By Bruce Cochrane
The manager of the Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network is confident the development new tools to make it easier for veterinarians to submit data will encourage increased participation in the system.
The Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network, which has been operating for just over one year, allows swine veterinarians across Canada to share information on disease issues developing in their regions.
At this point about half of the veterinarians in Canada that work exclusively or almost exclusively with swine representing about 40 percent of production are participating.
CSHIN manager Dr. Chris Byra says, as the level of participation in the system increases, so will the level of confidence in the reports compiled from the data submitted.
Dr. Chris Byra-Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network:
The veterinarians that are participating in the clinical impressions survey and their part of the overall communication network have been very happy with it.
They have a better understanding of what's changing with health in the Canadian swine herd and they're able to use some of that information in their own practices.
The data network at this point has had different reactions in different parts of the country.
Nobody is opposed to it but it does involve a fair amount of work and I think that we need to develop some better tools so that it makes it easier, particularly for the larger integrators, to participate in it.
At the moment I've been speaking at many of the swine producer conferences around Canada and I will be at the Banff Pork Seminar and at the London Swine Conference in the spring.
It's given me an opportunity to get the producers to understand what we're doing with CSHIN and I think often they will be the push to further increase participation.
In addition we've made a number of project applications to develop tools that'll be useful to the veterinarian on both ends, one to make it easier for them to submit information and on the other end giving them reports that will be of more value to them to use to solve health problems on the farm.
Dr. Byra says people think there's value in the system but we have to make it easier for them to use it.
Source: Farmscape