that has been achieved. BIVI will be sponsoring a more general workshop on Area Regional Control and Elimination of PRRS here tomorrow, just prior to the kickoff of the 2010 International PRRS Symposium.