When it comes to disease, the hog industry is dealing with a veritable bowl of alphabet soup.
Those diseases include PRRS and African swine fever at the top of the list, says Chris Rademacher, Extension swine veterinarian at Iowa State University.
The biggest culprit at the moment appears to be PRRS, a virus that costs hog producers billions of dollars annually. But there have been new technologies developed that could help the industry better deal with this virus.
“There is new technology out there, but it’s all in the early stage yet,” Rademacher says. “This includes the work the Pig Improvement Company is doing with a PRRS-resistant pig. They are still waiting for FDA clearance for this gene-edited animal.”
Iowa State University Extension veterinarian Chris Rademacher says the U.S. swine industry has improved when it comes to biosecurity, and that will help lessen the spread of disease.
Rademacher says a couple smaller companies are working on something similar.
He says the use of a modified live vaccine over the last 3 to 5 years has worked well at times for hog producers. Rademacher says because of all the different strains of the PRRS virus, it makes it more of a challenge for researchers and producers alike.
“If you use a live virus, there are risks, and you need to be aware of those,” Rademacher says.
When it comes to disease, much of the industry has focused on developing a vaccine for African swine fever, which “exploded” in China in 2019, he says.
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There have not been reports of ASF in the United States, but it has been found in countries geographically close to the North American continent — in Haiti and the Dominican Republic in late 2021.
“The virus is very complicated,” says Daniel Rock, a professor of pathology at the University of Illinois. “There are 170 different proteins in the virus, so we are trying to identify those proteins that are critical and those which are not. We have found three or four that we think are really important. It’s a good start.”
Rock says there are questions as to how the vaccine might be used. Most likely, he says it would be used when there is a real threat of ASF coming into the United States.
“It’s something that we would look to be used in the face of an outbreak,” he says. “The value there would be to curtail the spread of the virus any further.”
Rock says it’s vital that the vaccine be safe as well as effective.
He says the scope of research has widened over the past few years, with work being done both in the U.S. and internationally.
“Things are really picking up,” Rock says. “Right now I would say that we are on a steady course, and we believe it is possible to develop an ASF vaccine. We are cautiously optimistic.”
There are other diseases that plague the hog industry, and work continues on those, Rademacher says. That includes diseases such as PED and swine influenza.
Rademacher says the U.S. swine industry has improved when it comes to biosecurity, and that will help lessen the spread of disease.
“We are pretty good at managing disease, but we need to continue to work to be better,” he says. “There is always a threat out there.”
