5 Pork Industry Experts Weigh in on the Threat of ASF
When it comes time to deliver hard or important news, it’s best-done face to face. There’s a lot of fear and unknowns and what-ifs on producers’ minds these days with the threat of African swine fever (ASF) looming closer than ever in the Western Hemisphere.
Farm Journal’s PORK asked five leading experts in the industry what they would tell a producer if they had a chance to sit down with them face to face. Here’s what they had to say.
Harry Snelson, Executive Director of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians
“Manage what you can. Follow biosecurity steps each and every day. That's the area where we typically see a breakdown. If disease enters the farm, and you can trace it back to how it got in, it's almost always a breakdown in an established biosecurity practice. It's hard to maintain those things on a daily basis because you have employee turnover and you just get complacent after a while. People are rushed and busy and if you start skipping steps, sooner or later, it's going to it's going to show up. So, reevaluate your biosecurity standards, take a look at where your risk factors are and try to address those as best you can. Raise awareness with your employees. Make sure people are looking at the pigs on a daily basis and walking the pens and getting pigs up. Making note of anything that you see that's aberrant. If something doesn't look right, ask your veterinarian or let somebody know. A lot of this is out of your control, but a lot of it is in your control.”
Liz Wagstrom, Chief Veterinarian for the National Pork Producers Council
“All of the industry organizations are working 24-7 on this. We are viewing this as a big deal and throwing all the resources we can to protect the U.S. Our government partners are hard at work, too. They are increasing inspections of any traffic, whether its cruise ships, small airplanes coming back from the Caribbean, commercial airlines and more. They have inspector dogs stationed at most of the airports where those flights come into the U.S. from the Caribbean. The Coast Guard is helping with interception of more of the illegal boat traffic, particularly boats with refugees that could be bringing illegal meat or plant products. They are increasing their speed of depopulating urban feral pigs in Puerto Rico. Nothing is failsafe, but efforts are increasing.”
Bob Thaler, Professor and Extension Swine Specialist at South Dakota State University
“Work on controlling the things you can control. Don’t get overwhelmed by the big picture. We all think we've got really good biosecurity, but with PRRS 144 running rampant this year, we know it's not as good as it can be. We need to keep ramping it up. Engage your political leaders to help make sure that more of the resources our frontline professionals need to prevent ASF from coming in are readily available to them.”
Paul Sundberg, Executive Director of the Swine Health Information Center
“We're doing everything we can do to keep ASF out of the country. But, if the virus gets into the country, it doesn't cause an infection if it doesn't meet up with a pig. If you can keep it out of your farm, it's not going to cause infection. You are the last brick in the wall. Pay close attention to international biosecurity on your farm – feed sources, employee or employee’s family travel. The virus getting into the Dominican Republic increases our epidemiological pressure and puts the virus closer to us. But our goal is that the walls that we've built between the epidemiological pressure of the virus and the U.S. are high enough, that even increasing that pressure will not get it over the top of the wall.”
Patrick Webb, Acting Chief Veterinarian for the National Pork Board
“Take a breath. The U.S. eradicated foot and mouth disease in 1929. We eradicated classical swine fever in the mid-‘70s, and ASF has never been confirmed in the U.S. and North America at all. But yet, through all those years, there's been pressure and risk for those viruses getting into the country. The fact that we've remained free this long says that some of our mitigations are working. We have been working on research, education, outreach, planning, building tools to assist producers for many years and we aren’t going to stop. If ASF does get here, there's a lot of work that's been done to try to get any outbreak contained and handled so we can get back into business. No one is in this boat alone.”
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
Study Affirms U.S. Pork Industry’s Efforts to Keep ASF Out
ASF Vaccines: Is the Waiting Game Almost Over?
