Preparedness and Response Working Group

2016 Plan of Work

Preparedness

 Develop the call for proposals and select the projects for funding to start work on satisfying the Swine Disease Matrix Project o The focus of this round of Matrix research will be the ability to detect high priority Matrix viruses via PCR or some other method. Working with the SHIC Preparedness and Response Working Group a call for proposals will be developed or high priority virus antigen detection research will be assigned among universities with the interest and capability to do the research.  Additional Matrix fact sheets and/or other information o The fact sheet project began August of 2015 before the review and re-prioritization of the Matrix by the SHIC Monitoring and Analysis Working Group. Additional fact sheets need to be developed to ensure information is available for all the high priority matrix viruses.  Virus rate of inactivation using a shipping model for feed ingredient imports o Evaluate the risk of feed ingredients as means to introduce other FADs to the USA, along with evaluation of validated interventions. The results of this study would provide the first objective data indicating whether contaminated feed could serve as vehicles for FAD and Matrix priority pathogens introduction as well as provide information on 2 novel chemical mitigants to reduce risk.  Entry risk assessment o Formal risk assessment will help to inform how likely a virus is to enter the U.S. and potential mitigation steps that could be used to reduce the risk. The SHIC Monitoring and Analysis Working Group will consider the focus of the risk assessment (virus specific? Orally transmitted viruses?) and the availability of data that could inform the risk assessments.

Response

 Rapid response infrastructure plan o The SHIC Preparedness and Response Working Group will oversee the development of a rapid response infrastructure with the objective of gathering emerging disease epi information to help inform the industry’s disease response plan to new or emerging diseases in the US. The infrastructure will need to be defined, people to be part of the rapid disease response infrastructure will need to be identified, documentation of policies and procedures will be developed and training of the people will need to be conducted. Periodic testing of the rapid response infrastructure will ensure the effectiveness of this portion of the industry response plan.  Emerging disease research o Seneca Valley Virus was the first opportunity for SHIC to rapidly respond to an emerging disease with research according to high priority industry needs. There is no predicting when or where the next emerging disease will appear. SHIC needs to be prepared with funds in place that can be quickly mobilized to support filling the immediate research gaps following introduction. This research will provide producers and their veterinarians with critical information that they will need to effectively respond to the disease outbreak.  Pilot project for emerging disease discovery support o There continue to be incidents of high morbidity/high mortality where an etiology is either not identified or there is a strong supposition that the identified pathogen is not the likely cause of the outbreak. In these cases, there is a need for further diagnostic workup. Support for these follow up diagnostic workups will come after producers have funded the initial investigation and further work needs to be done to ensure that an emerging disease is accurately identified for action of the industry’s emerging disease response plan.

Monitoring and Analysis Working Group

Monitoring

 DVM post doc position o Developing the network to monitor disease risks and analysis of swine health data is a core Swine Health Information Center responsibility. To support this activity a focused, academic effort is needed to ensure broad coordination of international and domestic swine health data and epidemiological analysis. A multi-year post-doctoral position for a DVM will be funded to ensure monitoring and epidemiological information will be available to the US pork industry.  International swine disease monitoring – Predict and Respond Program, OIE and FAO o Understanding the origin and progression of emerging, re-emerging, and novel infectious diseases is critically important to preventing epidemic and pandemic outbreaks. Whether naturally occurring or intentionally introduced, such diseases pose a massive risk to global health and require active vigilance for signs of outbreak, rapid recognition, and accurate diagnosis of the microbial cause. The International Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and FAO build and maintain databases of emerging diseases of member countries. Mining and monitoring of these databases will help to supplement SHIC swine disease international monitoring.  Disease/biosecurity risk assessment o Investigate the usefulness and application of biosecurity risk assessment databases as a tool for informing veterinarian/producer risk of disease entry on the farm. Conduct listening sessions or some other method to assess the value, shortcomings and modifications to existing programs to understand how to increase the value. If needed, develop a plan for database enhancements that allow for better integration with existing diagnostic lab databases and other information sources and enhance reporting capabilities of the database to allow users to get more out of the information. Explore the integration of biosecurity risk assessment data into the Swine Health Monitoring Project to enable risk assessment, assignment and communication relative to pig movement and location.  Matrix review/revision o The need is to develop a method to facilitate reporting and communication among the SHIC Monitoring and Analysis Working Group. That network will support the Working Group’s need to review the Matrix content and ensure it is up to date as the Swine Disease Matrix is a living document that will demand periodic updates. The Working Group also would like to include bacterial pathogens in the Matrix. This will take additional resources to contract for that service.  Feed ingredient monitoring research project o The U.S. pork industry is importing feed ingredients from countries with endemic swine diseases that are not present in this country. Ongoing monitoring of feed ingredients to check for the presence of these pathogens will help to inform the U.S. industry and add to the data needed for pathogen-specific risk assessments.

Analysis

 VDL data standardization o Swine health test and related data from different Veterinary Diagnostic Labs need to be standardized in order to facilitate compiling, sharing, accessing data for epi analysis. Whether it be for program or non-program disease applications, and regardless of the third-party database application(s) being used to integrate, analyze, summarize, and report the information of interest; establishing and adopting the use of universally recognized data standards and message schema are the foundational elements necessary to enable the development of the sustainable and scalable systems of connectivity and web-based analytical tools necessary to support the needs and demands of the 21st century pork industry in North America.  Swine Health Monitoring Project o The Swine Health Monitoring Project will help to identify industry needs through the input from the project’s participants. Specific data analysis projects will be supported within the Project. They will serve to return value to the participants and encourage more producers to cooperate with the project. That value to participants will also translate to value for all pork producers. Projects that are related but tangential to the Swine Health Monitoring Project may be identified. Support for these projects will return value to the Project’s participants and other producers. o AgConnect technology is being used by the enhanced passive surveillance project with interaction of the National Pork Board and as a technology solution to support the Secure Pork Supply. AgConnect can support the data visualization of the SHMP and other databases to enable various epi analyses. It will take programming support for AgConnect to be able to support the SHMP, visualize databases and interact with the enhanced passive surveillance program.  Swine health data epi analysis projects o There are multiple industry public databases that may be available but have not yet been adequately mined for epi information that could be valuable to pork producers. The SHIC Monitoring and Analysis Working Group will help to identify epi questions of value to the industry, identify sources of data for the analysis, support the analysis and communicate the results to the industry.