The Swine Health Information Center is working on multiple fronts stakeholders on African Swine Fever preparedness, prevention, and response as part of its mission to protect and enhance the health of the U.S. swineherd.
Swine Health Information Center Executive Director Dr. Paul Sundberg first outlined the situation with ASF.
“The virus continues to spread in Eastern Europe with a large biosecurity farm break several weeks back, and it continues to circulate in wild boar,” said Dr. Sundberg. “In China and Southeast Asia, the virus is continuing to spread. It’s going through Vietnam, causing a lot of loss there. It showed up in Laos and a (report) of it in North Korea, but we don’t know much about that country, and it continues to be on the move.”
He said the issue is that the virus isn’t slowing down, but continues to go and cause trouble putting pressure on both the U.S. and Canada for introduction into this hemisphere.
Dr. Sundberg said ASF is not in Western Europe other than in Belgium where they have it in wild pigs. But the commercial production in Germany, France, Denmark, and the U.K., continues to be free.
“That’s good news as the whole of the Western Hemisphere, Canada and including South America is free of ASF. The buffer is here, and we’re hopeful that we can do everything to keep it away from our area of the world,” he said. “The key players are the government officials, both the state and the federal animal health officials. They’re the ones that are the responsible party for protecting the health of the U.S. herd, as well, the same thing for the provincial and central governments for Canada. USDA and the state animal health officials have responsibility for foreign animal diseases prevention and response.
The National Pork Producers Council, the National Pork Board, American Association of Swine Veterinarians, and the Swine Health Information Center are working very closely with the USDA to the prevention programs are as secure as possible.
“Many things are going on in prevention, which we’re trying to bolster that wall, if you will, to keep the virus out of the country. And also we’re working with them very closely on preparations and response. Because if it gets here, then we must be ready to respond just as quickly and as effectively as possible,” he said. “In my career, I’ve ever seen so much progress by the USDA, state animal health officials, and the industry all working together. August 3, 2018, is when we got the official word ASF hitting China. And since that time we’ve made tremendous progress, both in the prevention and in preparedness. On August 3, when that notice came through, the only tissue that we could officially test in veterinary diagnostic labs in the U.S. was whole blood; the only thing that we could use for an official test for ASF. The USDA has helped open up the list of tissues that we can use for official tests to better match the submissions that would be coming into diagnostic labs.”
Dr. Sundberg said producers must pay attention to biosecurity at the local on-farm level. “It concerns me that we talk so much about national biosecurity that the individual producer may think, well shoot, I don’t have any role in this. It is up to the USDA or CFIA or some federal or government agency that is in charge of my biosecurity to keep ASF out,” he said. “The producer is the last person in that chain of biosecurity events. If ASF gets into the country, we won’t know it, and it won’t make any difference if it doesn’t get to the pigs. And that’s the on-farm potential right there.” •
— By Harry Siemens

Check out story under Pork Chops, for information on CFIA ASF Simulation Exercise held in mid June.