New swine center slated for Iowa State campus

URBANDALE, IOWA — A new swine medicine education center is coming to Iowa State University (ISU), following approval of a plan Dec. 9 by the Iowa Board of Regents.

The Swine Medicine Education Center (SMEC) would be created within ISU's College of Veterinary Medicine to focus on clinical education in modern swine production medicine.

The center will offer a "comprehensive series of swine production medicine educational modules and hands-on experiences covering all segments of the pork production chain," according to the proposal made to the Board of Regents. It would be the only center of its kind in North America, the proposal notes.

SMEC would serve as a "clearinghouse" for swine production research, providing preemptive responses for public health issues and execution of clinical trials.

The center would work in coordination with the U.S. Pork Center of Excellence, founded in 2005 and also located on the ISU campus.

The proposal states that the center would work to help meet the demand for food-animal veterinarians and work as a magnet for attracting new students to food-animal studies.

An unnamed veterinary practice and swine production company would work in collaboration with the center, the SMEC proposal says.

The total cost of SMEC is expected to be $195,000 for the first year, increasing to $253,500 by its seventh year. About $95,000 of that would come from private industry support, according to the Board of Regents proposal.