African Swine Fever Prevention and Preparedness Top of Mind Among North American Pork Producers

The Associate Director of the Swine Health Information Center says the ongoing global spread of African Swine Fever remains top of mind in North America.
The Swine Health Information Center's monthly global swine disease monitoring report, released as part of its May eNewsletter, indicates African Swine Fever has continued to spread in multiple areas, including a resurgence in areas that were once thought to have been quiet.

SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton notes five additional European countries were declared positive over this last month, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Ukraine, Greece and Romania.

Quote-Dr. Lisa Becton-Swine Health Information Center:

When we look at the pressure on North America, what it has done and it continues to do is raise awareness of both prevention and preparedness efforts.Prevention efforts specifically we seeing such as working with our customs and border protection on preventing entry of illegal meats or other sources of ASF into our country, working with our feed procurement folks when they're bringing in ingredients and feedstuffs from other countries but also recognizing travel risks and other risks that are out there.

Our partners working with USDA and our state animal health officials, all of these groups are working together in preparedness efforts by doing different emergency exercises and looking at systems that are currently in place and how those would be engaged and active if ASF should be found in the United States.
So, there's a lot of activity in North America, both in Canada and U.S. and even Mexico focusing both on prevention but also preparedness in the event it should get here.

Dr. Becton says ASF has a very wide range globally and many regions continue to face challenges, not only in domestic swine populations but also in wild boar populations.The Swine Health Information Center's domestic and global swine disease monitoring reports can be accessed at swinehealth.org.For more visit Farmscape.Ca.