Change is Necessary to Fight PRRS

Cindy Zimmerman

Since Porcine Respiratory and Reproductive Syndrome (PRRS) has been a problem in the U.S. hog industry for more than 20 years and is costing producers nearly $600 million per year, Boehringer Ingelheim (BIVI) is working with the industry to find and implement changes that will help control and even eliminate it.

Dr. Dale Polson, a member of the BIVI Area Solutions Team for PRRS which leads the company’s Area Regional Control and Elimination (ARC&E) efforts, says their concept is a game changing strategy of producers, veterinarians and industry working together. “We’ve got to do things differently to make progress because we’ve been dealing with PRRS for so many years,” he says. “So we just have to fundamentally change the way we approach it and that’s where change the game comes in.”

BIVI introduced the idea of ARC&E about three years ago and Dale says it is slowly gaining momentum. “Success builds on itself,” he says. “What we’ve seen is that people are starting to recognize that this is working better than what we were doing and could work even better if we have more areas involved.”

Listen to my interview with Dale here here: Dale Polson

2010 BIVI PRRS Area Regional Control Workshop photos

Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Swine