Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is causing a significant economic impact on the swine industry worldwide. Several management protocols have been used to control PRRSV with varying degrees of success (1). There is only restricted cross protection against challenge with heterologous strains of PRRSV (2). A variety of strategies has been described for PRRS eradication: total depopulation/ repopulation, partial depopulation, segregated early weaning, test and removal, mass vaccination and herd closure for spontaneous virus spreading (3, 4). The first and the most important are to evaluate whether we can keep the system negative during and after the eradication/elimination program. The second step is to create an infected, recovered and immune population of reproductive animals. To reach this aim the closure of the farm from the introduction of replacement animals is necessary (3). Vaccination, serumization or spontaneous natural spreading can achieve a simultaneous immunity of the breeding herd (4). The aim of the study was to prove the effectiveness of PRRSV elimination by natural spreading of PRRSV on a small pig farm in Slovenia
COBISS.SI-ID: 3368826
Molecular epidemiology study was performed on 60 PRRSV collected in 48 positive herds and was based on 258 nucleotides of ORF 7 (genome position 14.673 - 14.927 in the Lelystad virus, GenBank acc. no. M96262). Genetic diversity of detected PRRSV revealed the circulation of least nine distantly related PRRSV strains circulating in positive pig farms in Slovenia with an 85.3 – 100% nucleotide identity to each other. All sequenced PRRSV from 48 herds belong to subtype EU-1. In 33 (68.7%) PRRSV positive herds, almost genetically identical PRRSV strains (96.9 - 100% nucleotide identity) were identified (representative strain SI-Stra8t/2010, GenBank acc. no. HQ213911) confirming the intensive transmission of PRRSV between these herds in region with dense pig population, but the detection of PRRSV from this cluster revealed only 92% nucleotide identity with the closest sequence in GenBank.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3368314
Production of pig meat in the world remains in the first place compared to other types of meat and according to forecasts the production will continue to increase. On the global level, the pig production has become extremely competitive industry. It should provide safe food at competitive prices compared with other foods with high protein content. Development of technologies increases efficiency, with the main objectives of quality and quantity of the product and reduction of production costs. In the field of reproductive technologies is the most important development of artificial insemination. In pigs, the most widespread form remains intracervical insemination with diluted semen. In the area of selection to the established set of economically important traits the new ones are added, which do not always have economic value. Genomic information will be added to the classical prediction of breeding values in the near fututre. In the field of housing technology, emphasis is on animal welfare, also under the influence of consumers and the public opinion.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2965128