For many, 2021 will not just be remembered as another year we battled COVID-19. It will also be remembered as the year African swine fever (ASF) found its way back into the Western Hemisphere.
For Steve Brier, a Missouri pork producer, the reality of ASF inching its way closer to U.S. borders is a tough pill to swallow.
“It’s scary because it’s not something you can see or that you deal with every day,” Brier says. “It’s that one event that could happen that will have a tremendous, devastating impact on the entire industry. It’s difficult to know exactly what to do. But maintaining high biosecurity standards, developing a Secure Pork Supply plan and having it approved by your vet, and creating an account on AgView, those are all things we can do proactively to prepare.”
Brier says keeping foreign animal disease (FAD) out of the country is the No. 1 thing that benefits all pork producers now.
“If we can keep ASF out, we all win. Because 25% to 30% of the pork market is exported, it would be dreadful if we got any kind of FAD that would stop trade,” he adds.
That’s why the National Pork Board is so heavily engaged in FAD prevention and preparedness, says National Pork Board’s Acting Chief Veterinarian Patrick Webb.
“Protecting the U.S. pork industry from FADs has been a long-standing priority of our board of directors,” Webb says. “That priority was ramped up after the first case of ASF was reported in China and a lot of work has been done since then. With ASF showing up in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, it’s just a constant reminder that the threat is out there, and we need to be as prepared as possible.”
A Critical Investment
No one could predict when the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) was launched with Pork Checkoff funding in 2015 to protect and enhance the health of the U.S. swine herd through global disease monitoring, targeted research investments and analysis of swine health data, that ASF would become one of the primary emerging diseases around the world.
The National Pork Board’s Board of Directors recently approved an additional $15 million to fully fund SHIC for an additional six years with a priority to continue helping with research efforts for prevention, response and recovery for ASF.
Although SHIC’s 2022 plan of work is still in progress, Paul Sundberg, SHIC executive director, says research will continue on domestic diseases to help build the infrastructure for emerging and foreign animal diseases. One example is transportation biosecurity.
“We have to look at transportation biosecurity because that’s going to be key in helping contain ASF should it get into the country,” Sundberg says. “We apply those kinds of infrastructure lessons we learn with domestic diseases such as PEDV or PRRS as templates, if you will, for the next emerging disease or FAD that gets into the country.”
Since 2018 alone, the National Pork Board has partnered with universities and industry stakeholders to fund 41 research projects on FAD prevention and preparedness at a value of $4.7 million. Projects have taken a deeper look at surveillance, biosecurity, disposal, vaccine support and feed mitigation/planning. Most recently, the NPB Board of Directors approved four preparation studies.
More than $930,000 has been invested to investigate COVID-19 vaccine technologies for animal health benefit; research to validate ASF vaccine types, efficacy and viability for commercialization; and to collaborate with USDA to provide research and data in support of its vaccine candidate evaluation process.
Another area that National Pork Board has been heavily invested in is developing AgView, a free, opt-in technology solution that promotes business continuity in the face of a FAD.
“For the U.S. pork industry, AgView is the path to protection for America’s pig farms that will help navigate uncertainty in the event of a crisis,” Webb explains. “It makes disease traceback and pig movement data available to the USDA and state animal health officials on day one of a FAD outbreak.”
Who Is Responsible?
The question of who is responsible for keeping FADs out of the country does not have a simple answer.
“It’s not USDA, or state animal health officials or pork producers by themselves. It’s a partnership among all three. We have to keep that in mind that should a virus, such as ASF, slip through the border,” Sundberg says. “We can’t underestimate the importance of farm biosecurity because if it doesn’t get to a pig, it’s not causing an infection.”
The probability that the U.S. is catching 100% of all FAD viruses crossing our border is low because of finite federal resources. Sundberg says it’s important to be realistic about that. That’s why the state-federal-industry partnership is key to make sure pigs are safe.
At the state level, National Pork Board partners with state pork associations to help them identify producers’ needs, knowledge gaps and resources needed to prepare for an FAD outbreak at the local level. In addition, National Pork Board and SHIC co-funded a national biosecurity project to review where the industry has open windows relating to biosecurity, so they can do their best to close them.
“I think that’s one of the key projects that we’ve done in order to try to in order to try to make sure that we’re coordinated, that we have a good plan, and that we’re doing everything we can do to prevent ASF from getting into the country,” Sundberg says.
More from Farm Journal’s PORK:
Close All the Windows to Keep ASF Out
ASF in the Western Hemisphere: What’s Different 40 Years Later?
It’s Time to Batten Down the Hatches, Pork Industry Experts Say
Learn more about what the industry is doing to prevent ASF from entering the country.
