Farmscape for January 3, 2013

A veterinarian with Greenbelt Swine Veterinary Services says a new system developed to allow swine veterinarians across Canada to share information on developing swine health issues is attracting international interest.
Launched on behalf of the Canadian Swine Health Board in July 2012, the Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network is a national communications network which allows swine veterinarians across Canada to share information on disease issues developing in their regions.
Information is collected through on-line surveys then discussed as part of three regional and one national veterinary meeting to identify trends and develop responses.
Dr. Chris Byra, with Greenbelt Swine Veterinary Services, one of a group of companies involved in developing the network, reports the new system is attracting international interest.

Clip-Dr. Chris Byra-Greenbelt Swine Veterinary Services:
What we're doing is fairly unique.
I'm not sure that it's been done anywhere before and there has been some interest by other countries and we've been approached by a couple who are interested in the fact that this is an industry led project.
It's government funded and it involves both government and industry but decision making is made at the industry level.
It's unique in that sense and it's unique in the sense that we're harvesting information from practitioners who actually have access to laboratory information, on farm information, slaughter information.
It's a place that we can bring all these facts together and we think we've found a way now that we can have that fed into a database that's going to be of value while protecting the industry's privacy.

Dr. Byra reports the usefulness of the system is already being demonstrated.
He notes a jump in the number of coughing pigs in one region, related to seasonal influenza was picked it up fairly early on.
For more information on the Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network visit the Canadian Swine Health Board web site at swinehealth.ca.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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