Global Monitoring Bolsters Preparedness for Emerging Swine Diseases

 

 

Global tracking of swine diseases is helping pork producers be better equipped to guard against the threat of existing and emerging diseases. To ensure pork producers are aware of the various disease threats circulating around the world, the Swine Health Information Center includes both domestic and global disease monitoring reports in its monthly newsletter.

 

Swine Health Information Center Executive Director Dr. Paul Sundberg says these reports utilize data from a wide number of sources.

 

 

In cooperation with the University of Minnesota, we are monitoring animal health events internationally and that takes two forms. One is official, or what we term hard sources. The OIE and governments themselves put out notices about animal health so we're making sure that we monitor those.

 

Also importantly there are what we term soft sources and those are unofficial sources. We have contacts with people on the ground in those countries. Sometimes that information isn't the same as what comes out of the government reports and so that's an important piece. In addition, the other pieces of information that we look at are international monitoring reports that come out of Canada as well as the UK.

 

There's a report of animal health in the United Kingdom that's periodically released. So we're looking at all kinds of sources and intel that we can put together to help inform the U.S. producer.

Video: Finding a Balance of Innovation and Regulation - Dr. Peter Facchini

Regulations help markets and industry exist on level playing fields, keeping consumers safe and innovation from going too far. However, incredibly strict regulations can stunt innovation and cause entire industries to wither away. Dr. Peter James Facchini brings his perspective on how existing regulations have slowed the advancement of medical developments within Canada. Given the international concern of opium poppy’s illicit potential, Health Canada must abide by this global policy. But with modern technology pushing the development of many pharmaceuticals to being grown via fermentation, is it time to reconsider the rules?

Dr. Peter James Facchini leads research into the metabolic biochemistry in opium poppy at the University of Calgary. For more than 30 years, his work has contributed to the increased availability of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthetic genes to assist in the creation of morphine for pharmaceutical use. Dr. Facchini completed his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of Toronto before completing Postdoctoral Fellowships in Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky in 1992 & Université de Montréal in 1995.