Farmscape for October 24, 2011   (Episode 3990)

The Canadian Swine Health Board is confident the placement of postdoctoral fellows at Canadian veterinary colleges will play a key role in helping reinvigorate the pool of researchers working on swine health issues.

The Canadian Swine health Board was formed to assist in the management of the health of the Canadian swine herd.

As part of that mandate the organization is funding the placement of eight young scientists in three year positions at six Canadian veterinary colleges and those researchers will be on hand for the third Canadian Swine Health Forum November 3rd and 4th in Niagara Falls.

CSHB executive director Bob Harding says, because most of the researchers working in the area of swine health have retired and have not been replaced, research capacity in that area is limited.

Clip-Bob Harding-Canadian Swine Health Board:
The response of the Canadian Swine Health Board was to establish a program for postdoctoral fellowships for the those folks or for grad students to work in emerging pig disease areas.

So there are eight of those young scientists now across the country that are working on very specific projects related to emerging pig diseases.

What we are very excited about is that in conjunction with our Canadian Swine Health Forum this group is coming together nationally, so all of the researchers and their supervisors are coming together for a science meeting to share what they're working on with each other.

We see that as a very important key part of this with collaboration across the country so that we all learn from each other and move our Canadian industry even further down the road.

Young scientists have been placed in positions at the Universities of Alberta, Guelph, Montreal, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island and the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Saskatoon.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

-For more on the Canadian Swine Health Board's third Canadian Swine Health Forum visit swinehealth.Ca.

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