airborne – Swine in Minnesota

Is PRRSV 1C.5 more airborne than other variants?

Picture of an industrial fan generated by AI — Photo by Layla, generated with AI

The rapid spread of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus variant 1C.5 (aka L1C 1-4-4) a few years ago prompted the question whether this newly identified PRRSV variant was more transmissible through the air than other endemic variants circulating at that time in pigs.

The Torremorell research lab, in collaboration with faculty in the Swine Group at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine and faculty in Mechanical Engineering sought to answer the question whether aerosolization of clinically relevant PRRS virus differs among variants and if so, are the differences due to the particle size, load and viability of virus-laden aerosols, and whether infected pigs with different clinical affectation differ in their ability to generate airborne viruses. To address this question, we systematically evaluated the stability of variants in experimentally generated aerosols and also compared levels and trends of virus-laden particles in aerosols collected from experimentally infected pigs.

When the farm is exposed to a critical level of PRRSv in air, the probability of having an outbreak is four times higher for non-filtered farms: A retrospective analysis using wind data

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

Researchers Kaushi Kanankege, Seunghyun Lim, and Andres Perez at the University of Minnesota examine wind data and find that farms exposed to a critical level of PRRSv in the air are four times more likely to have an outbreak if they do not have air filtration.

Aerosol Detection and Transmission of PRRSv: What Is the Evidence, and What Are the Knowledge Gaps?

Aerosol transmission of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus is a major issue hog producers have had to deal with for several decades now. It encouraged the development of air filtration systems in farrow-to-wean farms as well as the isolation of high-value genetic lines in remote areas. This new publication, a collaboration between Dr. Arruda at the Ohio State University and Drs. Corzo and Torremorell from the University of Minnesota is a review of our knowledge of how PRRS is transmitted via aerosol.