SHIC Releases 2021 Progress Report

Feb 14, 2022

The Executive Director of the Swine Health Information Center says much of the organization's success can be credited to the many volunteers who provide input and direction. The Swine Health Information Center was created in 2015 to track domestic and global swine disease patterns and facilitate research to identify and prepare for emerging diseases. As part of its February enewsletter the center has released its 2021 Progress Report.

SHIC Executive Director Dr. Paul Sundberg says one of center's strengths is its two volunteer working groups.

Clip-Dr. Paul Sundberg-Swine Health Information Center:

One is focussed on preparedness and response, just like the title says, that we are prepared and we are able to respond. The other is the Monitoring and Analysis Working Group and that's the one that has people that have the national and international connections for monitoring so we can get on time, localised information from people rather than waiting for it to be published some time and then the analysis of the swine health data.

Those folks, and they're large groups, because we have to make sure we have as much information as quickly as possible to be as responsive and nimble as possible to issues for health for the pork industry. Those groups are really the power of the center.

They're the ones that are from the industry, pork producers as well as veterinarians, from academics, researchers, veterinary diagnostic labs, the diagnosticians, the others that work in academia in the pork industry and they also include state animal health officials, USDA health officials and people from allied industries.

We've tried to put together a really wide network of people that have specific responsibilities to look at monitoring, analysis and also at our ability to be prepared and to respond to emerging disease.

Source : Farmscape

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.