SHIC CONTINUES RESEARCH FOCUS ON WEAN-TO-HARVEST BIOSECURITY

Jul 10, 2023

The Swine Health Information Center, along with the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research and Pork Checkoff, will soon be awarding another round of funding for Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity-related research projects in response to its second call for proposals. Because not all the research priorities were sufficiently addressed, SHIC continues to invite proposals within the Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Program to address this identified vulnerability to swine health and producers’ opportunity for profitability, to stretch SHIC’s producer Checkoff funds to safeguard the health of the US swine herd, and to help control the next emerging disease in the US pork industry.

SHIC, in partnership with FFAR and Pork Checkoff, launched the two-year Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Program in the fall of 2022. Research proposals were invited with the intent of investigating cost-effective, innovative technologies, protocols, or ideas to enhance biosecurity during the wean-to-harvest phases of swine production. Round one projects launched in March 2023. Round two projects are expected to begin in July-August 2023. A pool of approximately $2.3 million is available for the program, with approximately $1 million being awarded to the first round of projects.

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Video: Four Star Pork Industry Conf - Back to Basics: Fundamentals drive vaccine performance

At a time when disease pressure continues to challenge pork production systems across the United States, vaccination remains one of the most valuable and heavily debated tools available to veterinarians and producers.

Speaking at the 2025 Four Star Pork Industry Conference in Muncie, Indiana, Dr. Daniel Gascho, veterinarian at Four Star Veterinary Service, encouraged the industry to return to fundamentals in how vaccines are selected, handled and administered across sow farms, gilt development units and grow-finish operations.

Gascho acknowledged at the outset that vaccination can quickly become a technical and sometimes tedious topic. But he said that real-world execution, not complex immunology, is where most vaccine failures occur.