For years we watched as the African swine fever (ASF) virus jumped from Africa into the Middle East, then into Europe and Russia, and most recently, into China and Southeast Asia. Almost everywhere it goes, ASF sets up shop permanently. Individual farms are successful at ASF elimination through complete depopulation, but recent examples of country-wide success stories in eradicating ASF are few and far between.
As of July 28, we know ASF is even closer to home, currently residing in the Dominican Republic (DR) and only a short boat or plane ride away from Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. While the outbreak was initially diagnosed in only two pig farms, these farms were less than 130 miles from each other and as expected, recent days have identified numerous infected pig farms across 11 of the 32 provinces within the DR. Given the widespread nature of the outbreak, we have to assume there are more cases already present and the coming days and weeks will deliver more bad news for the DR which is home to an estimated 1.5 million to 1.8 million pigs.
While the America’s have been one of the few places in the world to successfully prevent ASF introduction over the last 15 years, ASF has been here before. The DR experienced an ASF outbreak from 1978 to 1980. This was significant outbreak, with hundreds of infected farms and hundreds of thousands of pigs culled to contain the epidemic.
The Dominican wasn’t the only country impacted – Cuba, Brazil and Haiti also experienced outbreaks in the 1970s and 1980s. In total, well over a million pigs were culled in order to eradicate these outbreaks. While this previously successful example of ASF eradication from the Americas should give us some level of comfort, it’s important to recognize that there are significant differences between those ASF outbreaks when compared to the current outbreak.
Notable differences include:
• ASF Genotype: Although a sequence has not been made available at the time this article was written, it is highly likely that the current strain of ASF will be the Georgia strain or one of the emerging strains that has developed in China over the last several years. Newer strains have shown a much higher transmissibility than their historical ancestors. This higher level of transmissibility makes eradication more difficult and may require a different eradication plan than what worked previously in the DR.
• International Commerce and Travel: While COVID-19 has dramatically slowed international travel, there’s truth in the saying, “The world gets smaller every day.” For less than $250 round-trip, travelers can go back and forth between the U.S. and the DR on a commercial air flight in less than 2.5 hours. That’s certainly not too far to still have a ham sandwich or a few pork snack sticks with you. As we all know, travelers bringing contaminated meat into the U.S. is one of our highest risks of introduction.
The Dominican government appears to be taking all the right steps to bring this under control. The Minister of Agriculture has activated its National Emergency Committee to coordinate the response of its pig production industry. Affected provinces have been “locked down” with no entry or exit of live or slaughtered pigs. Epidemiological investigations into the origin source at both farms are being carried out, and we expect similar investigations to occur on future farms identified as ASF-infected. While we should applaud these efforts, we need to offer our support and assistance in any way possible. We’ve seen eradication efforts fail elsewhere, and we need to partner with the DR to eliminate this unacceptable risk to the U.S. swine industry.
This news is concerning, but it should be noted that the DR has long been an area of concern for the swine veterinarian community, and we’ve successfully prevented other diseases present in the DR from traveling here. Already infected with classical swine fever (CSF), pork and pork products from the DR were already prohibited from entering the U.S.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection is increasing inspections of flights from the DR and will ensure that garbage from these airplanes is incinerated to help prevent the introduction of ASF into the U.S. USDA has asked the Department of Homeland Security to increase baggage surveillance on these flights, with focus on deploying the beagle patrol to quickly identify any illegally imported pork products. In addition to direct support to the DR, USDA has also offered support to Haiti which borders the DR and is only a few miles from one of the two identified ASF-positive Dominican farms.
While the threat of ASF has never been closer to our borders, it should be noted that the U.S. has never been more prepared for the fight against ASF. Led by efforts from the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), the National Pork Board (NPB), the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) and the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC), the U.S. industry has taken significant measures to improve our ASF prevention capabilities and readiness levels in recent years.
The news of ASF entering the Americas only bolsters the case for ASF prevention and preparedness efforts to continue to be prioritized and resourced. U.S. producers are positioned for a profitable run of pig production as long as we maintain our export market. As Germany and countless other exporters have painfully learned, industry profitability outlooks are heavily contingent upon ASF-free status.
Want to stay up to date on ASF? There are numerous resources available to you. In addition to excellent news outlets such as Farm Journal’s PORK, subscribe to NPPC’s “Pork Daily” e-letter as well as the NPB’s “Pork Checkoff News” e-letter. Keep an eye on the SHIC website – they’ve already posted a 3-page report highlighting what we know and what we can expect from this outbreak and will continue to be at the tip of the spear in terms of information about the Dominican situation as well as other global ASF outbreaks.
Lastly, consider volunteering for one of the many industry committee’s focused on ASF prevention and preparedness. While the volunteer efforts take time away from our business at home, they provide you with insight into what opportunities exist and give you a say in how the industry prioritizes its resources against the ever-present ASF threat. As the old saying goes, “Don’t agonize, organize!”
*Information as of August 9, 2021
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