Fight Against African Swine Fever Top of Mind for House Ag Committee
Rep. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa) pushed USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack for updates on his agency’s work aimed at combating the threat of African swine fever (ASF) during the House Agriculture Committee hearing on the state of the livestock industry on Oct. 7.
Axne asked for clarification on USDA’s move to tap up to $500 million from the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to help respond to the outbreaks of ASF in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
She noted the funds look to be spent for “containing ASF in the Caribbean, and then heightening the surveillance there,” and asked what resources are being set aside to respond to any outbreak within the U.S.
Vilsack stressed the importance of trying to minimize and eliminate the risk at its source which is a focus of the aid to the Dominican Republic and Haiti, but noted that USDA is also ramping up prevention, surveillance and response measures domestically.
“We are shoring up and beefing up our surveillance, our detection systems,” Vilsack said. “I think we are in a place with the systems that we have in place that should, God forbid this happen, that we would be able to identify quickly – we would be able to eradicate it quickly. We’d be able to contain the damage to protect a state or region of the country. We will do everything we possibly can to make sure this doesn’t get to our shores and to be able to respond as quickly as possible.”
Vaccine Testing is Crucial
House Ag Committee Chair David Scott (D-Ga.) questioned Vilsack about the new ASF candidate vaccine from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
Vilsack said the vaccine candidate has gone through the “first steps” of testing but said there is still quite a bit of work yet to be done.
“There are additional steps and responsibilities that are undertaken. It’s going to take some time, additional field tests,” Vilsack said. “While I am as anxious as you are to get this to the market as quickly as possible, we have to do so in a way that ensures the safety of it. But it’s moving forward, as are the other six possible candidates.”
Time to Move on Genetic Editing
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) pointed out that that the vaccine candidates are promising, but she believes more work needs to be done to allow genetic editing to help the livestock industry make progress when it comes to fighting economically devastating diseases.
“At the University of Missouri, they have developed a pig that is immune to or resistant to PRRS. And of course, that's also one of the world's very costly animal diseases,” Hartlzer said. “But because of the jurisdictional mayhem between the USDA and the FDA, this technology is not yet available to producers. It hasn't been approved.”
Hartzler asked about Vilsack’s goals for ensuring appropriate regulatory structure for agriculture to use genetic tools to address environmental disease and food safety issues.
“I think there are ways in which we have to work collaboratively with our friends at FDA to make sure that our regulatory system is able to respond quickly enough and be able to keep aligned or keep pace with the pace of change,” Vilsack said. “I could give you several examples, where I think we have work to do in that space and I’ve expressed that to our friends at FDA.”
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