SHIC Releases Results of Six Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Research Program Projects

The Swine Health Information Center has released the results of six projects funded through the Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Research Program. The Swine Health Information Center, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and Pork Checkoff, partnered in the fall of 2022 to fund and launch the 2.3 million dollar two-year Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Research Program.

SHIC Executive Director Dr. Meagan Niederwerder says six of the 18 projects funded under the program have been now completed, providing pork producers and veterinarians with knowledge and tools that can be applied on farms and in pork production today to improve biosecurity.

Quote-Dr. Meagan Niederwerder-Swine Health Information Center:

The goal of the research program is to investigate cost effective innovative tools and technologies, develop novel protocols and generate ideas to enhance biosecurity implementation during the wean-to-harvest phases of swine production, so thinking about the nursery, grow finish, market and even the transport that connects those aspects of the industry.

Really we wanted to think about the wean-to-harvest biosecurity research program as a comprehensive approach to enhancing biosecurity across three primary areas including bioexclusion, which is really the focus of preventing disease entry onto the farm, biocontainment which means we want to protect your neighbours or contain disease onto a single farm after it's been introduced and the transport biosecurity, so thinking about live hauls from the sow farm to the nursery, from the nursery to grow finish, from grow finish to the packer, thinking about deadstock and cull sows, thinking about how do we incorporate the transport aspect of the industry and maintain biosecurity of transportation to ensure efficiency of pork production.

Dr. Niederwerder says real-time results of all projects are shared as quickly as they become available for producers to implement knowledge gained on the farm and can be accessed through SHIC's website at swinehealth.org.
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