Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome is one of the most significant welfare and economic challenges in global pig production. Understanding PRRS helps advocates engage with pig health welfare.
PRRS disease welfare illustrates how production diseases simultaneously represent welfare failures and economic costs - making the business case for welfare investment unusually clear. Pigs with active PRRS experience fever, respiratory distress, and wasting that represent significant suffering. Sows affected during pregnancy experience reproductive failure that carries its own welfare dimension. The disease's persistence in infected herds creates chronic background welfare compromise that stockpeople normalize over time. National eradication programs like Denmark's demonstrate that coordinated industry action can eliminate the disease entirely, removing a major welfare burden at scale. Consumer demand for PRRS-negative pork creates supply chain incentives for eradication investment.