If African swine fever (ASF) arrives in the U.S., it could cost the country $50 billion over 10 years, says a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) release.
In effort to help prevent ASF from entering the U.S. border, USDA-APHIS announced its “Protect Our Pigs” campaign to support commercial pork producers, veterinarians and pig owners to help safeguard the U.S. swine population and the pork industry.
A disease highly contagious that spreads quickly between swine populations and can be found on clothing, farm equipment and uncooked pork products, ASF has been devastating to many pork industries and economies around the world.
“Commercial pork producers, veterinarians, and pig owners are among the nation’s first line of defense against African swine fever,” the release states. This includes over 60,000 pork producers with 500,000 employees and more than 1,500 swine veterinarians, along with an estimated 250,000 to 1 million pot-bellied pigs that are kept as pets.
USDA-APHIS’s ‘Protect Our Pigs’ campaign with provide valuable resources to all swine professionals, while being ready to “respond immediately with actionable information and resources for pig owners and the public,” the release explains.
In addition, APHIS will host a panel of experts to discuss the latest on ASF on June 29. Registration can be found here.
“USDA is working every day to stop this disease from breaching our borders and the Protect Our Pigs campaign is just one of many ways we are doing that. We are also meeting with pork producers to find out how we can best support their ongoing work in this area, increasing swine testing and conducting innovative vaccine research,” said Dr. Jack Shere, associate administrator at APHIS and former chief veterinary officer. “Together, we can fight this disease and protect the U.S. pig population, people’s livelihoods and way of life.”
