Swine Health information Center Reports Progress on Multiple Fronts During 2023

The Executive Director of the Swine Health Information Center reports progress on multiple fronts during 2023.The Swine Health Information Center, as part of its January eNewsletter, has issued its 2023 progress report.SHIC Executive Director Dr. Megan Niederwerder says one of the key priorities in 2023 was the wean-to-harvest biosecurity research program.

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

We really wanted to enhance biosecurity in these phases of pork production thinking about the nursery, the grow-finish, the transportation to market and thinking about packing plant biocontainment to reduce the likelihood of pathogens coming back to the farm.We wanted to think about this in a comprehensive approach using both site and transportation biosecurity priorities.

The way in which we were able to do that was to leverage the relationship and the funds by collaborating with the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research as well as the Pork Checkoff to think about how do we put our funds together?We think about the top priorities for the industry and really try to advance our knowledge and our capability to enhance wean-to-harvest biosecurity.

In 2023 we funded 16 individual research projects utilizing this program and these projects are very diverse, looking at for example how do we effectively utilize manure pumping in a more biosecure manner?Also thinking about can we rethink the farm entry system, so think about showering in in a new way in the absence of water, perhaps using an air shower, thinking about how do we motivate our caretakers to complete biosecurity protocols and overcome some of the barriers to that adoption.

Dr. Niederwerder says we have a lot of great work that's in progress and we look forward to those results becoming available in 2024.
SHIC's 2023 Progress report can be accessed at swinehealth.org.