Swine Veterinarians Participate in New Swine Disease Surveillance and Response Initiative

September 19, 2012 — 

The Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network reports over half of the swine veterinarians in Canada took part in the first round of surveys conducted as part of a new swine disease surveillance and response initiative. The Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network, created on behalf of the Canadian Swine Health Board, allows swine veterinarians to share information on disease issues developing in their regions. Information collected through regularly scheduled clinical impression surveys is summarized and discussed at one national and three regional meetings. Dr. Chris Byra, with Greenbelt Swine Veterinary Services, says more than half of the swine practitioners in Canada participated in the first survey.

Clip-Dr. Chris Byra-Greenbelt Swine Veterinary Services:

The network uses an on-line survey called fluid surveys.

We use this tool to ask veterinarians about diseases that they've encountered in the previous three months and to assess whether they're increasing or decreasing and also to comment on changes in treatments that work and don't work or no longer work, new diseases that show up, the new look of some diseases, the new clinical signs they may see with some diseases.

We're looking for changes.

The whole thing is geared to what's changing from the previous three months. The information then is gathered, we end up having a discussion about it, we bring in laboratory information and we're still trying to set that component up and we end up coming out with recommendations from that. All practitioners that service pig farms in Canada are invited and we may have missed a couple the first time but we intend to have every veterinarian who services swine farms be able to add their input through this clinical impressions. A small group does the discussion and a report comes out. The reporting so far has been by email but in the future it will probably include a discussion forum and some web based tools for the people.

Dr. Byra says by having a system where new disease information can be easily shared these diseases to be controlled more quickly.

Source: Farmscape for September 11, 2012 (Episode 4234)