News

SHIC director says block chain helps track disease threats

The director of the Swine Health Information Center says block chain is coming to a pork producer near you.

Dr. Paul Sundberg tells Brownfield with several livestock disease threats swirling around the world, traceability has never been so critical.

“From the point of manufacture looking all the way through their record-keeping and traceability of wherever that product goes, until it gets used wherever it’s supposed to be.”

Using that as his definition of the concept, Sundberg says block chain would help fortify the record-keeping process.

“Rather than trusting somebody with a single record that can be kept, keep those records in different areas.  That way it’s less likely they could be manipulated.  You can have more confidence in that traceability system.”

Sundberg says the University of Minnesota is finalizing a project that interprets what block chain could mean to feed control in the pork industry.

He says there is hesitation with block chain because of potential costs implementing the system and concerns over accountability.