Swine Health Information Center Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring Report Expanded to Include Influenza A Virus

The Swine Health Information Center's monthly Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring Report has been expanded and now includes data on the prevalence of Influenza A virus in U.S. swine herds. The Swine Health Information Center's Domestic Swine Disease Monitoring report is distributed through its monthly enewsletter and can be accessed through its web site at swinehealth.org.

SHIC Associate Director Dr. Megan Niederwerder notes the report released this month was the 50th since the system was creation.

Clip-Dr. Megan Niederwerder-Swine Health Information Center:

Over the years that this reporting system has been in place there has been an increase in the number of diagnostic labs that have been involved but also the number of pathogens and so we have added Influenza A to our detection system, and so we're getting real time data on the Influenza A detection in the U.S. swine herd. There was additional funding that was put forth to add Influenza A.

Of course, we're always looking for the priorities for the industry to make sure that we are covering the pathogens of interest in these disease monitoring reports. Influenza A is really considered still one of the three major causes of respiratory disease in U.S. swine and that also includes Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae and PRRS virus. From the advisory group's perspective, Influenza A and the addition of this virus was really an important component to broaden and increase the number of disease agents that were included in the report.

Then the next step is to look at how do you standardise the data across the different diagnostic labs so that it can be reported as aggregate data that really gives producers and veterinarians an idea of the general diagnostics and detection for Influenza A across U.S. swine.