Testimonial of a Veterinarian

"We have been battling with PRRS now for over 20 years. In the early phases (late 1980's) we thought that the clinical course would be easy to control and that the release of a commercial vaccine would solve our problems. The first indicators were that a farm would go positive and then be fine after the acute phase. After the first few years, previously infected farms started to show acute clinical signs again. The research was showing that the virus could, and was, changing. No longer was being positive to PRRS a shield against other strains. The commercial vaccines appeared to be helpful at first but as the virus diverged from its origin they became unpredictable. They have still shown to be beneficial in reducing the losses associated with PRRS breaks in growing pigs but have not been able to adequately prevent the transfer of virus across the placenta in pregnant sows. I believe this is mainly due to the unpredictability of the cross protection.

The path has been littered with attempts to solve the PRRS problem but so far none have satisfactorily done so. I myself initated and used the process of live virus inoculation (LVI) to at least get homologous protection. This process has worked well to stabilize farms but at the risk of bad clinical outcomes. The lack of creating cross protection has always left the farm at risk to the next virus strain.

Now a new generation of potential solutions has emerged. I am excited about the idea of having the ability to create cross protection due to a greater understanding of how the PRRS isolates are immunologically different. Over the years using LVI, I have had experiences that have left me wondering about the immunological differences between PRRS strains not explained by nucleotide sequencing. Dr Kim at MJ Biologics has given me what I feel today is the answer. His research and developement pertaining to immunological groups has given me more detailed information allowing me to explain the failures in LVI protection. This along with Dr Joo's vaccine development will give me the tools and information to create a diverse protection plan for the sow herds. This protection will then provide me the opportunity to consistently create PRRS negative weaned pigs. I am very excited about these new tools and the role they will play in our ability to deal with this devastating disease and keep producers safe from catastrophic losses."

Mark Fitzsimmons, D.V.M.
2006 Swine Practitioner-of-the-Year
Eagle Lake, Minnesota