One of the most prominent health issues in the pork industry is
the porcine reproductive and repository syndrome virus (PRRSv).
It causes extended days to market for growing pigs and
reproductive problems in the breeding herd, such as increased
aborted pregnancies and stillborn piglets. In a survey done by
the National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) it was
revealed that 21 percent of hog operators had some form of the
virus infecting their herd. The paper attempts to explain the
costs of PRRSv for swine producers. Costs were explained for all
different stages of production in a swine operation. The costs
of PRRS in the breeding-farrowing phase was found to be $74.16
loss per litter. $45 of this cost was due to pigs that died
early, while $29.16 was from reduced farrowing rate. The costs
of PRRS in the nursery was $6.01 per head, this was mainly due
to increased mortality, reduced feed conversion and reduced
average daily gain. The costs in the grow finish stage was found
to be $7.67 per head on infec