Farmed Pig Respiratory Disease | Animal Welfare Hub

Respiratory disease in pigs including PRRS and enzootic pneumonia causes significant suffering and economic loss, and prevention requires environmental management as much as vaccination.

Key Facts

Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) is the most economically significant pig disease in Europe
Air quality in pig buildings with high ammonia and dust levels dramatically increases respiratory disease risk
All-in-all-out batch management reduces pathogen pressure between groups
Vaccination can reduce PRRS severity but not eliminate disease in infected herds

Welfare Considerations

Pigs with respiratory disease experience laboured breathing, fever, reduced feed intake and lethargy over days to weeks. PRRS causes reproductive failure in breeding animals and high pre-weaning mortality in some outbreaks. The primary drivers of endemic respiratory disease are environmental: inadequate ventilation, overcrowding and continuous production without cleaning periods all increase disease pressure. Environmental improvement has higher welfare impact than treatment-based approaches.

What You Can Do

Support pork certification requiring environmental standards including ventilation and air quality
Advocate for stocking density limits that reduce respiratory disease pressure
Choose pork from producers demonstrating low antibiotic use as evidence of disease control success
Back research into batch production systems that reduce endemic respiratory disease in pigs