Swine health is a constant challenge in the U.S. pork industry. As pathogens continually evolve and new diseases are introduced, it’s easy to see why this was one of the top opportunities discussed during a recent Farm Country Update on the “Top Five Opportunities for the Global Pork industry.”
Each day this week, we’ll highlight one of those challenges that could be an opportunity for the pork industry, according to these experts.
Preventing Foreign Animal Disease
Keeping foreign animal diseases like African swine fever (ASF) out presents a huge opportunity for the pork industry.
“If African swine fever gets into this country, it will be devastating,” Jimmy Tosh, owner of Tosh Pork, said during the webinar. “That’s why our industry is doing everything we can to keep it out.”
Kent Bang, vice president of swine lending at Compeer Financial, admits a lot of the focus now is on ASF, but foreign animal diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) would also be devastating.
“FMD is another issue and it’s been around the Western Hemisphere for quite some time,” Bang said. “Both of these would be export-ending, at least for a short period of time.”
Keeping A Diligent Eye on Production Diseases at Home
But maintaining high swine health and keeping production diseases at bay also creates great opportunity for the industry, Bang added.
“Whether it’s porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) or porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), there are opportunities for our industry to get a better handle on both control and treatment, maybe some protocols we’ve done over the last decade don’t work with some of the strains today nearly as well,” Bang said.
He sees promise in a PRRS-resistant pig and believes it could have huge value and implications for the pork industry.
“Perhaps we’ll never be able to eradicate PRRS from the U.S. It has been a devastating, very contagious disease and is moving again this year. I think we need to work as an industry to get a better handle on pig movements and how we spread disease around,” Bang said.
For example, Tosh’s operation is based in Tennessee where there aren’t many swine operations. Because of this, they don’t have the disease issues that are more common in higher pork-producing states.
“We had our first porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) break this year since 2008. It was a very mild strain,” Tosh said. “That’s one of the advantages of not being a highly populated area of pigs.”
Prevention and Treatment Innovation
From a health innovation standpoint, Caleb Shull, director of research and innovation for The Maschhoffs, said he believes there’s an opportunity to really focus on vaccine improvements.
“Can we take some of the learnings from our current human health crisis and COVID-19, and some of the learnings from the rapid mRNA vaccine development, and apply that to the pig industry?” Shull asked. “Time will tell. We need new tools for managing PRRS, PED, and even swine influenza virus, which kills a lot of pigs in the U.S. every year.”
There’s always room to improve and he sees opportunity in developing better vaccine tools for pork producers.
“Vaccination is also a big labor demand,” Shull said. “Can we figure out new and creative ways to give those vaccines to our pigs?”
He pointed out there’s also a need to make advancements on the disease detection and treatment side because it’s not likely the industry will be able to eliminate diseases such as PRRS or PED.
“I think technology can help us in getting more rapid detection of when those pigs are getting sick. If we can get in earlier in that disease window, hopefully we can do some things that are more successful from a treatment standpoint,” Shull said. “Also, how do we think differently about immune stimulants that help those animals get through disease challenges? I think that should be a priority moving forward as well.”
Click here to listen or watch the full Farm Country Update webinar.
Read more in the 5 Pork Industry Opportunities Series:
5 Pork Industry Opportunities: Win the Battle at the Meat Case
5 Pork Industry Opportunities: Create a Winning Work Environment
