The Western Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians (WCASV) has committed its support to the continued operation of Canada’s national swine health surveillance program.
The Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network, created by the Canadian Swine Health Board to track swine disease in Canada, has been in hibernation since the board ceased operations due to a lack of funding.
The direction of swine health surveillance in Canada was discussed last week as part of the Western Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians annual meeting in Saskatoon.
Dr. Chris Byra, a swine veterinarian with Greenbelt Swine Veterinary Service and manager of components of CSHIN, reports the association has pledged its support for the continued operation of the swine health surveillance system.
We did during our business meeting discuss this and had a motion on CSHIN which was unanimously supported and that was that the Western Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians is willing to participate both in terms of in kind and financially and if so requested we would be prepared to take a leadership role in a western component of CSHIN.
Recognize that, in spite of the hibernation, the CPC has continued to pay for the servers and the software so data has still been rolling in.
Veterinarian on a voluntary basis have been sending data in so it’s never really shut down, it just hasn’t expanded and information hasn’t been analyzed and so on so it won’t be very difficult to start it up.
What will be more complicated is to increase participation and have producers support their veterinarians in this endeavor.
Dr. Byra says during its two years of operation the Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network has demonstrated its value.
He notes data from CSHIN was used to demonstrate to the OIE what Canada is doing to keep on top of PED, CSHIN demonstrated Canada was free of PED and quickly recognized when the infection did arrive and the network has provided early recognition of other diseases.
