November 3, 2000

National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) President Craig Jarolimek has praised the announcement of $56 million to continue the accelerated pseudorabies (PRV) eradication program (APEP). Jarolimek, a pork producer from Forest River, ND, said the disease costs pork producers $30 million each year and severely limits the opportunity of U.S. producers to market their hogs in Canada, complicating export efforts.

Pseudorabies is a virus that causes reproductive problems in pigs but is not infectious to humans. When APEP began in January 1999, pseudorabies was present in hog herds in 15 states. Since the program's inception, 1,046 herds have been cleaned up. Today, about 390 infected herds remain, mostly in northern Iowa. Currently, there are 37 states completely free of the disease and six states that are in the qualifying stage for PRV-free status.

APEP funding will indemnify producers for the value of their animals, assist in the purchase of vaccines and create a national surveillance program able to respond quickly and efficiently to any PRV outbreaks.

Jarolimek urged all pork producers with infected herds to take advantage of the program. "We have squeezed the virus down to a small geographical area and now we want to finish it off," Jarolimek said. "This funding will give us the ability to launch a full scale assault on the remaining infections while helping positive producers stay in business, protecting negative producers and developing an on-going, cost-saving national surveillance system."

USDA said the money will be used to compensate hog producers and for preventive measures. It is part of a multi-year effort, which began in 1998, to accelerate eradication of pseduorabies in the United States. The money will allow USDA to pay hog farmers fair market value for the voluntary destruction of swine herds known to be infected with pseudorabies. Similar activities will be funded as needed in fiscal year 2002.

Most of the funds will be used in Iowa, where 98% (about 375) of infected swine herds are located. During this past winter and spring, the number of pseudorabies swine herds increased significantly in Iowa due to mild winter conditions, the spread of disease as a result of swine movements, and decreased vaccination due to lowered swine prices last year. There is one infected herd in New Jersey and one in Tennessee.

With these funds, USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, in cooperation with state officials, will depopulate severely infected herds while paying producers fair market value for their infected hogs, remove infected hogs from herds not depopulated, vaccinate and test all herds surrounding an infected herd, enforce compliance with vaccination and movement requirement regulations, and enhance surveillance efforts to ensure all infected herds are found rapidly. This year's program will place a greater emphasis on prevention of the disease.