By: Jessica Fox, M.Sc.
Swine Health Ontario Manager
Disease is one of the biggest threats to hog farms, impacting both the health of animals and the viability of farm operations.
Swine Health Area and Regional Control —known as SHARC — is a collaborative risk management tool to help producers anticipate and avoid disease risks to their herd. SHARC currently tracks PRRS (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome), PEDv (porcine epidemic diarrhea virus) and PDCoV (porcine delta coronavirus).
SHARC exists to help producers understand and minimize disease risks, to make smart, health-based decisions about operations including premises biosecurity measures, hog movement, manure management and new barn construction. SHARC offers the Ontario hog industry a whole new level of insight into disease transmission and outbreaks simply by sharing information. Producers and their veterinarians can work together to reduce the risk of disease and keep our animals and farms healthy. This is particularly important when disease prevalence is increased, as we have seen so far in 2024.
SHARC collects herd disease status for PRRS, PED and PDCoV from producers or their herd veterinarian. In turn, program participants (producers and veterinarians) can access information to view results and assess disease pressures in their area. At an industry level, results are cumulative, resulting in a higher level of disease protection for all swine herds — with the potential to support a quicker response to a serious foreign animal disease outbreak, such as African Swine Fever.
To participate in SHARC, producers, with their herd veterinarian, agree to confidential sharing of herd disease status with other participating producers. Collaboration is key, and the more producers who agree to participate, the more effective the program will be.
SHARC mapping software allows participating producers to see disease status and hog density around a premises, using this information to make more timely and effective decisions about disease treatment, vaccination, herd movements, manure management, and new construction.
Operated by Swine Health Ontario, in partnership with Ontario Pork and the Ontario Pork Industry Council, SHARC has been built based on extensive industry feedback, and offers significant improvements for producers compared to previous disease management programs.
Sign up today to make the most of this important risk management tool.
SHARC features include:
• Integration of AgManifest movement data to allow health status to follow reported movements
• Daily data uploads to decrease lag time in reporting
• Refinement of PRRS positive status (new break, field, vaccine or mixed)
• Enhanced disease mapping capabilities, while maintaining confidentiality
• Automated notices to users of farm disease status changes
• Member-only access to disease mapping tools, including radius mapping
• Automated enrollment for all sites related to a producer number
• Genotyping data added to AHL uploads when available
• Addition of Associate user type to allow related staff to register
Once complete, all your premises will be enrolled.
If you run into problems at any step or would prefer a manual enrollment form, contact info@swinehealthontario.ca or your Grand Valley Fortifiers representative for help.
This article was written for the Fall 2024 Swine Grist. To read the whole Swine Grist, click the button below.