The process is often more important than the results. There’s no question the 2026 Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) Plan of Work lays out a multitude of important topics to tackle in the year ahead. But for SHIC Executive Director Megan Niederwerder, DVM, the process that goes into developing this plan is just as, if not more important.
“The whole premise of SHIC is to be responsive and nimble to best serve the U.S. pork industry,” Niederwerder explains. “We want to be able to shift resources when and where they’re needed. This consistency with the annual plan of work process allows us to ask those questions to stakeholders on a routine basis.”
Each year, SHIC works with producers and stakeholders to solicit ideas and research priorities to best know how to delegate resources to help the industry. Niederwerder finds the stakeholder engagement process of talking to producers, veterinarians, diagnostic labs and state pork associations incredibly valuable. She believes that line of communication with stakeholders is key because SHIC needs ears and eyes on day-to-day operations so SHIC’s plan of work can adjust as needed to changing pressures in the industry.
Activities directed by the 2026 Plan of Work will be implemented by Niederwerder and Associate Director Lisa Becton with input from the board and SHIC Working Groups.
Building on Record ROI in 2025
The SHIC 2026 Plan of Work aims to build on record 2025 ROI to U.S. pork producers, she says. Primary funding for SHIC’s 2026 Plan of Work comes from the Pork Checkoff under a contract between both organizations. In 2026, the National Pork Board voted to provide $1.5 million to fund SHIC. SHIC’s 2026 Plan of Work reflects this budget while maintaining its focus on deliverables to the US swine industry and the pork producers who fund the Checkoff.
While the 2026 Plan of Work directs activities for SHIC, the organization says it is nimble and able to respond to industry needs as they arise. Stakeholder input and ideas are welcomed year-round to inform newly identified industry needs which may necessitate adapting the Plan of Work to fulfill SHIC’s mission.
In 2026, SHIC continues its ongoing partnership with the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research and Pork Checkoff aiming to fill knowledge gaps regarding H5N1 Risk to Swine through a collaborative research program. Ten H5N1 projects on swine were funded in 2025 to address gaps in knowledge identified through producer input. In January 2026, SHIC released a second round of request for proposals to fulfill remaining H5N1 research priorities.
Priorities in 2026
- Improve Swine Health Information
- Veterinary diagnostic laboratory data collation for domestic disease monitoring
- Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project voluntary reporting for domestic disease monitoring
- Webinars to inform veterinarians and producers about emerging swine health issues
- Maintaining up-to-date swine disease fact sheets
- Ensuring timely and valuable communications across stakeholder audiences
- Monitor and Mitigate Risks to Swine Health
- Monitoring high-risk product importation and traveler entry at borders
- Global disease monitoring to identify international swine disease risks
- Fostering information sharing with government and allied industry through international animal health organizations
- Packing plant biocontainment to reduce trailer contamination at unloading docks
- Packing plant tools for effective cleaning and disinfection of lairage
- Cull sow and secondary market biosecurity and disease surveillance
- Responding to Emerging Disease
- Emergency disease preparedness and response planning in coordination with state, federal and industry stakeholders
- Rapid deployment of research funds for a newly emerging disease
- Identification of early disease warning signals utilizing emerging technology
- New World Screwworm as an emerging disease risk for US swine
- Mitigating risk of H5N1 IAV to commercial swine populations
- Investigating production and swine health impacts of porcine sapovirus as an emerging pathogen
- Porcine astrovirus 4 as an emerging disease threat to US swine
- Utilizing standardized outbreak investigations to identify high risk events for pathogen entry
- Surveillance and Discovery of Emerging Disease
- Diagnostic fee support to assist in early detection of emerging diseases
- Increasing the utility of VDL submissions as an effective surveillance stream for detection of emerging diseases
- Investigating the clinical relevance and epidemiology of newly identified agents in VDL submissions associated with swine disease
- Genome-based diagnostic technologies for emerging disease detection and forensic analysis
- Population and environmental surveillance technologies to facilitate rapid detection of emerging diseases
- Swine Disease Matrix
- Using the bacterial and viral swine disease matrices as guidelines for research to enhance swine disease diagnostic capabilities
