Category Archives: Animal Health

Research proposals investigating tongue tips as a novel diagnostic sample type are now being accepted as part of a recently released SHIC RFP. Diagnostic investigation of tongue tips from stillborn pigs and neonatal mortalities may be used to gain information about PRRSV, or other pathogens, circulating during gestation and being vertically transmitted from the gestating sow to her litter. Tongue tips might also be used to monitor viral pathogen horizontal transmission in a variety of ages of pigs. Research into the use of tongue tip monitoring will help provide producers and their veterinarians with critical information that they may need to effectively respond to an emerging disease outbreak.

National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility directors and research leaders invited Swine Health Information Center Board of Directors members and staff to tour the new facilities in Manhattan, Kansas, in late July. The tour and presentations provided insight into the new facilities’ abilities to achieve its mission of protecting the US livestock industry against transboundary, emerging, and zoonotic animal diseases. The team also explored potential collaboration to meet SHIC’s objectives of minimizing the impact of emerging disease threats through preparedness, and targeted research investments.

The Swine Health Information Center’s (SHIC) August Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring Report is available.

The Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project, funded in part by the Swine Health Information Center, continues to monitor trends in pathogen incidence and prevalence. Now, a new MSHMP website optimizes the project’s information sharing ability for both the participant and swine industry communities at https://mshmp.umn.edu/. MSHMP staff say the website represents a significant milestone in their mission to enhance collaboration and communication within the swine industry.

Annoying. Bothersome. Irritating. Inconvenience. Pest. No matter how you describe Musca domestica, aka the house fly, and its friend the gnat, one thing’s for sure – they are a nuisance and pose a threat to your swine herd.

The Swine Health Information Center’s Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Research Program, funded in collaboration with the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research and the Pork Checkoff, has selected five additional projects for funding after review of round two proposal submissions. This brings the total number of projects awarded by the program to 15 for addressing a significant biosecurity gap in US swine production. Institutions receiving awards in the second round are Lowe Consulting, Pipestone Research, Texas Tech University, University of Missouri, and University of Montreal. Real-time results of all projects will be shared as quickly as they become available.

Developing a plan for swine vaccination administration is more than a good idea. It can help producers keep various health considerations top of mind for their animals. Iowa Pork Industry Center has released a new publication in chart format that provides a list of diseases, time of administration, and based on risk, available product types. It also has a section for pet pigs.

The SHIC-funded Domestic Swine Disease Surveillance Program was founded in 2017 with the goal of monitoring and reporting diagnostic data and trends of endemic diseases in US swine. Starting in September 2023, diagnostic data from the Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at Purdue University will be included in the Swine Disease Reporting System. SDRS currently aggregates data from five veterinary diagnostic laboratories, including the Iowa State University VDL, University of Minnesota VDL, Kansas State University VDL, South Dakota State University ADRDL, and Ohio Animal Disease and Diagnostic Laboratory. With the addition of IADDL, the SDRS monthly report represents more than 96% of all swine samples submitted for testing across six VDLs in the US members of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network.

The Swine Health Information Center, along with the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research and Pork Checkoff, will soon be awarding another round of funding for Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity-related research projects in response to its second call for proposals. Because not all the research priorities were sufficiently addressed, SHIC continues to invite proposals within the Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Program to address this identified vulnerability to swine health and producers’ opportunity for profitability, to stretch SHIC’s producer Checkoff funds to safeguard the health of the US swine herd, and to help control the next emerging disease in the US pork industry.

The Swine Health Information Center’s (SHIC) July Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring Report is available.