Farmscape for November 3, 2011   (Episode 3998)

The chair of the Canadian Swine Health Board says improved communications among those working in the area of swine health is resulting in higher levels of success.

The Canadian Swine Health Board was formed in 2009 to provide leadership in the management of the Canadian swine heard focusing on research, biosecurity and long term disease risk management.

About 150 participants are expected in Niagara Falls over the next two days for the third Canadian Swine Health Forum.

CSHB chair Florian Possberg says we have a lot of good people doing a lot of good things in the area of swine health but what's been needed is a mechanism under which these efforts can be coordinated.

Clip-Florian Possberg-Canadian Swine Health Board:
In the area of research, for example, the researchers need to understand really what the needs of the industry are.

It's one thing to do basic research but if that work is already duplicated somewhere else or in some other part of the world it's probably not the best time and energy spent and if we can define as an industry what our needs are and then encourage those that have the research capabilities in universities and research facilities to do the basic research that's really much more fruitful.

As well we know organizations like CFIA collect a lot of data.

Their mandate really is to alert the general public in the event of reportable diseases, things like foot and mouth disease or classical swine fever, these sorts of things but they collect data on a whole bunch of things.

It's really not their mandate to make that information available.

We think there's great value in having that information to be used by other segments of the industry for the betterment of the industry and so that coordination is really quite helpful.

Possberg says talking about how we can do things better in the future creates an environment where people are pulling in the same direction.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       * Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council