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As disease pressures continue to challenge pork producers across the country, a new producer-led advisory committee met for the first time this month to focus on strengthening the health of the U.S. swine herd.
The 27-member Swine Health Advisory Committee includes pork producers, veterinarians, state pork association staff, allied industry representatives and public sector partners.
The committee is charged with overseeing the National Swine Health Strategy, which was approved by delegates at the National Pork Forum in March 2025. Nearly 50 listening sessions were held nationwide to gather producer input, generating more than 800 survey responses on the most costly and persistent swine‑health challenges facing the industry.
Two primary goals emerged through the survey responses: reducing the impact of endemic diseases and keeping foreign and emerging diseases out of the U.S.
“At the heart of it, the National Swine Health Strategy is a set of goals and priorities that were created by producers that the whole industry can work towards together,” said Meredith Petersen, a veterinarian and director of swine health at the National Pork Board. “It's a short list of priorities related to swine health that hopefully will have a meaningful impact on the health of the U.S. swine herd.”
Within those broad goals, elimination of domestic diseases porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) were top priorities, as well as broadly reducing the spread of pathogens in the U.S. pork industry.
An analysis from Iowa State University showed that PRRSV is the most economically damaging illness for swine producers, accounting for an average of $1.2 billion in production losses annually from 2016 to 2020. Those losses represent an 80% increase from a decade earlier, according to Derald Holtkamp, professor of veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine at ISU.
“When we talk about endemic diseases, those are the direct, impactful things that we deal with every day that drain our revenue and our spirit, and make it hard to get up and do the same thing every day,” said Jeremy Robertson, an Iowa pork producer and member of the Swine Health Advisory Committee guiding the initiative.
“We have to unite and come together to take down these threats on our everyday life. This [strategy] is the first attempt at that,” Robertson said.
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First steps in the goals to eliminate both PRRSV and PEDV include an economic study on the elimination of both diseases. The PEDV goals also include engaging with states interested in piloting regional elimination programs.
Petersen describes fighting endemic diseases as “offense," and actions to prevent foreign animal disease from entering the U.S. as the “defense” side of the strategy.
New World screwworm and H5N1 response planning is specifically noted in the strategy, but actions to keep out any disease from entering the U.S. herd – such as African Swine Fever, Foot and Mouth Disease or Classical Swine Fever, for example – would be monitored by the program.
The strategy’s first steps include continued funding for the U.S. Swine Health Improvement Plan, which is included in the House-passed farm bill. Support for additional preparedness programs including the Secure Pork Supply, Certified Swine Sample Collector program, and the National Pork Board's AgView program are also noted in the strategy's first steps.
Future for the National Swine Health Strategy
The Swine Health Advisory Committee will guide the future direction of the industry initiative.
Robertson said preventing and addressing animal disease “is not biased to geographic or style of production anymore,” which underscores the “absolute need for unity” across the industry.
On the endemic diseases front, Petersen recognizes that there is ample research on PRRSV and PEDV. Looking ahead, she said the new strategy offers the opportunity to present that information to producers in a more accessible, refreshed way.
“There's an opportunity for us to pull out what information we know is backed through research and share that with producers at the slat level in a way that they can implement on their farm,” Petersen said. “Now, that's not to say there's not new information or unknown information that we need to seek out through research, but I think that's a key starting point.”
Despite the pressures of the industry, Robertson says producers and industry allies should remain hopeful.
“We need to know that this is a marathon, not a sprint … We need to understand this is a long-term commitment, and I think we need to hold ourselves accountable as producers and committees as things progress.”
View a complete, alphabetized list of National Pork Board Swine Health Advisory Committee members.
