NAHSS Activity Updates, November 2007
NAHRS Launches New Reporting Software
A new version of the National Animal Health Reporting System (NAHRS) online reporting application was released this month. The NAHRS online reporting tool enables State animal health officials to complete their monthly NAHRS reports via the Internet, with assurance of secure data transfer and information confidentiality. State animal health officials may also use the NAHRS online tool to view past monthly reports. (Read more about NAHRS in a related article in this issue.)
Dr. Francois Elvinger was presented with the 2007 APHIS Administrator's Award for Animal Health at the United States Animal Health Association (USAHA)/ American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) annual meeting. This prestigious award recognizes an individual who has made a significant difference in protecting and improving the health of U.S. animal agriculture. Dr. Elvinger is a professor of production management medicine and epidemiology at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. He serves as chairman of the National Animal Health Surveillance System Steering Committee, and co-chairman of the National Animal Health Reporting System Steering Committee, the USAHA/AAVLD Animal Health Information System Committee and the AAVLD Epidemiology Committee.
CEAH Collaborating on Feral Swine Project
The Centers for Epidemiology and Animal Health (CEAH), Texas A&M University and APHIS-Wildlife Services are collaborating on a feral swine project. The objectives of the project are to 1) determine prevalence of serum antibodies to selected diseases (pseudorabies virus, swine brucellosis, porcine reproductive respiratory syndrome, and classical swine fever) in feral swine from Texas, 2) determine the frequency of interactions between feral swine and domestic swine, and 3) determine movements, home range, and habitat use of feral swine in Texas. CEAH’s role in this project will be to develop a spatial disease model based on global positioning system collar data collected from this study for habitat use, feral swine movements and interaction with domestic swine.