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Broad Reach Improves SHIC Research Results for Producer Benefit

The Swine Health Information Center will celebrate its 10th anniversary in July 2025. Launched in 2015 with Pork Checkoff funding, SHIC’s mission is to protect and enhance the health of the US swine herd. This is accomplished by minimizing the impact of emerging disease threats through preparedness, coordinated communications, global disease monitoring, analysis of swine health data, and targeted research investments. 

Research serves as a cornerstone of SHIC’s effort to protect and enhance the health of the US swine herd. “SHIC received the greatest number of research proposals and awarded the highest dollar amount for research projects in a single year in 2024,” said SHIC Executive Director Dr. Megan Niederwerder. “Matching funds and external grants have enabled SHIC to leverage Pork Checkoff investment and at the same time, expand both research breadth as well as funding capacity to increase return on investment.” 

SHIC has made it a priority to broaden the reach of its requests for proposals, encouraging participation from a growing number of organizations across diverse regions within and outside of the US. Broadening the reach of RFP awareness will expand the network of scientists conducting critical swine health research, increase competitiveness of funding awards, and advance innovation for pork producers in the protection of herd health.

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Season 7, Episode 4: Using Data to Better Manage PRRSV

Video: Season 7, Episode 4: Using Data to Better Manage PRRSV

PRRS continues to be one of the biggest challenges facing pork producers, but each outbreak can also provide valuable information about herd recovery, losses and the management decisions that follow.In this episode, Dr. Ana Paula Serafini Poeta Silva, a research scientist at Iowa State University, discusses the PRRS Outbreak Management Program, or POMP, and what researchers have learned from a database containing information from more than 700 breeding-herd outbreaks. She explains how POMP uses data from individual outbreaks to establish benchmarks producers can use to better understand what to expect during recovery, including potential losses and the time it may take for a herd to return to baseline production. The conversation also explores how PRRS management has evolved, including the role of live virus inoculation and modified-live vaccines.