| Summary: | In this study the authors surveyed and compared the Central European (Hungarian, Czech and Slovakian) vets’ and farm managers’ opinion on the critical risk factors and effective farm management of Porcine Respiratory Disease Complex (PRDC). From February to May 2014, 39 farm managers (32 from Hungary, 6 from Czechia, 1 from Slovakia) and 37 vets (26 from Hungary, 10 from Czechia, 1 from Slovakia) working on 75 farrow-to-finish swine farms with 82,500 sows were personally questioned about their opinion on the risk factors and successful management factors for PRDC. The findings revealed that lack of effective farm management and the relating prevalent, recurring, operational problems have the most detrimental effect on the PRDC status on the Central-European pig farms. The results show that the vets considered the majority of the PRDC general risk factors (e.g. housing) to be more reasonable than the farm managers, however, the perceptions of the severity of PRDC pathogens showed much more similarity. It can be concluded that the swine farm managers and vets in Central-Europe should more often conduct a systematic farm monitoring to avoid the operational blindness and to better understand the risk factors of PRDC.
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