The first Global Disease Monitoring Report (GDMR) was published in November 2017 to provide US pork producers with a clear overview of the global situation of transboundary swine diseases and support informed decision-making.
At the time, access to reliable and timely information was a major challenge as many outbreak reports were scattered across local-language sources, difficult to locate, time-consuming to verify, and often delayed or limited in detail in official reporting systems such as WOAH.
The report aimed to synthesize and verify this information, bringing key developments together in one accessible place. Initially focused on African swine fever (ASF) and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), the GDMR summarized global developments in a concise, practical format. As the disease landscape evolved, additional diseases, analytical sections, and deeper insights were incorporated into the monthly reports. Over time, the audience expanded beyond U.S. pork producers to include animal health professionals and stakeholders worldwide.
One hundred editions of this report span nearly a decade of significant change in the global swine disease landscape. When the first report was published, African swine fever had not yet reached Asia or the Americas, Japanese encephalitis virus had not emerged in southeastern Australia, and the transboundary spread of foot-and-mouth disease virus serotypes from East Africa into Western Asia was not yet an established pattern. What these reports document collectively is not simply a list of disease events but a consistent trajectory: pathogens moving farther and through more diverse pathways, the role of wildlife reservoirs becoming better understood but still harder to manage, and the genetic complexity of circulating viruses increasing. What these reports document collectively is not simply a list of disease events but a consistent trajectory: pathogens moving farther and through more diverse pathways, the role of wildlife reservoirs becoming better understood but harder to manage, and the increasing genetic complexity of circulating viruses. The illegal movement of animals and animal products, the limits of single-intervention strategies, and the importance of sustained multilateral surveillance are consistent themes across 100 editions.