We are getting more and more, "by the way" admissions on the extent of PRRS in the British Isles.
The situation is clearly very serious, and that the apparently legal veterinary import and export of semen (or germplasm) is to blame for these inter- continental movements of disease extending into movement within country.
Yet the UK Minister of Agriculture is off again on the infamous Imaginary Illegally Imported Infected meat tack, getting panicked in NZ over PRRS, worrying about FMD, what sandwiches people eat on aeroplanes and what happens to the crumbs.
His veterinary advisers are winding him up and sending him off in the wrong direction.
Nothing new for Britain or Ireland.
One day, Joe Public or Arthur Farmer is going to catch on that the veterinary industry are spreading livestock disease and blaming everyone else.
The full Pig Site article, based on an Irish veterinary publication, Veterinary Journal Ireland, can be found here
PRRS Control Measures in Place
29 April 2013IRELAND - Measures have been put in place to control Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) since the virus was found at a breeding station earlier this month.
In early April, it was confirmed that a major boar stud supplying boar semen to 70 per cent of the pig farms in the country tested positive for PRRS (also known as Blue Ear), according to Veterinary Ireland Journal. The problem now is that the virus is transmissible in the boar semen and that many of the herds inseminated during March are now testing positive for PRRS.
PRRS is a Class-A disease of pigs, present on the OIE list of scheduled and notifiable diseases.
According to the Journal, about 40 positive pig herds had been identified Ireland up to this recent infection. Stringent controls were in place to control the disease spread until now...
