PRRS: Denmark runs large-scale area control project

“Sow farms that were virus positive when we started the programme are doing a lot better now...also, we have less airway disease in the growers and finisher pigs regarding problems that are secondary to PRRS”

Hear from Danish swine veterinarian Dr. Kristian Havn how 40 farms in an area of western Denmark have been taking part in an area PRRS control programme over the past two years. Dr. Havn devised the programme after attending a training course where details were presented of area-level eradication of PRRS virus on a smaller scale in Iowa. One lesson had been the value of encouraging the area’s swine farm operators to work together as a team. The farms in Denmark occupied a pig-dense part of the country with a history of PRRS problems and they varied in size up to 1,450 sows. To update everyone on progress, large maps were created on which colour coding showed when a farm was finally cleared of the virus.