The National Pork Board recently organized a foreign animal disease (FAD) exercise to practice and troubleshoot a simulated response to a mock disease outbreak. Over 40 people from academia, production, USDA, the veterinarian community and Iowa Pork Producers Association teamed up during the full-day event hosted by the Swine Medicine Education Center staff at Iowa State University.
“The value of this exercise is continuous practice since regulation, technology and stakeholder awareness evolve. The more we prepare, the quicker we can respond to an actual incident,” says Tyler Bauman, DVM, herd veterinarian for The Maschhoffs, LLC.
Participants practiced every procedure in the coordinated response plan based on location and the outbreak’s status to identify, understand and address their knowledge gaps.
“The buildup of the mock incident and protocols instructed were cohesive since each stakeholder at the drill shared a wealth of knowledge in their role, rather than filling an unknown position. Plus, there were real-time insights from the High Path Avian Influenza outbreak state veterinarians could share,” Bauman says.
Voluntarily prepare for a potential FAD outbreak today by creating an AgView account and a Secure Pork Supply plan.
More from Farm Journal’s PORK:
Is the Livestock Industry Prepared for a Foreign Animal Disease Outbreak?
Foreign Animal Disease Threats: AASV Panel Tackles Hard Questions
Veterinarians Shed Light on New Feature for Pork Industry in AgView
AgView: New Tool to Protect Swine Industry from Foreign Animal Disease Fallout
