Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project expands, adding new viral threats and boosting industry surveillance

The Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project has broadened its scope in 2025, now covering 65% of the US breeding herd and introducing new monitoring systems for emerging swine viruses, enhancing industry-wide disease management.

The Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project has expanded its remit and reach, according to its 2025 annual report submitted by the University of Minnesota team led by Dr Cesar Corzo. Backed by the Swine Health Information Center, the voluntary programme now covers about 3.9 million sows, or roughly 65% of the US breeding herd, strengthening its role as an industry-wide surveillance tool.

The report says the project advanced on three fronts: tracking pathogen trends, monitoring PRRSV evolution, and widening producer participation. A notable change was the addition of porcine deltacoronavirus to the list of diseases under review. The team also assessed how influenza A virus sequencing information could be incorporated for breeding herds, and found it was possible to estimate cumulative incidence from veterinary diagnostic laboratory PCR data, although further work is needed to reduce the risk of undercounting.

Across the past decade, estimated influenza A incidence has ranged between 1% and 5%, while 2025 saw a sharp rise in PEDV cases in the autumn and winter. The MSHMP summary also highlights the launch of the Variants Under Monitoring system, which underpins PRRSV variant reporting and is intended to give producers earlier, more practical intelligence.