Approachable and Practical

Jan 07, 2026

The data was readily available to swine producers.

But the College of Veterinary Medicine Field Epidemiology Team felt more was needed.

A monthly Swine Disease Reporting System (SDRS) podcast has been created and maintained by the Field Epidemiology Team to fill that void.

“While monthly reports and real-time updated dashboards provided detailed data, the podcast turns those findings into conversations that are more approachable and practical for busy professionals,” said Dr. Quyen Thuc Le, research assistant in the Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine. “Because episodes can be listened to while driving, commuting or working, the podcast format helps us reach a wider audience and share timely context from investigators and guest experts.”

The SDRS podcast has been running since April 2022 and is released monthly. Ranging from 20 to 30 minutes in length, the podcasts feature discussion among SDRS investigators and guest experts.

Each episode highlights diagnostic data trends, emerging pathogens and their implications for the swine industry while making complex findings accessible and practical for veterinarians, producers and students.

SDRS monitors and reports diagnostic data for 10 primary swine pathogens. Additionally, over 50 confirmed porcine diseases from tissue cases are covered.

Swine veterinarians, producers, researchers and industry stakeholders from around the globe all tune into the podcast

“By sharing timely insights in this accessible way, the podcast has become a key channel for connecting with the industry and supporting informed decision-marking,” Quyen Le said. “Our goal is to ensure that diagnostic trends are not only available, but also meaningful and useful in everyday decision-making.”

SDRS is a collaborative project funded by competitive grants from the Swine Health Information Center and the USDA. The report aggregates diagnostic data from multiple U.S. veterinary diagnostic laboratories, monitoring across the United States while focusing on states that have more than 2 million pigs.

Source : iastate.edu

Video: Screening Nursery Ingredients - Kynna Crawford

In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Kynna Crawford, Graduate Research Assistant at South Dakota State University, discusses how Plackett-Burman designs can help screen nursery diet ingredients for early post-weaning feed intake. She explains why low intake after weaning contributes to stress and mortality, how screening trials can evaluate multiple ingredients in a single study, and how the approach can support both research and commercial nursery nutrition decisions. Listen now on all major platforms!

Click here to read the full research article: https://academic.oup.com/jas/article/...

"A single screening trial can help identify which nursery ingredients deserve deeper research for early post-weaning feed intake."

Meet the guest: Kynna Crawford / kynna-crawford-a2610a3aa is a Master's student in Animal Sciences at South Dakota State University, where her work focuses on swine nutrition and nursery pig management. Her research examines strategies to alleviate weaning stress, including dietary approaches and screening tools to identify ingredients that may promote early feed intake. Learn more from Kynna Crawford on The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, available on all major platforms.