The Pennsylvania Pseudorabies eradication effort has made great strides in the last few years. In 1992, the Bureau of Animal Industry made a decision to begin a serious, coordinated eradication effort with the assistance of USDA,APHIS,VS. In the summer of 1992, two federal veterinarians were hired to do 100 percent pseudorabies and one state animal health technician was dedicated to assist them. Producers were personally contacted one by one. The federal and/or private veterinarians assisted these producers in developing herd cleanup plans. This effort has been paying off.

Pennsylvania is in Stage II. As of April 1995, there are 67 quarantined herds. Of those, 59 or 88 percent have developed approved herd clean-up plans. Most are utilizing "phased test and removal with vaccination." Nine herds are depopulating. It is estimated that 16 herds should be ready to come off of quarantine within the next six months. An additional 27 herds are anticipated to be ready to begin testing off within the next six months and thus should be ready for quarantine release within the next 12 months.

Two other aspects may be examined in order to characterize the eradication program. One is, how many producers are trying to clean-up, e.g. making a concerted clean-up effort? This is not necessarily the same as the number of producers with herd plans. Some have written herd plans simply as a method of fulfilling a requirement. Others, for personal reasons, are not comfortable with the idea of signing a herd plan, but are trying hard to cleanup the virus from their herd. Ninety-one percent of the herds are actively cleaning up (vs. 88 percent with plans). The number of herds which are still circulating virus gives an estimation of how much risk of area spread there is. By circulating virus, I mean either that replacement gilts and/or boars are becoming infected and/or the finishing floor is positive. Currently, 14 herds have evidence of recent virus circulation, 43 do not, and 10 herds have not tested recently enough to fairly asses this. Only herds which are circulating virus pose a threat to their neighbors.

This year, Pennsylvania is undertaking an area testing program. Although Pennsylvania utilizes slaughter surveillance, this will give extra assurance that we are locating all infected herds, including finishers, in the endemic area.

Pennsylvania will be eligible to enter Stage III when the number of quarantined herds drops to 57. Whether or not Pennsylvania will continue to make progress will depend on several factors: how many quarantined herds will be eligible for release, how many new herds will be located by area testing, and the threat of area spread. The main source of area spread will be two types of herds which are difficult to clean-up: herds in which the producers are unwilling to clean up and herds in which the producers are trying to clean-up but are not having any success. In order to minimize area spread, vaccination of all herds in the endemic area and biosecurity are emphasized via personal contacts, newspaper articles, and producer meetings. Pseudorabies is definitely a neighborhood disease. Hopefully, the producers in Pennsylvania will continue to work together to free the state of pseudorabies virus.