The Executive Director of the Swine Health Information Center is encouraging North American pork producers to think globally and act locally when it comes to reducing the risk of introducing a foreign animal disease onto their farms.
The Swine Health Information Center continues to track the movement of swine diseases, including reportable diseases such as African Swine Fever, Classical Swine Fever and Foot and Mouth Disease, which have the potential of disrupting trade.
SHIC Executive Director Dr. Paul Sundberg says African Swine Fever continues to pose a risk in China, the United Kingdom has released a study which looks at the risk of infection from the rest of the European Union and Japan is now contending with Classical Swine Fever.
This whole issue about African Swine Fever and Foot and Mouth Disease, Classical Swine Fever, any of these diseases that are circulating around the world can be rather daunting. The question might become, for example, they’re circulating China and we don’t want them so I hope we don’t get them, I don’t know what we can do here.
Think globally but act locally. That means that the most effective way that we can prevent introduction of any of these viruses into our pigs is to have effective biosecurity on the farm. That’s general biosecurity of all of the types of diseases we have endemic here of course but it also includes questions about the sources of things coming onto the farm, including feed, including food products that the workers may bring onto the farm.
It also includes international contacts that workers on the farm may have. All of those things have to be taken into account as you look at a biosecurity program that truly can think globally but really locally every day.
~ Dr. Paul Sundberg, Swine Health Information Center
Dr. Sundberg says the importation of a foreign animal diseases is the North American pork sector’s great risk and he acknowledges the introduction of any of these foreign animal diseases would automatically affect our international markets.
