April 25, 2013

Canada's pork producers are finding value in a Canadian Swine Health Board programme for certifying swine herds as free of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

This is according to a report by the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board.

Mark Ferguson, the manager of industry and policy analysis with Saskatchewan pork, says approximately 2,000 pork producers were asked to share their views on the value of certifying herds to be PRRS-Free.

PRRS is one of the most significant swine herd health challenges and it costs the industry about 130 million annually so a PRRS Negative Certification Pilot, it was approved by the Swine Health Board in 2010 and it was completed in December of 2012.

Basically the programme developed a points based certification system for establishing freedom from PRRS and information on premises that were enrolled was available in an electronic on-line database for buyers and suppliers to access.

It was originally established as a western Canadian pilot project but it was made available to any producer across Canada that did want to participate and there were just below 100 participants in the pilot programme.

Ferguson said the study found the cost to producers for PRRS free herd certification to be fairly low, about US$0.11 per pig. He said only about 15% of producers felt this type of programme would actually result in lower costs to verify the PRRS status of swine herds however the majority, about 58%, felt certified stock would be worth more.