A BC based veterinarian says a new national communication network being created on behalf of the Canadian swine industry will help improve communications among swine veterinarians.
To address gaps identified in the national surveillance needs within the Canadian swine industry the Canadian Swine Health Board has initiated the development of the Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network.
Project Manager Dr. Chris Byra, with Greenbelt Swine Veterinary Services, one of a group of companies involved in the initiative, explains the network will be made up of veterinary practitioners that deal primarily with swine, epidemiologists involved with government labs and universities and the Canadian Swine Health Board.
The Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network, CSHIN for short, is a social network initially whereby veterinarians formally get together quarterly probably on line or on the phone and we’ll discuss problems from around the country.
It’ll be supported by data being collected from swine practices and their roles then, the practitioners would gather information but also participate in the social network.
The epidemiologists will be the ones who will be reviewing that data that is collected.
The information is sourced primarily from experiences of veterinarians.
In the social network component of it the data being collected comes out of farm medical records with farm identification stripped completely out of it so there’s no way one can identify which farms are included but it includes a very basic string of syndromic information, have diarrhea cases increased, or has pneumonia increased, that kind of thing plus a clinical diagnosis so that’s the kind of information that will be shared.
Dr. Byra says the network will provide swine veterinarians across the country the ability to communicate on a regular basis and share data which will improve their learning curve when a new disease occurs.
