As part of its 2016 strategic plan the U.S. based Swine Health Information Center will be working with American veterinary diagnostic laboratories to standardize the reporting of diagnostic test results.
As part of the Swine Health Information Center’s 2016 strategic plan, outlined during the American Association of Swine Veterinarians 2016 annual general meeting in New Orleans, the center will work with the veterinary diagnostic labs to standardize the reporting of test results.
Swine Health Information Center Executive Director Dr. Paul Sundberg says, while test materials and methods are all standardized, the reporting of those tests aren’t standardized.
If that reporting can be standardized and make it consistent from one laboratory to another then the laboratories can more easily share that information among themselves, to USDA and state and federal animal health officials should there be an emergency, which is an extremely important issue, and also to the industry for further analysis should the producers agree to share that type of information.
It goes from top to bottom. It goes from trying to figure out the disease trends and what’s going on out in the countryside to inform producers and inform the veterinarians all the way to being able to quickly respond on a state and national level to an emerging disease.
While we have some of that ability right now it takes time because of that lack of standardization and if we can standardize that reporting we can grease that system so it can happen real time instead of having to wait for all of that different data to be interpreted and communicated. ~ Dr. Paul Sundberg – Swine Health Information Center
Dr. Sundberg says in order to be able to better compile and therefore analyze test results across the country it will be an advantage to have the reporting of those test results standardized.
