Swine Health Information Center Joins Canadian African Swine Fever Initiative

The Swine Health Information Center has become of a member of Canada’s Coordinated African Swine Fever Research Working Group

FarmScape Online

The Swine Health Information Center has joined forces with Swine Innovation Porc, the Canadian organization that facilitates cost shared federal, provincial and industry funded research, as a member of its Coordinated African Swine Fever Research Working Group.

Swine Health Information Center Executive Director Dr. Paul Sundberg explains this participation will create synergies that will extend beyond those two organizations to government research agencies in Canada and the United States and industry research programs.

“We’ve made some progress on surveillance, we’ve made some progress on prevention”

 

“One of the things that we’re working on with the Swine Health Information Center is trying to fill in research gaps just as quickly as possible.

“Some of things that the center has been involved in is diagnostics, the use of oral fluids, for example, to monitor and do surveillance for ASF, feed related research about feed survivability of viruses, transport of virus, those type of things.

“We’ve made some progress on surveillance, we’ve made some progress on prevention and I was asked to participate in this working group representing the Swine Health Information Center but really representing U.S. interests in how to best make the use of those Canadian funds most efficient and most beneficial to not only Canada but to North America.

“We don’t want to repeat things that are going on.

“It makes no sense to just do the same things over and over again so the effort there was to identify gaps and fill those gaps with timely research that can be funded through this process and this working group.”

Dr. Sundberg says this is a great example of international cooperation.

He says this type of effort is important to make sure everyone is coordinated and on the same page moving forward.