There is field and/or experimental evidence that feed and/or ingredients may be potential vectors of African swine fever virus (ASFV) or foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) introduction. And introduction of ASFV or FMDV in a domestic feed manufacturing facility has the potential to unknowingly disseminate those viruses widely. Research is needed to determine optimal methods for decontaminating feed manufacturing facilities, especially equipment that is not designed to be disinfected.
The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) has funded a study, proposed by a group of co-investigators including Chad Paulk of Kansas State University, to evaluate methods of decontaminating feed manufacturing equipment, using Senecavirus A (SVA), porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) contamination as domestic, pathogenic surrogates for foreign animal diseases.
Previous research has been conducted to determine the minimum infectious dose of ASFV and FMDV in water and feed (Niederwerder et al. 2019 and Stenfeldt et al. 2021). Recent research has also shown that ASFV and FMDV can survive in various feed ingredients during transboundary, transoceanic shipping conditions (Dee et al., 2021 and Stenfeldt et al. 2021).
Also, field evidence suggests that ASFV can be distributed throughout the feed supply chain (Gebhardt et al., 2021), and this has been confirmed with recent research published from the Feed Safety Team at Kansas State University. Elijah et al. (2021) determined that the distribution of ASFV into the feed manufacturing environment is widespread and persists even after manufacturing additional feed batches initially free of ASFV. This is similar to what is observed with PEDV (Schumacher et al., 2017).
Because ASFV and FMDV can survive in feed during shipping, the U.S. is rightfully concerned that a contaminated feed or ingredient will introduce ASFV or FMDV into the U.S. swine population. Regardless of its method of entry, there is concern that infection of US pigs may result in contamination of the feed supply chain, and rapid and widespread distribution of the virus like what was seen with PEDV, because once ASFV is in a feed mill, it will remain in its environment for an extended period of time.
More from Farm Journal’s PORK:
