Dr. Reid Philips is in an expert in all things PRRS and shared his knowledge in a presentation during the American Association of Swine Veterinarians conference in New Orleans. Phillips is a swine veterinarian in the Swine Health Division of Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI). More specifically he is the Technical Manager for the PRRS virus. One of BIVI’s key products is its Ingelvac PRRS MLV, a modified-live PRRS vaccine that helps to protect the pigs against respiratory and reproductive symptoms of PRRS.
During the conference Phillips gave a presentation that focused on a recent PRRS “challenge dose” study. It looked to evaluate the effect of challenged dose vaccinated pigs. He explained that challenge dose looks at vaccinates and non vaccinates and then challenges them with an infectious dose of the PRRS virus and then measures the outcome. “So what this study compared is vaccinated pigs to non vaccinated pigs and then challenging those different groups with different levels of virus,” said Phillips.
Phillips said there few quite a few things they learned. One, that they have known, is that vaccinated pigs perform better than non vaccinated pigs. “The vaccine helps pigs mitigate the consequences of infection.” In other words vaccinated pigs, for example average daily weight gain, saw the same performance as pigs that were not challenged.
But he said what might be more interesting is that pigs challenged with two logs or less performed equal to pigs that were not challenged. This is important for producers in that immunity matters. Pigs vaccinated who are challenged with the virus are performing as well as pigs who have never been exposed to the virus. “This is cool stuff,” added Phillips.
You can learn more about this PRRS research in this interview: Interview with Dr. Reid Phillips, BIVI
BIVI 2016 AASV Meeting Photo Album
