U.S. Pork Producers Encouraged to Enroll in the Secure Pork Supply Continuity of Business Plan

The Director of Swine Health with the National Pork Board is encouraging U.S. pork producers to enrol in the Secure Pork Supply Plan.

The Secure Pork Supply Continuity of Business Plan provides opportunities for U.S. pork producers to voluntarily prepare for foreign animal disease before an outbreak occurs.

Dr. Pam Zaabel, the Director of Swine Health with the National Pork Board, told those on hand earlier this month for World Pork Expo a foreign animal disease outbreak anywhere in the U.S. will result in an immediate halt to animal movements.

Clip-Dr. Pam Zaabel-National Pork Board:

Control areas are drawn around infected farms.
All the farms within that control area are not going to be infected.
There will be some infected farms, there will be farms that don't have any sign of infection but they are also quarantined and they're not allowed to move pigs unless they can put in certain measures to demonstrate to the animal health officials that the animals do not have the disease, that there's no evidence of the disease on the farm and to demonstrate to animal health officials to be able to get that movement permit to be able to move off the farm.

The program was funded through the USDA and the Pork Checkoff has provided some funding for the program too.It's been developed over many years of collaboration from a lot of members of industry, producers, veterinarians, academia, animal health officials to try to come up with some of the best resources available to help producers prepare, so it is voluntary.

As producers come up with their site-specific biosecurity plan, different states are handling differently in the United States.Some state animal health officials are helping review the plan, some states are asking the producers to hold on to their plans.

We do encourage at every level to make sure that a herd veterinarian is involved in the process because they understand biosecurity, they understand movement on the farm and off the farm and will be able to help with that.

It's available to any producer.It's available to the commercial producer, the smaller independent producers so we're trying to make resources available to all different types and sizes of producers.