The Swine Health Information Center funded a project to generate a data-driven swine disease index through monitoring swine pathogen activity using confirmed tissue-based diagnoses from Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. This initiative aimed to provide a transparent, automated, and reproducible method to help veterinarians, producers, and stakeholders prioritize disease threats based on real-world diagnostic data. The resulting disease index monitors swine pathogen activity and identifies emerging threats. In addition, the index can be adapted and integrated into the SHIC-funded Swine Disease Reporting System for continuous monitoring.
To build the swine disease index, 59,950 porcine cases from 2020 to 2024 were utilized. Four key factors were considered:
- How often a disease was diagnosed
- How often a disease appeared alongside other diseases, i.e., co-diagnosis
- How widespread it was across U.S. states
- How frequently it triggered statistical alarms for unusual activity within a year
By combining multifactorial epidemiological variables rather than relying on occurrence alone, the index captures both pathogen prevalence and broader dynamics such as geographic spread and co-disease patterns. These factors were weighted and combined into a single score for each disease, updated weekly for the ongoing year, and displayed in an interactive dashboard that will be housed on the SDRS website, available in early 2026.
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