August 5, 2024

US pork industry suffered US$1.2 billion damages yearly from PRRS during 2016-2020, analysis found

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) caused an estimated US$1.2 billion per year in lost production in the US pork industry from 2016 to 2020, an 80% increase from a decade earlier, according to a new analysis by an Iowa State University expert.

The disease has been present in US swine herds since the mid-1980s and remains a growing threat, said Derald Holtkamp, professor of veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine.

"After 40 years of experience fighting this virus, veterinarians and producers are still losing the battle against PRRS," said Holtkamp, who led the new research and a 2012 study that estimated the virus caused US$664 million in annual losses from 2006 to 2010.

The sharp increase in economic damage caused by PRRS isn't driven by changes in market prices, production cost or the size of the US pig inventory. Those factors only account for about US$108 million of the US$536 million increase in annual losses, Holtkamp said. The other US$428 million is attributed to the portion of herds affected by PRRS and the differences in productivity between affected and unaffected herds.

The new estimate relies on weekly herd disease status data gathered by a swine health reporting programme at the University of Minnesota and productivity data collected from pork producers by Iowa State postdoctoral researcher and study co-author Henry Osemeke.

Holtkamp presented the study earlier this summer at the International Pig Veterinary Society Congress in Leipzig, Germany.

- National Hog Farmer