SHIC Adds Influenza A Virus Monitoring Data to its Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring Report

The Associate Director of the Swine Health Information Centre reports statistics on the monitoring and detection of Influenza A virus have been added to the monthly domestic swine disease monitoring report.As part of its February eNewsletter the Swine Health Information Center has released its monthly domestic and global swine disease surveillance reports.

This month’s Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring Report, compiled through the Swine Disease Reporting System on behalf of the Swine Health Information Center, brings a new chart for weekly monitoring of Influenza A virus PCR detection.SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says the newly implemented monitoring capability provides information about Influenza A detection enabling comparison to the historical trends.

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

Influenza A is one of the top viral and health challenges that pig producers face.This was actually a request from stakeholders to be added to the reporting.
This is going to be looking at case submissions for Influenza A but also looking at different types over time of what is being submitted.

This can be used by veterinarians and producers to track, what is Influenza doing in their systems?Does it respond to vaccines or are vaccines appropriate and what age group is this occurring in?This is a very good addition of a pathogen that is still very active out in the industry and a lot of people will benefit from the continued monitoring.

Dr. Becton notes, the full domestic and global swine disease surveillance reports as well as archived reports and other swine health information can be accessed through the Swine Health Information Center's website at swinehealth.org. She also encourages stakeholders to sign up for SHIC's eNewsletter to receive monthly swine health information directly to their inboxes.