Pseudorabies (Aujeszky's disease) eradication progress and program costs in Ohio, USA

The purpose of this study was to document how the Ohio pseudorabies (PRV) (Aujeszky's disease) eradication program has progressed to its current status from its initiation in 1977 to the present, as well as to project the year and program costs of eradication of PRV from Ohio, based on a retrospective study of data retrieved from records available on swine herds quarantined in Ohio. All swine herds newly quarantined for PRV from January 1985 to 31 December 1992 (n = 446) were eligible for the study, 374 (84%) of which had useable data available. Projected year of PRV eradication from Ohio was 1996. Information on detection methods of newly infected herds were only available for 52 of the 374 (14%) data files reviewed from 1985 through 1992, with laboratory diagnosis accounting for 30 of 52 (58%). 'Area spread' was identified as the most likely source of PRV infection of newly quarantined herds in 140 of 194 (72%) for which data files were available from the time period 1985 to 1992. Information on herd plans used in the same time interval were available for 285 of the 374 data files (76%). The median number of months under quarantine per herd from 1986 to 1992 were 7.7 months, 6.2 months, 5.9 months, 5.1 months, 17.3 months, 18.9 months and 12.3 months, respectively. Finally the average yearspecific cost per herd-month under quarantine representing 54% of herds released from quarantine for each of the years 1986 through 1992 ranged from $795 in 1990 to $2999 in 1992 and were based on the total amounts of money available and spent in the Ohio PRV eradication program. According to the cost analysis of the period 1993-1998, eradication of PRV can be achieved in Ohio, as projected, by 1996 at a minimum public cost of about $3.7 million discounted to 1992 dollars.