Key Points from the 5th Asian PRRSpective

Boehringer Ingelheim staged its fifth Asian PRRSpective Symposium last May 10, 2011 in
Bangkok, Thailand. As Dr. Behrens said, the event intends to update swine specialists on the latest
scientific researches on PRRS and effective solutions in keeping it under control, in a manner of bridging
Science, and practical applications in combating PRRS in the region. Taking part in the event were pig
producers, veterinarians, academicians and government officers from the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam,
China and Korea. The symposium provided updates on evolution of highly pathogenic PRRS (HP-PPRS)
in Asia and strategies to better control the disease. Scientists and field practitioners from USA, China,
Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines presented their latest findings on PRRS.

Professor Micheal Murtaugh spoke about Challenges and Progress in immunological control of
PRRS. According to him, current control measures like biosecurity, air filtration, and herd closure can
effectively eliminate and prevent PRRS, but are not permanent solutions. It does not address
mechanisms of protection, mechanisms of the memory response that is very important to protection
against future infection with genetically distinct PRRSV isolates. Genetic variations due to high rates of
nucleotide substitution and recombination in the viral genome in both Type 1 and Type 2 PRRSV-new
strains of highly virulent or pathogenic PRRSV have appeared. Infection with these virulent viruses
resulted in devastating PRRS outbreak. Immunological combat is the only alternative. However, vaccine
induces a protective immune response that varies in efficacy as observed in field trials. Vaccine failure
and inconsistent protection against heterologous strains has been a constant challenging issue of which
remained a major constraint of developing better vaccines for PRRS prevention and control. To better
understand how immunity be used to control PRRS, Prof Murtaugh made glimpse on immunology,
identifying the components and mechanism of immune response. Innate Response ( IFN, TLRs, and
Inflammatory cytokines) mobilizes antigen-presenting cells and activates B and T lymphocytes. Adaptive
response (TH1/TH2 Paradigm), induced by nature of given antigen that generates a response that
specifically targets that same antigen. Immune memory cells respond to future exposure by the same
pathogen or antigen. Soon after, discussed pathogenicity or virulence of PRRS and highlighted
differences between two PRRSV type, PRRS type 1 (European strain) and type 2 (American strain). As
mentioned, Type 1 PRRSV have low virulence level on respiratory system, medium virulence on
reproductive system, low to medium peak viral load or viremia and incapable of inducing an innate
interferon. Type 2 virus on the other hand have high peak viral load, highly virulent on both respiratory
and reproductive system and have innate interferon induction ability, adaptive response is not delayed
and resolution of response is complete. In lieu to these, Prof Murtaugh made remarks on cross protection
properties of Type 1 and Type 2 vaccines. Type 1 vaccines cannot mount solid protection against PRRS
type 2 viruses. In contrast, Type 2 vaccine provides solid protection for both type 1 and 2 PRRSV.
Furthermore, he emphasize the potency of MLV over killed vaccines and that vaccines used in the U.S.
are predominantly modified live which have been effective in disease severity as compared to Killed
vaccine which do not work consistently as observed in Darwin Reicks trials and other field trials as cited in
his presentation. Current imperative concern with PRRS vaccine is that risk of ML virus reversion to
virulence. In addition, killed, subunit and DNA vaccine may enhance disease particularly on highly virulent
heterologous challenge. PRRS virus is constantly changing, strain that is more virulent will probably
continue to appear, and yet little improvement has been made to improve the efficacy of vaccine. Key
challenging factors that scientist has been mitigating over the years are uncertainty about the viral targets
of protective immunity, Inability to establish clear immunological correlates of protection and great genetic
diversity of PRRSV. Despite the challenges, progress is being be made. Sequencing of the swine
genome is providing a rich source of primary knowledge of gene structure and transcriptional regulation
that is starting to show insights about the mechanisms of anti-PRRSV immunity. Interaction of PRRSV
with pigs lead to new insights that genetic variation in pigs contribute efficacy of protection, scientists
currently working on anti PRRS or PRRS resistant gene marker. Discovery of a Novel Orf in segment
RNA’s may lead to indentifying targets of protective immunity that has been current limitations in the field.
 Prof Hanchun Yang presented updates on current situation of PRRS in China. He made a brief
introduction about atypical or HP- PRRS. The Chinese highly pathogenic PRRSV (HP‐PRRSV) belongs
to the genotype 2 PRRSV with 30‐amino‐acid deletion within its Nsp2‐coding region: consecutive deletion
of 29 amino acids at position 533‐561 and one amino acid deletion at position 481. NSP2 is a marker
used to differentiate highly pathogenic Chinese PRRSV over North American PRRSV but it cannot define
highly pathogenic strains of PRRSV. Phylogenetic analysis suggest that NB‐04( 2004) and BJ0706
(2007) could be the origin or the intermediate virus during the evolution of the Chinese HP‐PRRSV and
undergone gradual variation and accumulation progress of genome changes. In 2009, 43 Nsp2 genes
were sequenced and amplified from samples taken from PRRS positive pig farms. As indicated in the
result, 36 sequences had the same 30-aa deletion with the HP-PRRSV and one sequence had additional
deletion and insertion besides 30-aa deletion. Last year, more than 10 strains of HP-PRRSV were
isolated. Currently, HP-PRRSV is still the dominating virus strain that caused great economic losses to
China’s swine industry. It is not well controlled, outbreaks frequently occur in pig farms particularly in the
backyard, small and medium scale pig farms characterized by high morbidity ,mortality, and massive
abortion . What is more challenging is the presence of co-infection with other agents like PCV2, CSF, Mh
and other pathogenic bacteria that leads to high morbidities and mortalities. Current strategies and
perspective for PRRS control of which China is taking into consideration are test and removal, whole herd
depopulation and repopulation, herd closure, regional elimination, strict bio-security measurements, good
management and vaccination. As for vaccination, they have tried using killed vaccines like CH-1a, SD,
and JXA, which are derived from previous strains of PRRSV, and HP-PRRS still results were not
promising, KVs are less effective. Commercial attenuated live vaccine derived from the HP-PRRSV has
been considered and becoming a major measure for prevention and control of PRRS. However, they now
confronting problems and concerns on clinical safety of MLV, like pathogenicity to pregnant sows
(causes clinical abortion on vaccinated in-pig sows), pathogenicity to piglets (causes clinical disease on
vaccinated piglets), immune suppression on vaccinated pigs, reversion of vaccine to virulent viruses,
recombination of vaccine virus with field virus. As an endnote, Prof Yang said that HP-PRRS is still a big
problem for swine producers in China and it will continue to exert impact on Chinese swine industry for a
longer period and it will be more complicated swine disease in China that they have to face in the future.

Prof Thanh Long To, talked about An Overview of PRRS in Vietnam from year 2007-2010.
According to Prof Long To, pork is one of the most important agricultural products, contributing 58% to
the total agricultural GDP in Vietnam. Eighty percent of the swine producers were primarily backyard
raisers or small scale farming (5-20 heads) and twenty percent comprised the commercial group raiser
or medium to big scale farming (200-10000 heads). As described by Prof Long To, commercial scale
farms have good farm practices, good hygiene, health-care and management condition and always
invest on feeds, medication, and vaccine. In contrast, small-scale farms have poor farm practices, poor
hygiene, health-care and management condition and rarely invest on feeds, medications, and
vaccines. As cited, Red River Delta forms the main area of intensive
pig production in Northern Vietnam and constitutes the prime location of pig diseases, including
the highly virulent PRRS. HP-PRRS has been confirmed present in Vietnam since 2007 and detected in
14 provinces leading to 20,366 euthanatized pigs. Serious outbreak occurred in 2008 of which 300,906
pigs from 28 provinces were destroyed. In 2009, outbreaks declined, about 5,874 pigs were destroyed,
and only 13 provinces were affected. It was last year 2010 that an upsurge of outbreaks observed
affecting 49 provinces and 457,708 pigs were destroyed. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that PRRSV
isolated from 2007 to 2010 were homologous to the Chinese HP-PRRS virus. As described by Prof Long
To, outbreaks occur like storm, suddenly happen, rapidly spread, and subside quickly. Outbreaks were
controlled but later recurred. Late detection and reports contributed to the rapid spread of disease and
difficulty of managing or controlling PRRS outbreak. Uncontrolled or illegal movement of animals within
and outside the affected area paved the way of spreading the outbreak. Prof Long To identified
numerous challenges in eradicating HP-PRRS in Vietnam like insufficient understanding of PRRS and
PRRSV. Lack of trained and experienced staff particularly at the grassroots level. Laboratories operate
under considerable restraints of insufficient funding and inadequate equipment and supplies of
chemical reagents. Majority of hog raisers were backyard or small-scale farms with poor practices and
biosecurity measures. Uncertified movement, trading, slaughtering of pigs, which facilitates
transmission of disease. . To mitigate the condition, VMARD developed and issued PRRS prevention
and control regulations. Strengthened outbreak investigation and monitoring. Built quarantine facilities
for imported stocks. Implementation of bio-security measures in all farms. Imported vaccines from
China and Germany against HP-PRRSV and conducted series of tests and field trials. Currently, some
vaccines have been registered but usage is still limited because vaccination against HP-PRRSV is not
obligatory primarily rely on farmer’s desire to use the product.

Dr. Kelly Lager presented results of experiments on equating pathogenicity of rJXwn06 HP-
PRRSV with VR-2332 NA prototype PRRSV in 4 weeks, 10 weeks old pigs, and efficacy of Ingelvac
PRRS MLV vaccine against HP-PRRSV and VR2332 on 4 weeks old and 10 weeks old challenge pigs.
Under Biocontainment lab, pigs from 5 groups under 4 weeks and 10 weeks old were infected through
intranasal inoculation with a sham inoculants (control group1), low dose of rJXwn06 (group2), high dose
of rJXwn06 (group3), low dose VR2332 (group4) and high dose VR2332 (group5). In summary, similar
response were observed in all non-vaccinated pigs in all experiments. RJXwn06 infected pigs (both 4
weeks old and 10 weeks old) developed severe disease, apparent weight loss and mortalities however
low mortality rate was noted among older group in contrast to the younger group. VR-2332 infected pigs
showed mild clinical signs of PRRS and nil mortality. Control group appeared clinically normal.Both young
and older groups of pigs vaccinated with Ingelvac PRRS and challenged with HP-PRRSV were less
affected or less morbid and less mortalities observed as compared to non-vaccinated pig groups. On the
other hand, vaccinated pigs of both age group challenged with VR2332 did not manifest clinical signs of
PRRS. As shown on results, Dr Lager inferred and suggested that HP-PRRSV is very pathogenic strain
that induced severe disease. It has a strong immunomodulating capacity that affects the pig’s
homeostasis allowing secondary bacterial infection to manifest as acute clinical disease. Lower mortality
rate in older pigs suggest possibility of age differences in susceptibility as a commonly observed in other
PRRSV studies. Result in experiment 3; showed that Ingelvac PRRS MLV significantly reduced clinical
signs caused by PRRSV.