Iowa State University Creates Real-Time Swine Disease Surveillance System

Using data routinely collected on the farm, researchers with Iowa State University have devised a real-time swine disease surveillance system to detect swine diseases regionally. With funding provided by the Swine Health Information Center, researchers with Iowa State University have developed a real-time, county-and farm-type stratified spatial disease surveillance system for swine pathogens to detect diseases at a regional level.

SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says the model was developed to assess the regional threats that farms see on a daily basis and be able to identify a potential disease threat utilizing data that's collected on farm everyday, such as movement data, diagnostic data and even farm location.

Quote-Dr. Lisa Becton-Swine Health Information Center:

This is a modeling system that assesses farm specific data and analyses the relationship of the different data to provide a surveillance and disease detection system. It comprises data from over three thousand sites and ten major production systems. This surveillance system utilizes Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus or PRRS as the pathogen of interest.

Again, this uses real time data from farms so it evaluates disease diagnostic data, animal movement data and site location and really assess PRRS transmission.Again, this happened at farms across 18 different sites and 10 different production systems so it's a robust ability to be able to utilize this model to assess the risks that occur across the regions studied.This system was intended to give both producers and their veterinarians a means to assess potential disease risks and areas of improvement for biosecurity to reduce those disease transmission risks.

And it provides an area to look at how they can continue to incorporate their disease diagnostics, animal movements and other site data to help reduce risks of disease entry.Anyone interested in learning more about this system or joining as a participant is invited to check out the Swine Health Information Center's November eNewsletter which can be found at swinehealth.org. For more visit Farmscape.Ca.