Protecting the health of the U.S. swine herd through disease monitoring and research is a goal of the National Pork Board (NPB) and the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC). Dr. Paul Sundberg with SHIC said the program was started back in 2015 using Pork Checkoff dollars with the sole purpose of focusing on emerging diseases.
“Swine health Information Center’s trying to do for producers is to fill a gap of not just foreign diseases that may be happening somewhere else, but also maybe something emerging within the country,” Dr. Sundberg said. “And so that’s how we work together.”
National Pork Board’s Chief Veterinarian Dr. Dusty Oedekoven said the collaboration with SHIC not only benefits the producer, but the herd veterinarian as well.
“It’s great resource to go to and find information on summaries of disease reports,” Dr. Oedekoven said. “We get the swine disease reporting system out there, regular updates that come to animal health professionals, veterinarians out there that are that are working with the farmers. They can be aware of disease trends by following reports that are provided by SHIC.”
Dr. Oedekoven said the joint effort last year established an industry priority list for African swine fever preparedness.
“The need to deliver information to producers on how they can be better prepared: what do they need to do, what actions can they take to be better prepared for ASF,” Dr. Oedekoven said. “And along with that, a number of other priorities that have guided our work here. So, producer involvement is absolutely critical.”
Dr. Sundberg stressed the main focus will always be getting the producer fingerprints on all the programs, so they know they are headed in the right direction to benefit the industry. Visit swinehealth.org for detailed information about SHIC and porkcheckoff.org for Checkoff-funded resources.