The Executive Director of the Swine Health Information Center says developing more responsive surveillance will be a key focus during 2017. The U.S. based Swine Health Information Center was created to address new and emerging swine diseases. Swine Health Information Center` Executive Director Dr. Paul Sundberg says when it comes to swine diseases surveillance for detecting and quickly responding to emerging diseases, USDA and government need to be involved, veterinarians and producers need to be ready, willing and able to communicate emerging issues and the veterinary diagnostic labs need to quickly communicate results. [Source: Farmscape.ca, by Bruce Cochrane for March 15, 2017]
Clip-Dr. Paul Sundberg-Swine Health Information Center:
"The PED outbreak of 2013 was kind of a change in the tide of information sharing and coordinated surveillance. People wanted to know the status of their neighbors in order to affect their ability to manage or prevent that disease on their farms. That led to increased sharing of information, increased willingness to share information and to use that information in order to help manage the group of herds that are involved in an area. That affects surveillance and that has affected surveillance and our ability to effectively put into place surveillance systems that can detect emerging diseases and really the next step is how do we take advantage of that willingness to share information, whether it’s PED, PRRS, Seneca Valley Viruses or any of the other emerging things that have been identified. How do we take advantage of that willingness in order to do a better job with organized surveillance."
Dr. Sundberg says one of the things the Swine Health Information Center is going to focus on in 2017 will be to coordinate and facilitate those kinds of efforts.