Why We Need a New Partnership Between Swine Farms and Packing Plants
With all the government and producer plans out there today surrounding swine health, is another plan really needed?
Yes, said Chris Rademacher, DVM, and clinical professor at Iowa State University. He urged the pork industry to take note of the latest organized effort to protect the health of the U.S. swine herd and meet the needs of the 21st Century U.S. pork industry during the 2022 Ohio Pork Congress.
The U.S. Swine Health Improvement Plan (US SHIP) is a pilot program modeled after the poultry industry’s long-standing National Poultry Improvement Plan that has served as a model of a national program to safeguard, certify and better animal health and competitiveness of U.S. animal agriculture.
“It’s not a government plan, it’s not a producer plan, it’s an industry, state and federal partnership to establish a ‘national playbook’ of technical standards to provide a universal approach to disease prevention, response and recovery,” Rademacher said.
The overarching purpose of the program is to increase foreign animal disease (FAD) preparedness as it relates to prevention, response and recovery. In addition, US SHIP seeks to decrease the impact of recurring endemic diseases of high consequence, Rademacher explained, by advancing biosecurity standards that mitigate disease spread into and between farms.
The US SHIP African swine fever (ASF)-classical swine fever (CSF) monitored certification aims to mitigate risks of disease introduction and provide a practical means for demonstrating evidence of freedom of disease (outside of FAD control areas) in support of ongoing interstate commerce and a pathway towards the resumption of international trade over the course of a trade impacting disease response and recovery period.
“We need to establish a platform for addressing swine health related issues of high consequence,” Rademacher said. “We don’t want to recreate the wheel. We want to keep it simple, broadly inclusive, scalable and flexible, synergistic with other FAD preparedness efforts and founded on sound and practical science.”
US SHIP is designed to be applicable across the full spectrum of U.S. pork industry participants from the small show pig farmer to the large commercial producers and slaughter facilities. Participation in US SHIP is voluntary. There is no cost at this time to be involved in the program. The only costs are those that are associated with meeting or exceeding the outlined standards, he noted. State agencies will be responsible for certifying farms and packing plants.
Year one requirements include:
• Current and active VCPR
• Premise ID information
• No garbage or swill feeding
• International visitors to your farm must observe at least 5 days downtime
• Complete a biosecurity survey
• Ability to generate live animal movement records in electronic format.
Rademacher urges producers and packing plants to get involved to improve FAD preparedness while building a successful pilot program to create a foundation for the official program. He said this program will also provide common definitions and standards to streamline interstate movements between certified sites and provide a foundation for establishing international recognition in support of trade. While the initial focus of US SHIP is on ASF-CSF, which are trade-impacting diseases, this same platform could later be expanded to certify endemic diseases.
In August 2021, the first House of Delegates gathered, including 232 delegates and guests representing 28 states with interest in the pilot project. On Sept. 7-8, 2022, US SHIP House of Delegates will gather again to discuss working groups and projects that cover a range of topics from feed biosafety to transportation sanitation, and collectively serve to further inform program content and direction.
Learn more at usswinehealthimprovementplan.com.
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