Farmscape for January 27, 2025

The Swine Health Information Center reports a November call for research proposals to look at H5N1 in swine attracted an exceptional response.
Fifty-one research proposals received under a November, 2024 call for proposals to enhance prevention, preparedness, mitigation, and response capabilities for H5N1 influenza in the U.S. swine herd issued by the Swine Health Information Center, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and the Pork Checkoff are now being evaluated.
Swine Health Information Center Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says the call was prompted by the emergence of H5N1 Influenza A clade 2.3.4.4b in dairy cattle, persistent outbreaks in commercial poultry and the recent identification of H5N1 in a backyard pig in Oregon.

Quote-Dr. Lisa Becton-Swine Health Information Center:
Any type of researcher was eligible to submit a proposal with the request that any proposal needed to show value and benefit to the U.S. pork industry.
Our priorities were 10 different priorities which included vaccine development, evaluation of clinical presentation in pigs including is there mammary involvement similar to cattle, looking at diagnostics, transmission risks, biosecurity, pork safety, human safety and even maintaining continuity of business.
All of these areas were of focus and listed within the priority areas that investigators could submit proposals for.
We had an extraordinary response to this call for proposals.
There were 51 proposals received in total.
They originated from six different countries including the U.S. and Canada and we had proposals from 35 different institutions and that covered academic institutions, private companies and government.
The proposals that were submitted range anywhere between 12 to 24 months in duration and typically information comes out of those proposals right when the proposals are completed.
Sometimes there may be information that can be garnered during the course of the proposal but typically they are done at the completion of the final report.

Full details on this call for proposals can be found at swinehealth.org.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers