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The Swine Health Information Center funded a project to generate a data-driven swine disease index through monitoring swine pathogen activity using confirmed tissue-based diagnoses from Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. This initiative aimed to provide a transparent, automated, and reproducible method to help veterinarians, producers, and stakeholders prioritize disease threats based on real-world diagnostic data. The resulting disease index monitors swine pathogen activity and identifies emerging threats. In addition, the index can be adapted and integrated into the SHIC-funded Swine Disease Reporting System for continuous monitoring.
To build the swine disease index, 59,950 porcine cases from 2020 to 2024 were utilized. Four key factors were considered:
- How often a disease was diagnosed
- How often a disease appeared alongside other diseases, i.e., co-diagnosis
- How widespread it was across U.S. states
- How frequently it triggered statistical alarms for unusual activity within a year
By combining multifactorial epidemiological variables rather than relying on occurrence alone, the index captures both pathogen prevalence and broader dynamics such as geographic spread and co-disease patterns. These factors were weighted and combined into a single score for each disease, updated weekly for the ongoing year, and displayed in an interactive dashboard that will be housed on the SDRS website, available in early 2026.
Results confirmed that PRRSV and Streptococcus suis remain the top two-ranked pathogens, demonstrating their high activity in the U.S. swine industry. The system also detected emerging pathogens’ activity in 2024, including porcine sapovirus and porcine astrovirus, while PCV2 showed a notable decline.
October 7, 2025/ SHIC/ United States.
https://www.swinehealth.org
