Iowa State University researchers estimate a viral disease cost the U-S pork industry more than one-billion dollars each year between 2016 and 2020. Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome or PRRS can be deadly for pigs, and it can reduce a sow’s ability to give birth to healthy piglets. Derald Holtkamp, an ISU professor in Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine, says it’s hard to stay ahead of PRRS because it mutates so quickly.
Researchers say the economic impact in 2020 was 80-percent higher than it was a decade ago, mostly due to higher rates of pig herds getting infected and poorer productivity in infected herds.
That includes taking extra precautions, Holtkamp says, like sanitizing livestock trailers.
