PLAN OF WORK

The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) began operation as a 501(c)(3) corporation on July 4, 2015. The mission of SHIC is to protect and enhance the health of the US swine herd by minimizing the impact of emerging  disease threats through preparedness, coordinated communications, global disease monitoring, analysis of swine health data, and targeted research investments.

When SHIC was formed July 1, 2015, by a grant of Checkoff funds from the National Pork Board, it was with the understanding it was a five-year project. During 2021, the National Pork Board’s Board of Directors voted to provide $15M to continue to fund SHIC’s work through 2027.

Executive Director Paul Sundberg, DVM, PhD has announced his retirement at the end of 2023.  The SHIC Board of Directors selected the current SHIC Associate Director, Megan Niederwerder, DVM, PhD, to replace him as of January 1, 2024.  The SHIC Board of Directors also selected Lisa Becton, DVM, MS, as the new Associate Director, effective that date.  Most recently, Dr. Becton served as the National Pork Board’s Director of Swine Health.

Each year SHIC begins with a Plan of Work that addresses its mission to focus on emerging disease threats and is drafted with input from pork producers and a wide variety of industry stakeholders.  An accompanying projection of the funds needed to complete it is developed.  Both are approved for that current year by the SHIC Board of Directors.

However, SHIC strives to be nimble enough to urgently address new industry needs, as they are identified.  SHIC ($1M reallocated from the 2022 projection), along with the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, an organization advancing actionable science to develop tools, technologies, and information for farmers, consumers and the environment ($1.15M), and Pork Checkoff ($150,000), funded the 2-year $2.3M Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Program that carried over through 2023 and will be into 2024.  By leveraging budget allocation with the matching funds from FFAR and the Checkoff, SHIC increased capacity and output for its mission to safeguard the health of the US swine herd.

The SHIC Board of Directors has also reallocated $500,000 from the 2023 budget projection for collaborative  Japanese Encephalitis virus research to strengthen the US pork industry against this virus that caused a wide-spread swine disease outbreak in Australia and $250,000 to research the use of pig mortalities’ tongue tip fluids to monitor disease circulation in US pig herds, a new need identified in 2023 by a SHIC working group.

The 2023 Progress Report summarizes SHIC’s accomplishments during the year, done with constant communication and coordination with the National Pork Board, the National Pork Producers Council, and the American Association of Swine Veterinarians.  It is divided into sections that details the year’s progress addressing the SHIC 2023 Plan of Work priorities – Preparedness, Monitor and Mitigate Risk to Swine Health, Improve Swine Health Information, Surveillance and Discovery of Emerging Disease, and Responding to Emerging Disease.  It also includes information about the organization and its Board of Directors, its two working groups, the outreach to pork producers and all stakeholders, and its communication program. 

It begins with an Executive Summary that gives a brief description of the organization and the 2023 accomplishments with a page number referencing where more detailed information for each subject can be found in the body of the report.  It also includes a detailed description of the USDA-FAS funded ASF research projects and program completed in Vietnam.