USDA grant expands data-sharing initiative that reveals swine disease trends

After pioneering a system to improve swine health by collecting and publicizing pathogen testing results from large public veterinary laboratories across the Midwest, a team led by faculty from Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine is planning to bore even deeper to glean more insight from the vast data set.

With a grant from the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC), the Swine Disease Reporting System (SDRS) was founded six years ago by Dr. Daniel Linhares, associate professor of veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine and Roy A. Schultz Professor in Swine Medicine. The goal was to compile and analyze testing data from veterinary diagnostic labs to detect disease trends as they emerged, providing producers with an early warning system to prompt preventative responses such as increasing monitoring and heightening biosecurity measures.

“The SDRS provides that foundational data to educate the industry about pathogen activity in swine populations,” he said. “For the first time, it’s systematic and reported widely. It’s really a matter of knowing what’s out there and understanding that you’re not in the dark.”

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Published June 2023 by Iowa State University News Service.