Pseudorabies (PRV) is a contagious disease that primarily affects swine, but it can also affect cattle, sheep, goats, cats, and dogs. It is particularly devastating to breeding sows and piglets. In adult pigs, the disease causes abortion and stillbirths, respiratory problems, and occasionally death. In newborn pigs, it attacks the respiratory and central nervous systems, causing incoordination, sneezing, coughing, and death.
Pseudorabies is usually spread by animal-to-animal contact between an infected pig that is shedding virus and an uninfected pig. The virus can also be spread on inanimate objects such as boots, clothing, and equipment. Breeding can also spread pseudorabies. Aerosol transmission through respiratory secretions can also occur. Recovered swine can carry the virus latently and may resume shedding it later. Biosecurity is the best defense against this disease.
Diagnosis often can be made based on prevalence of the disease in the area, history, signs, gross lesions or serologic testing. Serologic tests available include serum neutralization (SN), latex agglutination (LA), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Serologic testing is widely used for herd diagnosis. Accurate serologic tests that can differentiate vaccination antibody from wild type are commonly used as part of national disease control programs.
As of 2014, all 50 states in the USA are considered free of the disease in commercial pigs; however, the virus appears to be endemic in feral pig populations and has been identified on game ranches.