SHIC Renews Funding for Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project

The Swine Health Information Center has renewed its support for the University of Minnesota’s Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project. The Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project, administered by the University of Minnesota with funding provided by the Swine Health Information Center, tracks swine health across more than 35 production systems in 28 states representing more than 3.5 million sows and is the largest voluntary swine health project in the United States.

SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says the project provides swine disease knowledge and tools that support the swine health industry.

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

The Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project was established in 2011 in response to veterinarians and their producers looking at ways to try to combat PRRS and understand what are some of the strategies that could be involved with looking at different health strategies including potential elimination. However, it was determined at that time there needed to be a way to be able to monitor and track herd health status over time, not just on one farm but in multiple farms in Multiple areas of the country and so the Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Program was developed.

The project was developed for different objectives but a lot was to monitor trends and pathogen incidents and prevalence focussing on PRRS, PED, Porcine delta coronavirus, Seneca virus and other central nervous system associated viruses. That was a very big component of the program. Also, it was really important to conduct prospective monitoring of PRRS sequence evolution and its impact. Then lastly, it's really to expand and continue participation of producers to continue to show progress and increase the scope of the program.

Dr. Becton says it's important to have ongoing baseline monitoring information to determine the best plan for each individual farm and system. Information on the Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project can be accessed through SHIC's May eNewsletter which can be found at swinehealth.org.