USDA assessment concluded that pork products are unlikely to carry the disease
By Kaitlynn Anderson
Staff Reporter
Farms.com
Pork producers can celebrate a win for global trade after the USDA announced on Friday that it recognizes Mexico as being free of classical swine fever (CSF).
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) completed a thorough assessment which revealed “that the risk of introducing CSF into the U.S. through imports of live swine, swine genetics, pork and pork products is very low,” according to the USDA release.
These results led the United States to declare that it can now safely import those items, as long as they abide to APHIS’s import regulations.
As part of these conditions, “the pork or pork products must come from swine (that were) raised and slaughtered in regions APHIS considers CSF-free,” the release stated.
The U.S. swine industry had eradicated the disease, which is highly contagious in pigs, in the late 1970s, according to the release.
Farms.com has reached out to the National Pork Board for comment on how this announcement could affect American pork producers.
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