In the pregnant sow, infection by the virus can result in stillbirths, abortions, and mummified fetuses. Several domestic animals are susceptible to natural infection including cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, and cats. Horses and birds are resistant to natural infection, and man is not susceptible. The disease also affects a wide variety of wildlife. Pseudorabies in susceptible animals, not pigs, is with few exceptions rapidly fatal and not transmitted.
Herpes viruses have the ability to persist in their hosts forever.
This characteristic of latency that they possess allows the animal to suffer another episode of infection months or years after their original infection. Vaccines are available for Pseudorabies and they are very helpful in the control and management of the disease. They do not however, confer sufficient protection to resist natural infection in the host if the exposure is overwhelming. Pseudorabies in swine is a reportable, regulatory disease and our nation has for a number of years employed regulatory activities to greatly reduce the incidence of infection. Our potbellied pigs fall under the same authority as do commercial pigs and our goal is to have this disease eradicated completely within the next few years.