New Training Videos and Written Guide Released to Support Standardized Outbreak Investigation Program Web Application

New training videos and a written guide have been introduced to assist end users of the Swine Health Information Center-funded Standardized Outbreak Investigation Program web application. The Standardized Outbreak Investigation Program web application, introduced in 2023, was developed by Iowa State University with the goal of standardizing the capture of swine disease outbreak investigation data in a secure database.

Swine Health Information Center Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says the program provides consistent data collection allowing risks for disease entry to be pinpointed and driving sustainable biosecurity practices by identifying those areas that present a consistent challenge to producers.

Quote-Dr. Lisa Becton-Swine Health Information Center:

Mostly people are utilizing this during an outbreak investigation to help identify the area of risk or potential cause for why the farm broke with a specific disease. It is important to be able to measure this to be able to improve or secure and shore up biosecurity to prevent further breaks from happening.

Having a standardized mechanism is important because it allows for consistent reporting and performance of an investigation because, at the end, there is a good ability to be able to aggregate and analyze results that are collected in a consistent manner that can both help the farm that is experiencing the outbreak identify their hazards but also provide the industry with an aggregate summary of where areas are consistently becoming a challenge when we look at overall swine herd health and how diseases are potentially gaining access to farms.

The information is really important because reports can be generated at the farm level and at summary levels to review what was found in the outbreak and be shared with the farm managers or other staff to identify areas of improvement for outbreaks.

Dr. Becton notes anyone interested in utilizing the web-based application will need to contact staff at Iowa State University to set up an account and initiate access. Further information on the Standardized Outbreak Investigation Program web application and links can be accessed through the Swine Health Information Center's December eNewsletter at swinehealth.org.
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